Unfortunately, the string of deaths of prominent film personalities associated with Kamal continues into 2009. Veteran actor Nagesh passed away on January 31 and Kamal bid an unusually emotional farewell to him. As can be seen from the photos here, Kamal was in tears, treating the death as a personal loss. Watch the video on IndiaGlitz. Also check out their photos and those from Behindwoods, Sify.com and Chennai365.

The mutual admiration society of Nagesh and Kamal is well-known. Over the past two decades, Kamal consistently included him in his movies, with a wide range of characters from the chief villain in Apoorva Sagodharargal to a dead body in Magalir Mattum. Nagesh won possibly his only National Award for Nammavar. Rightfully, his last movie was Dasavathaaram.

Read reports from Express Buzz, Sify.com, News Today (1 | 2), Behindwoods, IndiaGlitz, Thatstamil (1 | 2), Dinamalar, Dinathathi and Nakkheeran to know more about their association.

Kamal will also participate in a condolence function organised by the actors’ association, about which we will hear more soon.

[With extensive inputs from Ananth]

[Picture courtesy: BehindWoods]

Looking back at the past gives us a different and often wholesome perspective of events. It helps one derive confidence from accomplishments, learn from mistakes and recharge for a fresh new year. In our case, of course, we’re looking at Kamal’s 2008. To call this year eventful would probably be an understatement.

Dasavathaaram

The biggest event of the year was, obviously, the release of Dasavathaaram. In preparation for over 2 years, the movie released on June 13 to a overwhelming response, after many announced and rumoured dates (April 10, April 17, June 6).

The publicity build-up was slow and steady, unlike the bombardment of Aalavandhaan. In fact, many were wary of the hype being reminiscent of the 2001 failure. However, the reality matched or surpassed the expectations. Stills and the trailer were put out in a carefully phased manner to create excitement while not revealing too much about the movie. Here’s the progression: Avtar Singh in mid-air -> muscular Nambi in action -> Govind in lab -> miscellaneous ones before the audio release -> more stills along with the trailer -> miscellaneous ones shortly before the release. Actually, the buzz hit top gear with the release of the fast-paced trailer. Both the trailer and the public analysis that followed had a taste of things to come. The trailer had literally-blink-and-miss flashes of the ten roles and fans caught it.

In between all these came the high-profile audio release function featuring Jackie Chan and Amitabh Bachchan among others. After a painful gap (that was worth the wait ultimately), the movie arrived to a rousing reception. The media coverage was unprecedented. After the movie quickly reached blockbuster proportions, the ten characters were officially revealed.

The movie generated unparalleled reactions in the real and online worlds. Whether it was movie folks or bloggers, the excitement was infectious. The vibrations even rocked Google. But ultimately, the box-office spoke loudly and records were shattered all around.

Marmayogi & More

Even as Dasavathaaram was on the way, we heard of Marmayogi. Everything seemed to be proceeding well like a typical Kamal movie while problems with Pyramid Saimira, the co-producer, were rumoured. Again, things seemed back on track and news about cast and crew resumed flowing. Finally, the movie hit a roadblock citing the global economic meltdown as the reason. With no confirmation yet, along with a mention of Thalaivan Irukkindraan, the fate of the movie hangs in balance, even as there is revelation of Pyramid Saimira running into all kinds of trouble.

Interviews

Kamal’s interviews are always a delight to watch or read. He always manages to make each one interesting, while also revealing something new about himself. This year was loaded with many of them, especially as a by-product of Dasavathaaram’s promotion. Check out the top quotes below before diving into the year’s best for S (Sathyam Cinemas magazine), Hindustan Times / The Times of India, DNA / BusinessOfCinema.com, Mumbai Mirror and The Times of India.

The best part is that the producer was smiling at the start of the film and he still is smiling when it’s complete - which is very rare.

Just making Dasavathaaram alone would not have been sufficient; a release pattern like this combined with the product is what is making it work so well…Never before has a Tamil film been released on this scale.

I don’t know what I did right, but I hope I can do it again.

Both the times when you separated from your wives, there was another woman involved. Sarika led to your split with Vani and Simran caused a rift between Sarika and you.
Unless it’s a gay marriage, there’s always another woman involved.

Ten roles, isn’t he increasingly becoming self-indulgent in his films? “Who isn’t,” asked Kamal defensively. “Aren’t great actors like Yusuf saab and Amitabh self-indulgent? Who else should I love more than me? Brad Pitt?”

I have spent 500 hours doing make up itself and it takes a lot of perseverance and belief in what you are doing to keep doing it. If I spent that much time inside a cockpit I would be a successful commercial pilot.

“…There is a downside to everything. If we take ourselves too seriously, we actors will definitely need a psychiatrist.”

From the perspective of international standards, money and talent is being invested in the right direction and I feel that in two years from now nothing called Bollywood will exist.

To me the ascent of man in itself is a mind-boggling thing. And Darwin’s theory is something I believe to an extent. In fact, if somebody asks me what gothram I am, I always joke and say Darwin gothram. What I do try is to keep fit. For ultimately it is the survival of the fittest.

“…I am deeply hurt by what is happening around in the name of religion. I personally feel, whenever there is a crisis, God becomes a mere witness. I am happy with my decision,” he explains.

“…Spirituality makes you rest, makes you content. I will only settle down when I am in a coffin, under the earth or inside the fire. Till then I will keep myself active and alive…”

The other unusual interview was on books in the Tamil magazine Puthagam Peshudhu.

Social Service

Kamal is known for promoting social service through his fans’ association (Narpani Iyakkam). This year too, he kept the ball rolling with donation of exam kits to needy students in March and ceiling fans to orphanages in July. But the bigger involvement was as brand ambassador of Hridaya Ragam, the effort of the World Malayalee Council to conduct free paediatric heart surgeries.

Fans

Speaking of fans, there was quite a bit of activity on that front too. Kamal held a photo session for fans in February, like the previous year , and also felicitated some on the occasion. For his birthday, he discouraged celebrations on account of the Srilankan Tamils’ problem.

On the association front, there was some strong action. Key officials including the chief, R Gunaseelan, were sacked in August, for apparent misconduct.

At a smaller level, Arif, a fan from Kerala, declared his love for Kamal through a music video titled Avatharam.

Death of Colleagues

This year was, unfortunately, also big in terms of the passing away of many of his colleagues, one of them really close. That was Sujatha Rangarajan the writer. Kamal sent out a touching condolence message. Others were CV Sridhar, the director and MN Nambiar, the veteran actor.

Honouring Seniors

KM Aadimoolam, the famous artist, too passed away this year. Kamal released a biography of his and paid homage.

While paying respects to the departed was essential, Kamal did not miss honouring the living too. Manorama celebrated her 50 years in the movie field and Kamal was there to felicitate her.

Events

There were two protests held by the Tamil film industry this year, in the form of fasts. In April, it was for the Cauvery-Hogenakkal problem and then we had the one in November for the sake of Srilankan Tamils. At both places, Kamal shined as one of the sanest voices.

Towards the end of the year, Kamal participated in quite a few events related to film appreciation and production. In addition to being the Chief Guest at the closing ceremony of International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa, he took part in a seminar on UK-India collaboration and the Indian Screenwriters Conference.

Audio release functions have become major launch pads for movies these days. Kamal graced quite a few in 2008 including Kodaikanal, Jayamkondaan and A Aa E Ee.

There were the customary wedding functions too. We had a whole lot of them in fact — Sibiraj, Prabhu’s daughter, Sarathkumar’s niece, Vairamuthu’s son, Senthil’s son, Professor Ku. Gnanasambandhan’s daughter, Mohan Natarjan’s daughter, Ahathian’s daughter and Arvind Krishna / Shreya Reddy.

Controversies

Controversies have been hounding Kamal, especially for the past few years. This year, we had the anti-Hindu allegations against Dasavathaaram, which was ultimately quashed in court.

Then there were the insiders, former associates, in fact. Bharathiraja, the great director of the past and the blabber-mouth of the present, attacked Dasavathaaram first and later Kamal’s acting skills. The grapes turned sour for Saran, another director coincidentally. After losing out on the opportunity to work with Kamal, Saran accused him of not returning advance money. Kamal watched in typical silence as both controversies died out.

Personal Life

There were no significant developments on the personal front. But we got to know a bit more of him this year, first as a father in Shruti’s music performance at the Rolling Stones India launch and then as a companion through an interview of Gautami.

Blasts from the Past

This year, we had quite a few interesting peeks into Kamal’s past. The long-kept secrets of Kamal’s dwarf act in Apoorva Sagodharargal (Appu Raja) were mostly let out by its director, Singeetham Sreenivasa Rao. As for the long-pending Marudhanayagam, after the trailer on the Internet in late 2006, came a few fantastic stills featuring Kamal. Also, we had a blog post on Kamal’s days in drama.

[Picture courtesy: BehindWoods]

Though all of us know that Kamal was into drama (plays) before re-entering movies as a teenager, not much is known of his life at that time. We get occasional anecdotes from Kamal himself. But here’s some insight from a colleague of those days. This comes to us through his son-in-law, who blogs under the name of Ravisha on Therinjukko.

This happened around 1968 when Kamal was about 14 years old. He was crazy about acting in plays. Being from a well-to-do family of lawyers, he would commute by car with his one of his brothers. Chandrahaasan, the younger one, used to tell Kamal’s co-actors to advise him to concentrate on studies, which he had discontinued. But if anyone did attempt to, Kamal would ignore them. Once when our narrator, who himself had a steady job and was acting part-time, tried to convince Kamal, he declared, “You folks are making fun of me now. But one day, I will become the all-India famous Kamal Haasan and you will realise then”. Such was his confidence and determination at that age and time!

If you know Tamil, enjoy the whole post. Thanks, Ravisha!

Subhash K Jha is a veteran reporter, who recently became infamous following (homo)sexual harrassment charges by Sonu Nigam. He has had a love-hate relationship with Kamal and is currently said to be out of favour.

After the Dasavathaaram audio release function, he wrote an article generally criticising actors’ vanity and specifically Kamal. Here are some quotes:

Like all Scorpios, Kamal is an extremely passionate man with an exacerbated appetite for life’s most forbidden fruits . When he loves he loves with a hurricane’s ferocity. When he acts he doesn’t care about cost or health. The targets in his mind aren’t numbers. They are far more cumbersome goals to be realised at any cost.

Kamal is one of the funniest and most fun persons I’ve ever met. He’s self-educated and therefore well-informed. He can talk unselfconsciously and extensively on any subject. But when it comes to cinema he can hold forth for hours.

On screen he has become a bit of a limelight-moth. The signs of a creative megalomania have been creeping up on Kamal for a long time.

Why 10 roles? Isn’t it a little self-defeating to give the audience an over-dose of genius?

Let’s not bother defending Kamal. It’s not necessary. To close the argument, here goes another description of Kamal by the same person, talking of his receptivity to criticism.

I don’t flatter Kamal Haasan. He loves praise, oh yes! But he isn’t averse to criticism. When I told him his last Hindi film Mumbai Express was the pits (and that too barely hours after the release!) he didn’t stop talking to me, although he was going through a traumatic time at that time with his lady love in hospital. Nor did he turn nasty and call me a traitor. He certainly didn’t accuse me of changing loyalties.

Here are a few photographs of Kamal at the star-studded wedding reception of Sibiraj and Revathy.

Sibiraj is, of course, the son of Sathyaraj who has had a long association with Kamal, starting with his first movie, Sattam En Kaiyil to Khakhi Chattai, Vikram, Kadamai Kanniyam Kattuppaadu and so on. Personally too, they share a close bond especially due to their atheistic beliefs. Also, Sibiraj is said to be a die-hard Kamal fan.

Check out more photos at Sify.com, Behindwoods and IndiaGlitz. Read reports from CineSouth and Adhikaalai.com.

Meanwhile, there is an interesting rumour that Sathyaraj is set to do a spoof of Dasavathaaram.

[With inputs from Ananth]

[Picture courtesy: BehindWoods]

It’s quite some time since we looked back at an old interview of Kamal. This one from Screen was done around 1995, when Kurudhippunal was out. The interview covers a wide range of topics, from direction to Hindi movies and from Sarika (his then-wife) to penning an autobiography. As usual, it is full of straight-talking.

As a rule, all interviews are meant for effect. That’s the way it should be. Celebrities should preserve a side to them that is not for public.Over the years, I have mastered the golden blend where I don’t lie, but don’t tell the complete truth either.

I cannot be accused of showing off in Nayakan and definitely not in Mahanadi. Maybe this has to do with the phase an actor goes through. I had a lot at stake during EDKL and I didn’t want to go unnoticed. I think the effort showed. Once the actor is assured of the applause, he settles down. So critics who say that Kamal Haasan is narcissistic are those who’re not updated on Kamal Haasan. I take my critics seriously. And if I’ve to take my cues from them, they had better be constructive and intelligent.

I gave up Hindi films too easily. I compared it to South cinema and became disillusioned.

I do a retake only when I can convince the director that what I have in the offing is better than the original. Mind you, I’m not always right.

I wanted to be the master. I wanted to dictate, not be dictated. I wanted to pursue films as a dream, not as a nine-to-five job.

I’m never self-conscious about anybody. My problem with Sarika working behind the scenes was of a different kind. Sarika and I are too independent in our thinking and therefore often tend to disagree. She’s an excellent worker, she’s highly dedicated and disciplined and once on the sets does not indulge in playing Kamal Haasan’s wife.

I’d have preferred it if there was more output. Somehow, a lot of time gets lost in floundering…The ideal situation would be to have at least four releases a year.

…Mahanadi is my all-time favourite, so is Kurudhipunal, but the credit for Kurudhipunal should go more to the producer, than the actor. Amongst my old films, I think I’m competent in Sagar Sangamam…I’d say that Nayakan and Thevar Magan are complete films.

…I should have directed a film 10 years ago. According to my friends I’m overdue by almost 20 years.

…To write an autobiography I’ll have to lie and the kind of truths I know will hurt too many people. Exposing so many people is vanity. I might do it some time later, but not now. I’m not ready for it as yet.

Though I pretend to be organised, I am not. Like most successful men, I have all the trappings of punctuality but it is restricted to checking the wristwatch for an appointment.

For certain films, it’s a waste of time to go into an indeph character study. These are roles that don’t demand energy.

The film is inspired from Govind Nihalani’s Drohkaal. The initial agreement was that we’d dub the film in Hindi after it was released down South. The director however had second thoughts. He said that the distributors were asking for refund from territories where Drohkaal hadn’t fared well.

I’m not the happy kind. I’ll never settle down for happiness.

Read Part I and Part II of the whole interview.

Kamal’s patriotism is known to all of us fans. It extends to the level of hoisting a flag at his home on Independence Day. Today, on the same occasion, here are some of his thoughts, courtesy The Times of India:

I am an Indian first and then a Tamilian. India is a beautiful country mapped by the olden day rajas and maharajas. There were regional differences then, but today, they are getting erased. We are Indian first, then come our geographical and cultural differences. But don’t we all respect the same tricolour?

Sudhish Kamath, for The Hindu, interviewed Gautami, Kamal’s present companion. She provides some interesting insights into their relationship and also a level-headed look at Dasavathaaram. Take a look at the highlights before reading the whole article.

“He was Kamal Sir to me. He still is, but in a different way. He was one person I looked up to and thought the world of. With every level that I’ve gotten to know him, from the audience to star to his co-star to… He’s an immensely strong person, very, very compassionate. These are things that are never seen or heard because he never speaks of himself and people who know him don’t speak much. It is about sharing little joys, every moment, every day, it’s about the 24 hours… I think both of us felt that and it grew to the next stage.”

I have learnt perseverance from him. I have seen him go through all kinds of issues. He’s never ever come home with work tension. The kids will be all over him, the dogs will be over him and he’ll be playing with them. He would’ve probably left behind something of great magnitude back at office… He knows to compartmentalise.

I have never ever thought of telling him what he should be doing… he’s the master craftsman. I think that’s the root of this admiration.

“…I got married, I figured out how relationships work. I had a daughter, lost my parents. I understood that a relationship has to be participated with mutual respect and equal effort from both parties; if not, it’s not something I would like to spend my life on. So, I went about shaping my life with something I am happy with and with people I am comfortable with. Then, I fought cancer and I came out of that and did Dasavathaaram.”

“…My daughter needs to grow in an environment that is loving, wholesome, where there is no stress, where there is no kind of pressure of any kind…”

When it was finally ready, as he was watching it and being critical of himself, I was in complete awe. He’s done something that will, years later, give people encouragement.

Here are two more interviews of Kamal, done as part of Dasavathaaram publicity. Sample some excerpts before enjoying the whole interviews at DNA and BusinessOfCinema.com.

I have spent 500 hours doing make up itself and it takes a lot of perseverance and belief in what you are doing to keep doing it. If I spent that much time inside a cockpit I would be a successful commercial pilot.

“I can alter my life, you can’t! You can criticise it, comment on it, but you can’t change it. That is a great advantage to have.”

“…There is a downside to everything. If we take ourselves too seriously, we actors will definitely need a psychiatrist.”

“…I make sure that I get my privacy. I demand it and sometimes I steal it. It is sometimes taken for granted, but I maintain that my privacy is nobody’s business.”

“…Spirituality makes you rest, makes you content. I will only settle down when I am in a coffin, under the earth or inside the fire. Till then I will keep myself active and alive…”

“…I think every actor has a responsibility. One cannot say I am an actor, I will do my job and not care about what’s happening in the country.”

From the perspective of international standards, money and talent is being invested in the right direction and I feel that in two years from now nothing called Bollywood will exist.

[With input from Ananth]

Just as we were rejoicing the audio / trailer launch and waiting eagerly for Dasavathaaram comes the dampener. Minor and insignificant political organizations continue the dangerous and irritating trend in India of gaining publicity at the sake of big movies. Of course, Kamal has been a favourite target due to his non-conformist / controversial ideas. One is worried about the negative publicity affecting the movie, similar to the ‘anti-Gandhi’ charges preceding Hey Ram

The matter has already reached the court! Here is the extensive media mileage derived by VHP, Hindu Munnani and other outfits that have sprung out of the blue: Behindwoods 1 | Thatstamil 1 | ChennaiOnline | MSN | Thatstamil 2 | IndiaGlitz | Buzz18 | Dinamalar | Dinathanthi | Behindwoods 2 | News Today | Webdunia.

As if politico-religious folks aren’t doing enough, we have undue criticism even in the blogosphere, without even the movie being released!

[With extensive inputs from Ananth]

[Picture courtesy: BehindWoods]