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'With passage of time, Kamal did move away from the humdrum of commercial cinema, using it only as a peg to launch a new concept or new technology, as no other actor/film-maker has done in Indian cinema.'
N Sathiya Moorthy assesses the career and politics of movie legend Kamal Haasan on his 70th brthday.
As Kamal Haasan turns 70 on November 7, Tamil cinema's Ulaga Nayagan or 'global hero' has his job cut out for him.
He has to produce a box office success all over again to erase the failure of S Shankar's Indian 2 that bombed right after the trend-setting blockbuster, Vikram, again carrying the same title of his path-breaking sci-fi of the time, way back in 1986.
It does not stop there.
Having launched his own political party and having lost his maiden electoral test, that too in the company of the otherwise victorious DMK combine from the western Coimbatore constituency in the 2021 assembly polls, Haasan has to redefine his future in politics.
He has to decide the future of his Makkal Needhi Maiyam or 'People's Justice Centre' in leftist slang, ahead of the Tamil Nadu assembly polls, due in 2026.
There is nothing to indicate that the DMK leader of the alliance would not stand by its commitment ahead of this year's Lok Sabha elections, when the MNM did not press its demand in the seat-sharing talks but settled for the promise of a Rajya Sabha seat, when one falls vacant in 2025.
Granting that the DMK stands by its word, can Kamal leave his shrinking number of followers in the lurch?
Alternatively, what has he done for his party in the past years to make it fighting fit, to demand a certain number of seats from the alliance leader with hopes, if not promises, of winning, even in the company of other partners?
These are questions that should bother Kamal as he awaits the theatrical release of Mani Ratnam's Thug Life, their coming-together film after the hugely successful Nayakan (1987).
It was the first of its kind, and none of those that tried to copy the concept, including Rajinikanth's Kaala (2018), came anywhere close to the script that Mani Ratnam had sculpted, along with its packaging and presentation.
In between, Kamal has to accept the inevitability of the release of Indian 3, which no one, starting with the makers, is sure would make the grade like the standalone original.
Social media reports occasionally have it that the film may not even have a theatrical release, given the poor showing of the second, both on the silver screen and the OTT platform.
The timing of the release of the film can make or mar the box office results of Thug Life, or that is the apprehension in some sections.
Suffice to point out that his fans, who now refer to him only as Aandava or God, taking off from the song, Alwarpet Aandava (the Alwarpet locality in Chennai is where his family home is), want another big hit from him. There are many who just want him to act in films, and not get involved in politics that they feel is not his turf.
Yet, there is none in the Indian film industry comparable to Kamal Haasan, born Parthasarathy, son of Congressman and advocate Srinivasan of Paramakudi, who was settled in Madras, now Chennai.
In his generation, very few children would have had parents who would encourage a young boy to take to film-acting as a prospective career.
When his elder brothers, Charuhassan and Chandrahassan became lawyers, the young boy was drawn into the celluloid world.
If there were greater thinkers in the Indian film industry, they were not great actors. And great actors rarely had the time, energy and inclination to branch out to have a holistic view of film-making -- including directing, writing, choreographing -- as Kamal has been achieving through the years.
Kamal replaced established Bombay child artiste Daisy Irani for the role of an orphaned Selvam in the celebrated AVM production house's Kalathur Kannamma, circa 1960.
Kamal was just five years old at the time, and became possibly the youngest artiste in the Indian film industry, at least at the time, to receive the President's Gold Medal.
His face, full of innocence, and his curious eyes were as captivating as his mouth sync for the song, Ammavum Neeye, Appavum Neeye, rendered by M S Rajeswari. The moving, meaningful lyric of T K Sundara Vadhyar would have been too much for a child of that age to comprehend, personalise and emote, but Kamal did it all.
There was no turning back for the child artiste, who did a few films in Tamil and Malayalam, before the inevitability of adolescence interfered.
Kamal himself has recorded in many places how those years were frightful for him to do without films and not being educated enough -- and how his parents, especially his mother, Rajalakshmi, boosted his sagging morale at every turn.
Serious about an acting career, Kamal did not waste the years that followed.
To help him shape up, he took to dance-training, and ended up being an assistant choreographer to Thangappan, father of multi-lingual actor-director and choreographer Prabhu Deva.
Alongside, the teenager was also evolving into an assistant director as well as appearing in minor roles, whenever the opportunity came his way.
The big break came Kamal's way when he appeared in K Balachander's Arangetram (1973).
Balachander is credited with shaping the careers of two of Tamil cinema's greatest actors, Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth, whose paths ran parallel but never really met. As coincidence would have it, Balachander was the one who introduced Kamal to Bollywood through their super-duper hit, Ek Duje Ke Liye in 1981.
Kamal went on to win the National Best Actor Award thrice, for Moonram Pirai (1983), Nayakan (1988) and Indian (1997). His home production Thevar Magan with Sivaji Ganesan won the National Award for Best Film in 1992.
He received many awards for his acting prowess, so much so after being crowned the Best Actor for the Filmfare Awards in five languages for the 20th time in 2000, he wrote to the organisers, 'Thus far, and no more', indicating that younger actors should be recognised in their time.
For its part, the Centre conferred the prestigious Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan on the 'epitome of Indian cinema'. It is a title, if one, that some fans of the late Guru Dutt, Raj Kapoor and a host of other actors, film-makers and others would contest but not in the same category of a 'complete cinema man', which Kamal has been.
In an era, where a lead actor shoots for a number of films at the same time, unlike the present, there were years in which Kamal acted in a dozen or so movies, mostly in Tamil, occasionally in Malayalam and rarely in Hindi and Telugu, the last one being remembered for Maro Charitra, the 1978 original of EDKL and the Jaya Pradha starrer, Sagara Sangamam (1983), where he portrayed a dance master.
Kamal acted in 14 movies in 1975, 18 in 1976, 19 in 1977 and 20 in 1978.
If today, Kamal Haasan is credited with acting in possibly the highest number of 230 films for a lead actor, the commercial base rests there.
Yet, with passage of time, Kamal did move away from the humdrum of commercial cinema, using it only as a peg to launch a new concept or new technology, as no other actor/film-maker has done in Indian cinema. The prime example is the introduction of prosthesis for changing the facial appearance in Indian.
Kamal's versatility did not end there.
As an actor, he could handle full-length comedy roles with the same ease as he did serious roles. This can be seen in Panchathanthiram, Pammal Sampandam and Vasool Raja, MBBS.
In the remake of Mrs Doubtfire, called Avvai Shanmukhi, he appeared as an old, conservative Brahmin lady. Called Chachi 420 in Hindi, it has a lot of comic moments.
Kamal wrote his own story and script, with a remarkable eye for details, and his repertoire had a mix of serious themes and comedy-of-errors: Raja Paarvai, Apoorva Sagodharargal, Michael Madana Kama Rajan, Thevar Magan, Mahanadhi, Hey Ram, Aalavandhan, Anbe Sivam, Nala Damayanthi, Virumaandi, Dasavathaaram, Manmadan Ambu and Vishwaroopam.
He also turned lyricist and playback singer in films like Virumandi and Vishwaroompam.
His lyric for the song, Unnai Kaanadu Naan Kanda in Vishwaroopam was for a Kathak dance, and he shared the voice credit with Shankar Mahadevan.
Kamal began his playback singing with Gnayiru Oli Mazhaiyil in the film, Andharangam (1975).
With every movie and every overseas visit, Kamal has been evolving and discovering new techniques and technologies for adoption here, like Akira Kurosawa's 1950 Rashomon effect in the Virumandi (2004) that he penned and acted in. It was only the second such attempt in these parts after Veena S Balachander's Aandha Naal (1954), when film-making was in its infancy in Kollywood.
If K Balachander left an indelible mark in Kamal's growing up years as an actor, so did Sivaji Ganesan, whose influence and mannerisms no Tamil film actor of his generation could have escaped.
But he also developed his independent style of acting and story-telling, taking the best of the two and creating a cinematic universe of his own.
Likewise, the Kamal-Rajini combo in the Tamil cinema of the 1970s and 1980s cannot be side-stepped.
By then, both had come to represent two old schools of Tamil cinema: The Sivaji school of acting (Kamal) and the MGR class of commercial success (Rajini). That MGR-Sivaji comparison itself had grown out of the earlier generation compatriots, namely P U Chinnappa and M K Thyagraja Bhagavathar, the latter the first-ever super-star of south Indian cinema of the 1930s and 1940s.
Starting with K Balachander's Apoorva Ragangal (1975), in which Kamal had a full-length role and Rajini a cameo, his debut filmi appearance, the two have acted in a total of 16 films. The list includes the path-breaking 16 Vayathinilaye (1977) from the new-generation film-maker, Bharathirajaa, who took Tamil cinema from the confines of the studios to a natural, rural setting.
The last time the two actors appeared together was in the Amitabh Bachchan-starrer, Geraftaar (1985) in Hindi.
Both have not hesitated to clarify in public how they sat down, discussed and decided to go their own way on the film front and yet, maintain their personal relations.
Off-screen, as they often tell audiences that they have been consulting with each other on personal, filmi and even political matters (the last one confined to their individual desire to enter direct politics).
In that last venture, Kamal did not seem to have thought too much. He launched MNM, but it has not really taken off.
Rajini, in turn, discussed his political project, but has never launched a political party of his own.
The two friends have their own ideological paths too.
Rajini has often identified with the ruling BJP at the Centre while Kamal Hassan, an Iyengar-Brahmin by birth, is a self-confessed atheist, and quotes Periyar and Karunanidhi in matters of social justice, if not on their anti-god, anti-religion (read: anti-Hindu) stand.
Despite close personal ties, neither has influenced the other's ways when harassed by politicians in power. In both their cases, it was veteran film actor and charismatic chief minister J Jayalalithaa, who was the cause for concern. When Jayalalithaa contested the 1996 elections after five 'horrible years' in office, Rajini openly declared that if her ruling AIADMK returned to power, 'even god cannot save Tamil Nadu'.
Kamal Haasan was conspicuous by his deafening silence.
Likewise, when Kamal had problems with the Jayalalithaa government over the release of his magnum opus Vishwaroopam (2013), Rajini looked the other way.
Before Vishwaroopam, Kamal had a near-similar bad experience in the making of Virumandi, when peripheral caste groups tried to disturb the location shooting, protesting against the original title, Sandiyar, as they claimed it put a particular southern Tamil Nadu caste in bad light.
Incidentally, there have been talks, if not outright attempts, to bring them together for one last time on the silver screen.
But with their varied acting styles and advancing age -- Kamal, 70, and Rajini, 73 -- penning a script and finding a film-maker capable of handling both to a rich filmi experience is not going to be easy.
On the personal front, Kamal can be said to have a colourful lifestyle.
After divorcing his danseuse-wife Vani Ganapathy after 10 years of marriage, Kamal married Bollywood actor Sarika after their first child was born.
Though the parents separated not long after, their two daughters, Shruti Haasan and Akshara Haasan, have both appeared in films. Shruti now has a role in Rajini's upcoming film Coolie, directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj.
He broke up with yesteryear actor Gautami a couple of years ago.
Today, Kamal Haasan the man, his mission and vision are at the cross-roads.
There isn't much that he has not achieved in his long years in cinema, but he still chooses his characters with as much as care as he did in his formative years.
Politically, Kamal and the MNM remain a non-starter, and he seems to have understood it. Like Sivaji Ganesan, whom he admired and at times aped, he's had a faltering political step but it does not matter if the realisation has dawned, even if belatedly.
N Sathiya Moorthy, veteran journalist and author is a Chennai-based policy analyst and political commentator.
