We feel that, the principal actor Kamal Hassan is always concerned about authenticity, he get's into more detailing expecting perfection in every pixel. What is wrong in being a perfectionist? We seldom find a Successful Multi-tasking and an original person like him in the industry. Even few of Kamal's movies around 1980's contained songs and action irrelevant to the story. With time he gained lots of diligence and understood that such movies would take him nowhere, but bound him within four walls. It is no wonder that he thought like that, since he grew up acting & learning from the hands of great artist's like Sivaji, Gemini, Saavitri, Nagesh etc. Since he was completely under the legendary director K.Balachader's guidance, acting to perfection became his sole motive. At a very young age of twenty he won the film-fare award for doing an important role in the Malayalam movie named Kanyakumari(1974). He doesn't do things in just one night, but works very hard with lots of endurance and sees to that nothing goes wrong on his side first.
He was interested in singing, so he learnt music from Sri.Balamurail Krishna and only after which he became a successful playback singer. "Vikram Vikram", "Raaja Kayya Vecha", "Pootu Vaitha Kadhal Thitam","Kaasu Mela","Yele Machi","Kombula Poova Sutthi", "Alwarpetai Aaluda", "Oh Ho Sanam", "Dhagudu Dhattham", "Neruppu Vaayinil", "Siri Siri" are few of his peppy numbers. His voice in "Yaar Yaar Sivam", "Then pandi chemaiyile", "Inji iduppazhagi","Neela vaanam" was very poignant that it would never fade away from our hearts. What do audience expect from him? Well, some say Kamal sir should not be an all rounder. We possess no rights to limit the skills of a living legend. Five decades in the film industry with a heap of awards and crores of die-hard fans, his boundless wisdom and talent, never lets him think within the boundary. This four time National award winner is just not an actor but, a Real Artist and pin point perfectionist. He makes sure that there is not a single unwanted clip in the movie. Show me a single successful multitasker like him.
Anbe sivam and Dhool were released simultaneously. Dhool ran to packed houses, while Anbe Sivam struggled to become even a mere hit. Even a person who hates Kamal Hassan cannot say no to Anbe sivam as it is a great movie. If any other actor had undergone this situation then his next movie would have been completely commercial. He was aware of the adverse effects of doing a complete commercial movie. He knew that it would set a very bad example to the young actors and deteriorate the progress of Tamil cinema. So he stuck with realistic movies and lively style of writing scripts .His very next movie, Virumaandi under his direction carried a social message whether a person could be hung for his mistake's, won the International Award for Best Asian Film, while Hey Ram got him a film-fare award. He wrote the Story and Screenplay for Dasavatharam, which still remains one of the most expensive Indian films ever made, and won him critical praise for his performance. The film grossed more than 250 crores worldwide , thus became a block buster beating the previous records. He was presented an award in Vijay Music Awards 2011 for "Neela Vaanam" song. He penned the beautiful lyrics for songs such as "Unnai Vida", "Neela vaanam", "Raam Raam", "Nee partha", "Vaanm ellai" and lot more .Films such as Sathi leelavathi, Magalir mattum, Kuruthi punal, Virumaandi, Unnai pol oruvan, Michael madan kama rajan, vikram, Apoorva Sagodharargal displayed him as a successful producer too. As a legend one of his duties is to do forward thinking. He is an incomparable frame of reference to the actors of present generation. Legendary actors and directors of Tamil cinema were flabbergasted by his performance and multi-tasking capabilities. He is a great source of inspiration to many actors and his list of admirer's is infinity. He built the stepping stones to success with failures and has proved himself to be a great multi tasker. He has brought a lot of pride and glory to Tamil cinema.
He is an actor par excellence which makes him look unique in the commercial industry. Rajni a long time friend of Kamal chose an alternate path and rose to stardom. Everyone knows that Rajni has attained a global status. But he hasn't won a single National award yet because he stopped doing character roles with movies such as Moondru mugam, Sri Raaghavendar, Aarilirindhu Aruvathu Varai etc. There is no point in screaming at the top of our voice that Kollywood stands equal to Hollywood as our movies still rely on Hollywood for Visual effects, Graphics, Make up etc. Leave the technological aspects for now. Tamil cinema is over-nourished with great actors so we must progress from possibility to actuality so as to have a promising future. We need allrounders and real artist's like Kamal who has already taken Indian cinema to very high altitude.
Sarath Pc
pcsarath21@gmail.com