The audio of Vishwaroopam was launched in a grand manner today across three prominent cities of Tamil Nadu – Madurai, Coimbatore and Chennai in that order. The Chennai leg of the event kicked off after a late start at around 7 30 pm at the YMCA Grounds in Royapettah. A medley of famous Kamal songs performed by Jaya TV’s Ragamalika troupe acted as the curtain raiser for the event.
Popular Malayalam actor and a close friend of Kamal since many years, Jayaram acted as the anchor for the event. He reminisced about his friendship with the Ulaganayagan and told the crowd about how Kamal acted in a cameo in one of his recent films without charging a penny.
The composer trio Shankar – Ehsaan – Loy was humbled by the presence of Isaignani Ilaiyaraja at the event and Shankar termed him as the King. Kamal made a grand entry on the stage along with his two lead ladies Andrea and Pooja Kumar.
Kamal cheekily remarked that artistes like him will never get tired of applause and that he was in fact greedy for more and more applause from his audience. He termed that the bottom-line of the event was the unconditional love and care that he shared with his fans and well-wishers.
Pooja Kumar impressed the audience with a brief speech in broken Tamil before shifting to her more customary American English. When she said that she grew up watching Kamal’s films ever since her first Kamal movie Ek Dujhe Ke Liye, Kamal quickly interrupted her and jokingly said that it was a needless comment.
When Jayaram asked Kamal who he would love to kiss among the likes of Angelina Jolie, Julia Roberts and Jennifer Lopez when he goes to Hollywood soon, Kamal said light heartedly that he isn’t going to Hollywood to taste another person’s lips. He instead intends to show how good he can act, to the Hollywood honchos.
Karthik then came on stage and literally dazzled with his energy levels and range, as he performed some landmark Kamal songs. The audience and the celebrities were truly floored by the ace singer’s performance. Andrea also showed how stylishly she can sing when she and a guitarist performed ‘Ninaivo Oru Paravai’ and ‘Nee Paartha Paarvai’.
Pooja Kumar decided to show off her dancing skills as she performed for the delightfully classical ‘Unnai Kaanadha’ number from Vishwaroopam. Kamal also showed his ‘konnakol’ skills when he sang the starting portion of this number which was later fully rendered by the brilliant Shankar Mahadevan. Shankar also performed the title track of Vishwaroopam with unbridled energy and passion. The result was a true adrenaline rush for the audience, replete with goosebumps.
Many prominent directors from the industry like Lingusamy, Murugadoss, Dharani, Bharathiraja, K.S.Ravikumar and Vasanth spoke about how they have admired Kamal Haasan since ages. Bharathiraja talked about the famous scene in 16 Vayadhinile which featured Kamal in just the bare minimum clothing. He felt that no one has Kamal’s guts, passion for cinema and self-confidence. Vasanth was in awe of Kamal’s ‘konnakol’ skills which he said actually takes years of practice for even experts. Ravikumar appealed to the star on behalf of his fans that he needs to do atleast a movie a year and balance his path breaking attempts with commercial entertainers as well. The other aforementioned younger directors also spoke enthusiastically from their heart. Prabhu Ganesan was emotional and touched the audience when he said that his family will always travel with Kamal and support him forever. His elder brother and son also came on stage along with him.
The audio was finally formally released by Ilaiyaraja and received by Bharathiraja. The entire bunch of celebrities who attended the event came onto the stage for the grand finale. Vishwaroopam also marks the first Raaj Kamal Films production which doesn’t feature Raja’s music. Kamal, therefore, made it a point to personally invite Raja for the launch and make him release the audio.
All in all, this was an event which was a feast for the Ulaganayagan’s fans and well-wishers. The entire arena was decked with banners, cutouts and posters of Kamal in his countless avatars. Vishwaroopam’s music promises to be memorable particularly the title track and ‘Unnai Kaanadha’.
Expect these songs to top all the countdown charts in the coming weeks as Vishwaroopam gets ready to release on January 11th, 2013.
