Nov 7, 2006

Happy B'day, Kamal !!



Very many happy returns of the day to one-and-only Kamal Hassan!!
As an actor, singer, dancer, script-writer, director, producer and role-model, his contribution to the Tamil cinema is unparalleled.. The journey he started at the age of 6 is going strong, 8 short of 60 now.. He is one artist who has adapted quite well to his age and played such characters which suit him reasonably well. On this day, my top 6-fav movies of his.. a tough list to make, but nevertheless, chronologically..
1) Moondram pirai - 'THE' movie that made me his die-hard fan forever. No one had such an impact on me as he did in this climax.. For the first time, I started thinking a lot about a movie after coming out of the theater and tried to imagine how the climax could have been if....
2) Nayakan - Need I say more? Those minute details such as the cut he had on his eyebrow, that crying scene, pan-chewing oldman get-up, change in body language as the story passes through different phases of his life.. all these made me sit and take gud notice of him. The first movie I saw 5 times.. each time, I had something new to rave about Kamal.
3) Aboorva sahodharargal - I think it was the first movie which was advertised on TV.. I vaguely remember watching the promos and counting days to watch the movie. It was worth the wait. How he pulled off 'Appu' is still mysterious.. so much debate on how he managed to do it so easily.
4) Thevar Magan - It created a huge rage bcos of the 'first ever Kamal-Sivaji' movie and it lived upto its expectation frame-by-frame.. The father-son interaction scene was the best of all.. very simple dialogues but the expressions were out-of-the-world..
5) Mahanadhi - I would rate this as his BEST performance so far.. more than his national-award winning ones. No weird make-ups, not anything unusual, pretty much a man-next-door Kamal, but mind-blowing performance. Many critics said he deliberately targetted the audience's eye glands, but I wouldnt say so.
6) Indian - Another big combo of Kamal-Shankar. This one didnt disappoint one bit either. It was quite difficult to show emotions behind such a heavy make-up, but his eyes spoke it all. I was proud to be a Kamal fan when my mom, after watching the movie said "what an act by Kamal".. bcos she is usually indifferent to actors' performances.
A special note: MMKR - Out-'n-Out laugh riot. Can watch it any number of times, and still LOL each time.. Look at 'Raju-Kamal's expression when Madan tells him "Catch my point" and he says "adhu ellam thaana varum, ille?".. sooo cute..
So, I wish, on this day, that Kamal continues to enthrall millions of his fans in the years to come.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

i did not know you were such a big Kamal fan. I do not know however, if i would calssify him on the cute category.

KK said...

Kamal is undoubtedly a real genius. Tamil filmdom is lucky to have him. My Favs of Kamal are, not in any kinda ranking:
~ Kuruthipunal
~ Thevar Magan
~ Anbe Sivam
~ MMKR
~ Panchatantiram
~ Singaravelan
~ Guna
~ Nayagan
Actually thinking about it, the list keeps going on and on... It will take years for someone to fill his shoes... may be that's why in the current generation actors, everyone tries to emulate Rajini and not Kamal to attain stardom :)

Anonymous said...

Am as confused as sks. What makes u think it was "so cute" ?

Janani said...

Innoru kamal fan huh??? Thanga mudiyala da saami.

Happy Birthday Kamal!!!(Pudikala nalum b'day wish pana thappu ille)

Anonymous said...

Good to read your thoughts on this day. Check out mine at All Things Kamal.

Me too said...

Happy (Kamal) Birthday, Sagaa! (Happy Deepavali wishes maadhiri!!)

After 'Nayagan', I thought he had reached his acting peaks and there cannot be another greater performance from him and then comes 'Thevar Magan' and then comes 'Mahanadhi' and then comes... the list keeps going on and on!!

ada-paavi!!!! said...

and salangai oli?

tt_giant said...

Happy B day to THE actor. True class.

"sokka sonnayya.."

Anonymous said...

The one and only Kamal !

Never before, never after

Anonymous said...

great post for a great actor. he is 52, and he hasn't stopped doing pathbreaking movies. simbhu,vijay, and all younger actors these days needs to learn from this man. i cannot make a top 6 fav movies, because there are so many movies of his that I repeatedly watch, just to see his acting. I think only after watching his movies, I have realized that sometimes the story can be bad, the movie can be a flop, but you can watch it for his acting. But those 6 movies are good list, and I agree Mahanadhi was just too good, his acting was at the max.Thalaivar Vazhga

Raju said...

Sanjay, mmm.. rarely have we discussed south Indian films, right? But, I wouldnt have missed mentioning to u that I am a Kamal fan.. How big a fan at that is what u would have realized from some of my posts...
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KK, ur list is gr8.. but how come Singaravelan and Panchathanthiram among them? They were good comedies for sure... but they, esp. the latter one, were something even Kamal mentioned that he wouldnt have done, in hindsight, or done very differently.. :)
Ur last sentence is absolutely true...
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Anon, Ok.. lemme explain u what i meant by 'cute'.. I didnt mention Kamal himself to be cute.. but that particular scene, if u read it carefully. Kamal was cute only until early 80's movies.... Lemme explain the scene..
You can watch it here .. Just notice his (Raju kamal's) hand movements, facial expressions and smile.. He is a poor guy, and he is in awe at the rich Kamal's mannerisms.. The 'catch my point' is Kamal's fav line and he simply adores it... I think that is really very cute..

Raju said...

Janani, Innoru Kamal critic-a? mmm.. Ippo ellam Kamal-ai pidikkathu-nnu solradhu fashion ayiduchu.. ;)

Pidikkaavittalum vaazhthu sonna ungaloda periya manasukku romba nandri..!! :)
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Randramble, Welcome here!!

Wow.. an exclusive Kamal blog? Gr8.. We two have touched on some of the similar scenes.. esp. the MMKR one.. Will be visiting u often.. Other Kamal fans.. PLZ DO TAKE NOTE OF THIS BLOG..
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Aparna, Amen!! for your statement on Kamal.. I really hope 10A turns out to be one of his best..
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Raju said...

Vatsan, as u saw in my list of fotos, Hey Ram!, Anbe Sivam, Pesum Padam etc. are all close to my heart but couldnt make it to the top-6.. And, Salangai Oli too.. I cant say that there is a single Kamal movie that I hate..
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Deepak, Adhu enna "Sokka sonnayya"? (Is it SOkkA sonnayyA" ?) This is the nth time I am asking u to explain some quotes that you write.. Ur memory is amazing, mine is appalling.. :(
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Anon, True.. I once told my friend something like "Vikram is the closest next to Kamal for his acting prowess, but he isnt even half of Kamal"..
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Nitin, as KK said, the actors you mentioned know that they can never emulate him, so are targetting for the "Next Rajini" status.. as can be seen from their 'titles' (Ilaya thalapathi, or Little superstar).. :)

Only recently I watched 'Anbe Sivam' and 'Aalavandhan' and Kamal continues to surprise me.. May the surprises continue forever..

KK said...

Singaravelan and Panchathanthiram were in my list for their entertainment factor. Though crazy mohan has a big role in its success... I dont think anyone could have entertained us more than Kamal, doing those roles... Kamal's body language, dialog delivery... none could have made us laugh like him :)

Ram C said...

I agree with ur list completely. Excellent professional. Since you had restricted it to 6, some more interesting movies might have got missed out... like Sathi leelavathi, Avvai Shanmugi etc.,

BTW.. where did you get that Heyram gandhi style pic? I hadn't come across that pic earlier... :-)

tt_giant said...

MMKR la, dialog between Raju(!) and Madan:

Raju: Adhu, enaadhu....
Madan: yedhu?.. aaL maaraattam?
Raju: illa.. adhukku munnadi sonniye..englees la.
Madan: Catch... my.. point...?
Raju: aaang.. adhaan.. sokka sonnayya.. adhellam thaana varum illa?

mitr_bayarea said...

Raju-

Belated Wishes to Kamal on his bday. As many others have commented, since there is no othe runique one person who can do it all in the current Tamil cine field, all the heroes are trying to emulate Rajini's style.

A nice list, though more could have been added. Behindwoods.com has a detail list of all Kamal's movies. It just proves that here is a talented man who can carve a niche for himself and grow out of every film and also create a path for himself with the current young heroes.

S.G.Ramkumar said...

me too Kamal's fan.. He is a professionalist.. My wishes to him too.

Raju said...

KK, I loved watching Singaravelan.. Cant say the same about Panchathanthiram.. I agree with u.. Kamal and comedy go together. Among the mainstream actors, no one can boast of such a high % of comedy movies, that too very good ones.
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Ram, I restricted the # of movies to 6, since 6 is my lucky number.. ;)
Interestingly, I got the 'Gandhi make-up pic' of Kamal from the
website of the man
who did the make-up for Kamal. :)

Raju said...

Deepak, adhey adhey.. I used to wait for his telling 'Adhallam thaana varum ille' piece.. so i missed 'sokka sonnayya'.. Kalakkal.. Could have written anything.. but this is sooo unique.. I was laughing, looking at the clip.. :)
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Mitr, mm.. each and every line of urs is soo true.. Glad to hear so much from a Rajini fan.. :)
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Ram, U too Kamal fan-a? Should have expected.. ;)

Looks like ur blog bug is removed and the blog is now back in action? Will check out later..