There’s some more stuff to be shared on the AIDS campaign. We start with the earlier-mentioned TV ad. Then, we have a news snippet from IBNLive, which also touches upon Dasavatharam, including sound bites from Asin.

Not to be left behind, NDTV featured an interview with Kamal. Behindwoods and IndiaGlitz also did their part.

Kamal’s commitment to social welfare is proven once again with him becoming the UN ambassador for HIV/AIDS. He is featuring in a multimedia campaign, which started off with a TV ad. Check out the United Nations Web-site, letsmakeitright.in. Read reports from The Hindu and IANS. This campaign seems to have been launched in time for World AIDS Day, which falls on December 1.

One would remember that Kamal was also supposed to make one of the short films of Mira Nair’s AIDS JaaGo series.

Yesterday, he participated in a function at Justice Basheer Ahmed Sayeed College for Women (formerly and popularly known as SIET). Though news about it has been splashed across the media, let’s get some first-hand details from P, who was right there:

It is a campaign for giving HIV patients their due rights and Kamal is the campaign ambassador.

“He looks 100 times awesome in person than in screen”, exclaimed one of the girls. “What charisma”! The girls of the college kept shouting so much that he was overwhelmed. For each and every word he spoke, they yelled. Sporting a beard, he wore a grey blazer. “He really looks superbbbb…”, went another girl.

There were lots of press people and a photo session. He told the press that he would support this cause and include such subjects even in his movies.

Inevitably, he spoke of Dasavatharam on the sidelines, further confirming the delay in release.

It is a known fact that Kamal has a lot of friends in the literary circles. He has used many of them in his movies from Mahanadhi to Marudhanayagam. Recently, he took the time to felicitate one such person, Puviarasu the poet, for winning the Sahitya Akademi award.

During his speech, he spoke of his association with Puviarsu and various others. He also read out one of his poems, which is reproduced below, thanks to Behindwoods.

They have more photos and so does CineFundas.com. IndiaGlitz as usual has several photos and a long video featuring Kamal’s speech. IBNLive has a short news clip, featured below. The event received extensive coverage in the vernacular press too.

[Picture courtesy: BehindWoods]

On the occasion of India’s 60th Independence Day, I chanced upon some of Kamal’s thoughts on the Indian flag and patriotism in general.

Every year I hoist my National Flag in my terrace and sing my National Anthem. This habit was to let my children enjoy the same naive patriotism that I enjoyed as a child. It has become a habit.

The flag solicits a certain emotion like the insurance company symbol or the medical symbol or the Red Cross. No symbol is worth the cloth it is printed on if it empowers dictators or facilitates division. I, by mindset, would like to stretch borders. I think patriotism as per lore is quite ridiculous and impractical. I am a dreamer who dreams of a war free silk route. When that happens we can proudly and legitimately call America as nephew Sam. We will then be the big uncles by any global standards.

Read more on the site of Flag Foundation of India, established by Naveen Jindal.

The short movie made to commemorate the 150 years of Chennai police is out. As predicted earlier, it is like a documentary (remember “Films Division”?), with interludes featuring prominent stars of Tamil industry. Though some messages are useful, it is tacky as expected and has political sycophancy too. Check out Kamal around the 15th minute in this video brought out by KollywoodToday.com.

• Rajnikanth has recently mentioned that he himself is awaiting Dasavatharam.
• Mallika’s song in Dasavatharam was shot in Malaysia instead of USA, as she couldn’t make it to the Land of Opportunities due to logistical problems.
• Kamal will be releasing a book of his poems shortly.
• Yet again, we have a rumour of Kamal and Mohanlal featuring in a movie together. To be directed by Bharat Bala (of Vande Mataram album fame), The 19th Step will be based on the story by MT Vasudevan Nair about a Japanese warrior’s experience in India. This was reported by Hindustan Times and Behindwoods.
• Gowthami distributed aid on behalf of Kamal under the banner of his fans’ association.
• Saran confirmed again that he is working with Kamal after Dasavatharam.

[Picture courtesy: BehindWoods]

Kamal had a practice of celebrating his birthday with his fans. Each year, a function was organised featuring some Tamil literary people, holding a few competitions and also involved some donations. Last year, he was shooting for Vaettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu in New York. This year, it was Dasavatharam. Is Kamal moving away from celebrations?

Anyway, some Kamal fans, part of the Narpani Mandram, continued the tradition this year. They donated computer-related stuff to Thai Thamizh school (backed by lyricist Thamarai). Some photos too are available. Kamal himself had donated 50,000 Rupees to the same school earlier.

Some news appeared a while ago on Mira Nair driving a project to make short movies on AIDS, with one of them being helmed by Kamal. Now, it looks like things have started rolling. Some more details are available as part of another story. Till now, only Nair seems to have talked to the press and not the other directors involved. Eagerly awaiting news on Kamal starting work on this.