The one actor, film maker I adore is Kamal Hassan. I don’t think anybody can be compared or match his acting prowess for years to come. He is unique, a número uno and was born to act. He is celebrating his 50th year in Tamil cinema. He entered in to the hearts of Tamil movie goers as a small child singing “Ammavum Neeye” on August 12, 50 years back.

In his Golden jubilee year, I am revisiting his 10 best roles over these 50 years. The 10 best roles doesn’t mean that these are his 10 best movies but these roles brought out the different faces of this versatile actor.

10. Prasanna of Aboorva Ragangal

Prasanna was the personification of youth of the 70s. At the brink of political revolution in the country, Prasanna is the guy who can’t accept even small atrocities in the society, he even injures a guy who doesn’t respect the national anthem. The fiery youth gets tamed when he falls in love with a woman elder than him. The character is complex, confused and contradictory.K Balachander always has the best for Kamal and he was perfect. The confusion sticks on to you too when you watch him on the screen. The emotions of anger to his father, love towards Bhairavi, jealousy towards Bhairavi’s Husband are perfectly portrayed.

9. Senapathy aka Indian Thatha of Indian

Senapathy, 70 year an INA veteran is a nationalist and can’t stand corruption prevailing in the country. He loses his daughter for corruption and starts to weed out all the corrupted officials by murdering them through the help of an ancient martial act technique of Varmam. He finally ends up killing his own son because he was corrupt too.

Can a movie be taken with a 70 Year old man in the lead role? Shankar thought so, so did Kamal. Although make up helped him, it was Kamal’s show all the way. The drooping shoulders, a slight bend in the back to authenticate the age, the voice, actions and above all the style in the way he combs his strands of hair in the forehead- awesome

8. Ragu of Raja Paarvai

I dunno which actor would take risk of acting as a blind man in his 100th movie. Kamal was in his usual self of difference. Ragu is a blind man, talented violinist who brims with self-confidence and hates pity. A realist who falls in love with a Christian Girl. I don’t think some one can portray blind man’s romance better..this movie also had another facet of the man – he wrote the screenplay for the movie.

7. Balram Naidu and Fletcher of Dasavatharam

Dasavatharam was a movie where you can relish 10 different characterizations of the same man. Balram Naidu arguably will become one of funniest characters in the whole of Tamil Cinema in par with Tharumi of Thiruvilayadal. Fletcher was a surprise for me and I think only few villains you will really love – Fletcher will be one. The strength of both the characters is the dialogue delivery – be it the American accent of Fletcher (chi -dam-bram) and the Telegu accent of Balram naidu (neeru telega) – fantabulous. “Neeru terrific scientista illa scientific terrorista”

6. Guna of Guna

I certainly believe Guna is one of the underrated movies of Kamal. Whenever people speak about Kamal, it never features all though Kamal admitted a lot of times that it’s one of his favourites.

Guna is a confused character – you can’t categorize him in to mentally unstable person because he very well knows what he is doing. He is not a violent Psycho type character because he attacks only those people who attack his loved ones (even the small bird he pets) .. I would say he is a innocent schizophrenic…

The blind love he has on abirami is unmatchable… I dunno how Kamal would have understood such a complex character and he plays it with so much panache that you will fall in love with Guna, leave alone the heroine. I would rate this movie on par with any Takeshi Kitano’s or Kim Ki Duk’s

5. Avvai Shanmughi of Avvai Shanmughi

I admit it was an inspiration from Robin Williams but there is an unknown inspiration too – TK Shanmugam who does Avvaiyar roles in Tamil Dramas of yesteryear. Kamal started his acting life in this troupe and so he made a tribute by naming the movie on his guru.

Ok this character is an absolute master piece, the gait, the Brahmin accent, the mannerisms like adjusting the saree – perfect. You can’t just stop admiring Shanmughi Mami.

4. Seenu of Moondram Pirai

Seenu is a very normal next door guy who you would love to be with every other day. He saves a mentally unstable girl from a prostitution place, falls in love with her, cares for her and cures her… And she at the end doesn’t know who he is after getting cured and leaves him in distress.
From the start to the final scene, you will see Sri Devi scoring boundaries in each and every scene and in the final scene Kamal just scores a sixer every minute.. The depiction of emotions are so strong that you will end up feeling that Sri Devi could have been in the old state rather getting cured. This movie fetched the national award for both the leads.

3. Dileep of Sigappu Rojakkal

An anti-hero who is haunted by the child hood wounds created by a host of women, starts avenging on women by cheating and killing them. For once, he finds a good woman but ends up in a mental asylum with unrequited love. This movie came in 1978 and created a furor in the cinema world because of the plot and the making. Dileep another complex character was wonderfully portrayed by Kamal and a character you can neither sympathize nor get angry on his actions.

2. Appu of Aboorva Sagotharargal

Although I rate this as number 2, this was, is and will be my most favorite character of Kamal’s movies simply because of the heroism of the character even though he is short than normal. Normal people will never realize that differently able people also have normal emotions – the scene after his love breaks – Kamal shows why he is rated as one of the brilliant actors. The technical brilliance and dwarf like acting awes you every moment

1. Velu Nayakkar of Nayagan

This is the mother of all characters. Velu Nayakar is about a a true life do-gooder who smuggled to help people. Kind of an biographical of a person. Although inspired by God Father, there was one basic difference between them, God Father never shows his emotions whereas Velu Nayakkar does. Kamal lived as Velu Nayakkar. A national award and the one of the two Indian movies to be rated in 100 best movies of the Millennium by the Time Magazine. Should I say more?

There can be lot other roles which you may think the best of Kamal. This is my list and if you like to add more…Just put it in the comments section. One role which lost by whisker to my list was Nalla of Anbe Sivam.

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Dasavatharam – One Intelligent Affair with Chaos Theory.

When you go to a Kamal’s movie, you expect two things. One, it will be different from other usual Tamil Masalas and it will make you to think when you come out of the theatre. Dasavatharam did achieve both.

One Man. 10 roles. One mega blockbuster with a insipid message woven. How many of the movies in Tamil have come so far which speaks about the future, scientific theories, extinctions, theism, religions….you can number it easily. This movie speaks everything.

From the anti-christ symbol in the head after his first injury to the skeleton woven hand tied to the big statue in the last scene, the movie is full of symbolisms. Even Robert Langdon will take some time to figure out things. And the names of each character, uff, Kamal has made a scoop of sorts. You can see only the names of Narayana Avatars as the names except for George Bush (a little research would even put him inside the naming convention).

From the initial “Om Namo Narayana” of Rangarajan Nambi to the atheism of Govind, he discusses the length and breadth of religion.

From the simple refraction coming in to play when Chris shoots Yuga in the tub to the complex butterfly effect in the last scene, he has spoken more science than a school teacher. My school physics teacher would be one of the happiest person to see the movie.

The different mannerisms he showed for each character was so admirable. The innocence of Kalifullah, the gait and the eyes of Shingen Narahasi, the lifted shoulders of Poovarahan, the shorter Krishnaveni Paati, the actions of Avatar Singh, the style and accent of Chris Fletcher ( I got reminded of two people, Robert Patrick of Terminator and Ajith in Billa…Dunno why) and above all my favorite Balram Naidu, he was simply superb ( Sir can talk 5 languages in telegu).

The supporting cast was carefully chosen too. You can see why MS Bhaskar is in demand now a days, Dance master Balram as the assistant to Balram naidu, Nagesh and KR Vijaya as the muslim couple, Poet Kabilan as the assistant to Poovaragan was a surprise and the best was Jayaprada. Wow , what a couple they were. It was nostalgia of sorts. ( How can you forget Salangai Oli)….

Now the Negatives

1.Asin, she was a literal irritation in the movie. Her character could have been better. She is shown as naive which was intended to be innocent.

2.Mallika Sherawat, a wasted stuff. May be could have increased the role. Although her personality suits for a vamp, some one like Ramya Krishnan would have been even better.

3.The most hyped make up in some places, Kalifullah and Chris looked similar. A lesser make up like Poovaragan was more appealing than Kalifullah. The hair of Shingen didn’t suit at all.

4.The most hyped CG, there were some hiccups like the frames were easily identifiable during Kalifullah Scenes. If time was the constraint, they could have taken some more months. We would have definitely waited for it. But it was better than lot other flying saucers in Tamil Movies.

5.The music was a big let down. Except for Kallai Mattum and to some extent Oh, Sanam others were not worth mentioning. Do we really need Himesh Reshammaiya for Tamil? And the back ground score was even more pathetic (Devi Sri Prasad). Kamal why not Ilaiyaraja for these kind of movies, he would have given a superb lift to the movie.

6.The Director could have said and explained the places where the incidents are happening in more detailed way. We had to identify and clarify for every place of action. May be he left it for us to find.

My favourite Characters : Chris Fletcher ( because of his attitude, the small 3 year old tiny tot near my home is calling “Patrick Anna” every time she sees him), Balram Naidu (just because of his sheer presence), Shingen Narasi – one of the best enacted characters by Kamal.

My Favourite Dialogue: Chris: Remember Hiroshima?
Shingen: Remember Pearl harbor?

It happens during the final stunt sequence. But only 4 people in the theatre laughed for it.

Rating : 4/5 Stars for Kamal.

Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na – Why it happens only in movies?

Will it be possible to make a hindi movie

1. Without popular heroines wearing skimpy black dresses and dancing to repeated tunes?

2. Without a love making scene?

3. Without crap called comedies – Priyadarshan types (one of my favorites becoming one of the worst)?

4. Without Himesh hooting his “ooooo” from his nose and Pritam like music directors copying tunes from International Music?

5. Without the Heroes uttering one liners as if they are James Bond and Ethan Hunt?

The answer can be yes only when producers like Aamir and script writers like Abbas Tyrewala join hands.

Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na is not as innovative as Taare Zameen Par nor it is rule breaking like Chak De India even it is not as extravagant as Om Shanti Om but the beauty lies in the simplicity of the movie. Its a very simple love story between true friends who don’t seem to understand that they are made for each other while everybody around them thinks they are.

But why it is brilliant if it’s so simple? All big things come in small packages. ( Even i am a small guy in height). The whole packaging is so good that you definitely relate to any one of the characters in the movie.

The story starts like this a group of friends with a new date of one of their friends are en-route to Airport to receive two of their close friends. The new girl is weary about the group because they are naughty, playful and never serious. But they start off to tell a story to her with a condition if its boring she will stop. And hence starts the story of Jai (Rats) and Aditi (Cats). Two close friends, so close that their parents think that they are going to marry. But Jai and Aditi don’t think so. They both start the pursuit of finding pairs for each other. Jai finds Meghna ( I have seen her in a Tamil movie, have I?), who doesn’t want to come to reality because she finds reality more harsh because of her parents. Aditi gets engaged to “High end fashionable dude” Shushant. Jai at last realizes that  his love resides in Aditi and not Meghna. The movie ends in a dramatic airport sequence.

It may seem simple but the whole beauty of the movie lies in the supporting cast and not the lead characters. The lovable parents of Aditi, Boms and Rotlu, who initially are in love with Jai and Aditi fall for each other ( Cute..), matured Shaleen and the joker “ Jiggy”. Jai’s mom character enacted by Ratna Pathak Shah is just wonderful. The cameos by Arbaaz and Sohail as Jai’s cousins is funny and fantastic. Meghna makes you to think about the fighting parents. These characters make the movie more lively, engaging and entertaining.

After a long time i like Rahman’s compositions, Jaane Tu Yu Jaane Na in his voice has a 70’s western feel and Kabhi Kabhi just goes in to your soul like a cupid’s arrow. Jaane do of both Aditi and Jai haunts you. I found from internet that the lyrics are written by Abbas himself and it shows why. You have to hear the songs with the picturisation, you will just fall in love with them.

Imran is a wonderful find. I think he should try something different from his uncle to reduce his influence. But he is more better than the recent dynasty launches. He will be rated along the sides of Neil Nitin Mukesh…

Genelia is in her own tailor made role. I think she will slowly get in to the groove of portraying similar roles and she will became the same like what she acts. ( Or is she like that in reality too..). But it will be different for the bollywood fans, who are bored watching skimpy heroines, who can’t act.

What i didn’t like in the movie?

1. The unwanted episode of Paresh Rawal, although it helps for the final scene.

2. The repeated episodes of dream, don’t we need only a few to establish his Rathore Parampara.

3. The BGM score of Rahman, he had some of his old tunes as the BGMs in the final scenes ( A few traces), he is not as soulful as his songs in his BGM. I am yet to see a masterpiece BGM from him ( Something on the lines of Mouna Ragam Nayagan for Ilai).

Now my favorite characters: Two people. One Naseerudin Shah – Jai’s Father ( he steals the show even if he is in a portrait), you should watch the movie and you will end up surprised like me. The second one aditi’s brother ( Amit?), he is interesting, the way he says that he didn’t leave her but she  left him alone was just moving.

My Favourite Scene(s): The two kissing scenes, one when Aditi realizes that she is not able to take when Meghna kisses Jai, the other one when Jai realizes his possessiveness as Shushant kisses  Aditi.

Will it be possible for anyone to see his or her loved one being kissed by another person? Thats painful.

Rating: 4/5 just because it made me to sing Jaane Tu ya Jaane Naa along with Jai in the final scene.

P.S. why the title, it definitely happens only in movies. We always wait for Mr.Gordot ( a person who will not come for ever, google it for more info.), and we never realize the right one sitting beside us. When we realize, its already too late.

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