When
one talks about liplocks in Tamil cinema there
is one name that comes to mind first - Kamal
Hassan. He is the one who braved all opposition
to pioneer it in Tamil cinema, kept it alive
over the years and is still the flag bearer
when it comes to kissing.
When Kamal first did it on screen in the movie
Sattam En Kaiyil, it was condemned by none lesser
than MGR. Kamal then did it again in Punnagai
Mannan, one of the first few passionate ‘lip-locks’
of the mainstream Tamil cinema. It happens just
before Kamal and Rekha jump off the cliff. There
might have been kisses in earlier movies, but
this was the first time that a star as big as
Kamal Hassan was a part of and it got noticed,
never to be forgotten. The kiss in such a situation
was to ease the mental agony that the couple
went through before the jump. It’s not
easy to jump off a cliff knowing that one will
not be able to see his/her beloved ever again.
This feeling couldn’t have been better
expressed without the kiss.
Here it must be pointed out that whenever Kamal
did it, there was finesse. It was not meant
to titillate or make people squirm. However,
all said and done, there will always be people
who question the necessity of such scenes in
cinema. After all, cinema got along just fine
even before Kamal started kissing.
