Kamal will take part in the fast organized by the Tamil film industry on April 4. This is a protest to condemn the violence against Tamils in Karnataka, on the Cauvery-Hogenakkal issue. He is said to be returning from the USA around noon. We remember that Kamal participated in a similar protest in 2002 too.

We knew that he had gone to Mumbai. That was probably en route to the Land of Opportunities. We are also eager to know what he news he brings from there.

See reports from The Hindu, Sify.com, Thatstamil, Tamilcinema.com and Webdunia.

[With inputs from Ananth]

Aamir Khan has been widely appreciated for Taare Zameen Par, a movie which marked his directorial debut. Kamal too joined in, when he announced the national-level Best Debutant Director Award on behalf of the Gollapudi Srinivas Memorial Foundation. He was accompanied at the press conference by long-time friends Gollapudi Maruthi Rao and Singeetham Sreenivasa Rao.

IndiaGlitz has several photos and a video. KollywoodToday.com too has photos. This news received wide coverage. Read reports from MSN, Sify, OneIndia, CineSouth and Chennai365.

Maruthi Rao, readers would recollect, featured in many Kamal movies including Hey Ram, Indrudu Chandrudu (Indran Chandran) and Swathi Muthyam (Sippikkul Muthu). This award is instituted in memory of his son, Srinivas, who died under tragic circumstances. This incident was used by Kamal in Anbe Sivam, with a reference to ‘tsunami’.

[Based on inputs from Ananth]

Kamal was interviewed for Puththagam Pesudhu (Tamil magazine on books), in its special edition released for the Chennai book exhibition held in January. Bubbling with enthusiasm and ideas, Kamal covers a wide range of topics related to books, movies, religion and society. In the end, the reader is astounded with his depth of knowledge and wisdom. Though we are unable to reproduce this very long interview or provide a link to it, here are some highlights.

• He encourages the efforts of the people behind this magazine.
• He talks about an aborted attempt with writer Balakumaran to provide meaningful stories as comic strips. He puts forward an idea of narrating stories through FM radio!
• He talks about his early inhibition to write in Tamil and how RC Sakthi helped him overcome it. He first wrote a short story titled “Ninaivugal” (Memories).
• Talking of the influences of books in his movies, he mentions Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. He says that Saket of Hey Ram was influenced by the character of Raskolnikov.
• He openly talks about his fascination for women and obsession with sex-related books during his adoloscent years. He also speaks about how he evolved into an atheist.
• He goes onto talk about his literary heroes including Jayakanthan, Jeyamohan and Sundararamasami. Regarding movies, he mentions his “Close net film society” efforts and is confident of changing the nature of movies in India.
• He praises fellow actor Sivakumar for not having a fans’ association. He also elaborately evaluates Sivaji Ganesan’s acting.
• During the interview, Kamal quotes a censored dialogue from Mumbai Xpress, which is based on Gandhi’s three monkeys!

Translation of some snippets:

• Since profound literature was boring, readers stuck to trivial magazines. As we forgot to mix it with honey, only honey bottles are being provided nowadays.
• Is the side-dish alone enough? Don’t we need to eat the main dish? People imagine that the side-dish alone would fill stomachs. That’s sad.
• There is this book called Tao of Physics. I like such ones…I promise I didn’t understand it.
• In my house too, there were people who read books. But in Brahmin households, English had the first priority. Only women used to talk about Tamil novels. Due to the interest of my mother and sister, I too got introduced to Tamil.
• I’m a pedestrian politician. I’m not searching for my leader in Delhi, but on the streets.
• When Ananthu died, two boxes full of books came to my house. I leaned on the box and cried out loud. That is my relationship with books.
• Great writers do contain themselves due to their desire to feature in Ananda Vikatan and Kumudham (top Tamil magazines). Sivaji did the same.
• Shouldn’t Sivaji and Satyajit Ray have worked together? Language is a reason. We don’t have a national language.
• Rajni came (without knowing Tamil), isn’t it? No one puts in efforts like his these days.
• The air-conditioner in my office runs because movies have become a business.

Let’s end with some seemingly outrageous statements on one of his pet topics, atheism:

• It is difficult to make me believe in God after all these years.
• If the religious heads didn’t keep dancing this way, a person like me wouldn’t have come to atheism.
• Ramanuja was an atheist too. Christ was an atheist too. In their times.

If you can get hold of the issue, enjoy another of Kamal’s dimensions.

[Via an unassuming source who wishes to remain anonymous]

Kamal initiated a campaign of the Narpani Iyakkam (fans’ association) to donate stationery items to school-going children in time for their exams. This effort will benefit 30,000 children across the state of Tamil Nadu. Read reports and see photos from Behindwoods, IndiaGlitz and KollywoodToday.com.

[Picture courtesy: BehindWoods]

The sorrow is evident on his face in all the photos. Kamal participated in the homage function organized for Sujatha on Sunday, March 2.

Many of Kamal’s literary friends too can be seen in photos from Behindwoods. IndiaGlitz has photos and a video, featuring Kamal’s speech (with bad audio quality unfortunately).

[Picture courtesy: BehindWoods]

The Hridayaragam function happened on February 24, Sunday. Kamal was there and he mesmerised the audience with 2 songs — “Ninaivo oru paravai” from Sigappu Rojakkal and “Kiliye kili kili kiliye” from Rasaleela. Hope we get to see the video soon.

He also spoke in Malayalam at the musical event. However, it looks like they managed to collect only 75 lakhs, and not 100 lakhs as originally expected. Read reports from The Hindu, Sify.com, IndiaGlitz, KollywoodToday.com and OneIndia. IndiaGlitz carries a bevy of photos.

Earlier, Kamal attended the wedding of Professor Ku. Gnanasambandhan’s daughter, along with Gowthami. His participation was kept a secret, though it leaked out the previous night. This news was published, along with photos, in the Tamil daily, Dinamalar (the link for which is now outdated unfortunately). Kamal’s asssocation with the literary personality can be understood from earlier posts on this blog: Post 1 | Post 2.

[With inputs from Ananth]

Kamal continued his mission of honouring artistes of various fields by participating in a book release function a few days ago. Azhiyaa Kodugal was the biography of the renowned artist KM Aadimoolam, who coincidentally passed away last month. Hence, the function also turned out to be a homage meeting. Many famous personalities including Jayakanthan and Sivakumar also participated.

IndiaGlitz has more photos and a nice video, featuring Kamal’s full speech. Kamal revealed that the angry Gandhi drawing featured in Hey Ram was done by Aadimoolam.

Check out more photos at Behindwoods too.

Tamil reports: Dinathanthi | Satrumun

[With inputs from Ananth]

[Picture courtesy: BehindWoods]

It seems like it just happened a short while ago. But it’s already a year since Kamal had an open meet with fans. On Sunday morning, Kamal felicitated 35 women and 8 disabled people who donated blood during the November drive. This was followed by a photo session. Around 5000 gathered in Savitri Ammal Oriental School, in the campus of Sanskrit College in Chennai.

Check out more photos from Behindwoods and IndiaGlitz.

Photos with fans are just trickling in. Hope to do a separate post with some of them soon.

[With input from Ananth]

[Picture courtesy: BehindWoods]

After first getting out the photos of the Hridaya Ragam launch function, it’s now time to move onto the details of this much-publicised event. As a bonus, we have some confirmation on Dasavatharam too.

Hridaya Ragam is a project to conduct open-heart surgeries for children (each costing 100,000 Rupees) from the lower strata of society. While the original target was 100, it has increased by 25% due to generous donation from the Malayala Manorama group. The requisite money will be collected by means of a music programme at Chennai, featuring folks from the Malayalam film industry and to be inaugurated by Illaiyaraaja. Kamal has associated himself as project ambassador. In the function / press conference held a few days ago, Kamal launched the ticket sales.

On the sidelines, he confirmed what we already have been hearing: the audio of Dasavatharam will be released in March and the movie itself in April. He also said that Jackie Chan gracing the former was indeed in the works. He had praise for Himesh Reshammiya’s music. There was confirmation of talks with Walt Disney too.

Watch a video and go through an extensive set of photographs from IndiaGlitz. Read reports from Yahoo, Rediff.com, Sify.com, IndiaGlitz and Behindwoods. If you can read Tamil, go for TamilCinema.com, CineSouth or ThatsTamil.

[Picture courtesy: BehindWoods]

Kamal participated in yet another social service project called Hridaya Ragam. The World Malayalee Council is conducting free paediatric (for children) heart surgeries this year. There isn’t much news about this yet. But here are some photos.

Check out all the photos at Behindwoods.

[Picture courtesy: BehindWoods]