Kamalhassan - The name that used to make many of us look up and wonder what he is up to now, has apparently gone missing since the release of Kuruthipunal, way back in 1996. Thinking back, I find it hard to point out when I became his fan or even why. As I was watching Dasavatharam, I was searching for my favorite actor, but I couldn't find him. I do not mean that in a complimentary way. Sure, the movie was entertaining and not as bad as some people seem to think it is but I really couldn't see the Kamalhassan who donned 4 different roles just with the help of a beard, whacky sideburns, an accent and some amazing variations in body language, in MMKR. These days he has to resort to prosthetic makeup, amateur graphics and Jackie chan to even promote his movies. What he doesn't realize is, we as fans and non-fans, only expect the simpest of movies from him, like Thevar Magan. For me, that is the best Kamalhassan movie ever, with an original storyline and a neat screenplay without any flaws. Nayagan will always be a close second, because it wasn't really a complete Kamalhassan movie.
I still remember the days when I went to watch Die Hard with a Vengenace twice, just to see the trailer of Kuruthipunal. The trailer itself was so thrilling, and made you sit up and take notice. One of my friends from Peter's Colony, who is a big Rajini fan said, "Ot**, K.S.Ravikumar soo*** madhiri padam eduthurukaan da (referring to Muthu), Kuruthipunal chance-a ille da". It gave me so much confidence that Tamil Cinema is in good hands and it's going to go places. Of course, I could get tickets for kuruthipunal at the counter easily during the second week and tickets for Muthu were hard to get even outside the counter. Somewhere after that, the perfectionaist in Kamalhassan died. Hey Ram and Virumandi are indeed good movies, but they really weren't simple by any means. They were contaminated with his own idealogies and principles. That's when I realized Kamal can never make a movie as a neutral person. Have you noticed, in every movie of his, there has to be a peeing scene or a supposedly comedy scene where he/someone else gets hit in the crotch? If that's going to be your trademark, then it ain't going to help you get any critical acclaim.
I watched Salangai Oli pretty late, like probably 10 years ago. I couldn't belive the fact that he did not get the National Award for that. The scene where he does Bharathanaatiyam, Kathak and Kathakali for the same two lines of the song is enough to say what kind of an actor he is. Who hasn't cried watching Moondram Pirai? Sridevi dominates throughout the movie and then in the last 5 minutes, Kamal shows everyone why he got his first National Award. If anyone here brings up Indian as one of his best movies, I will definitely put my foot up your ass for saying that. I watched that movie in Satyam theater with my "baalya snehidhargal", Karthik, SP and Balaji. When the lights came on for the intermission, I was wondering what the hell kind of a movie is this and I heard Balaji say to Karthik, "He will definitely get a National Award for this movie". I didn't say a word and Kamal did win a National Award. I remember Kamal once saying in an interview, "If mediocrity is our standard, then we will never make high quality movies". Well, Mr.Kamalhassan, mediocrity is present everywhere in your movies these days, please don't make it a standard. I want a movie like Kuruthipunal and Thevar Magan. All I am saying is, keep it simple, instead of talking about Chaos Theory and Butterfly effect! I am already hearing that there's going to be a whole bunch of graphics for his next movie Marmayogi and it only makes me nervous.
