Kamal Haasan: The Ride

Well, it is a well-known fact that Kamal Haasan is a heck of an actor. Say that he is not, not only will the fans make an enemy out of you, with proper prodding Kamal himself will gleefully point out the awards that he won (in one YouTube video, we see his award lined up by the window, they way you line up toy soldiers…it’s that casual, and that many…he has a battalion of award trophies and plaques, end of story).

What makes Kamal as an actor so arresting to the Tamil film watching public’s eyes is not so much his appearances, many of which involving various statuses of his facial hair, not his good looks (he was Kathal Ilavarasan, prince of love remember.  It was quite a ride with him, and we all went along with it.

Despite growing up as a hardcore Kamal Haasan fan, only mellowing when I become hardcore fan of Sivaji Ganesan instead, I was left in the wilderness somewhere between Hey Ram and post Alavandhan recoiling. I was somewhat angry with him.

Hey Ram was a great technical achievement. But I couldn’t relate to the film. We always want to be with him for a ride wherever he goes. But with Hey Ram, I felt that he was hanging around with the crowd, in a place that I rather not be with or in. I felt like Superman watching the awesomeness of Kryptonite.

I stayed away and became vary of what he was going to do next.

Thankfully, some comedies softened me up and I was back as a fan, except the Dasavatharam fiasco (for me, because I just couldn’t dig the latex) that felt like he was trying too hard to be Peter Sellers. The trouble is, as much as Sellers was an awesome star (his radio work is more powerful, trust me), Kamal Haasan was in a completely different league. Kamal was indeed a mix and match of Chaplin, Sellers, Brando, de Niro, and Montgomery Clift, to a certain extent.

I would like to bring your attention to the latter. I only discovered him rather later, and I was surprised how much his performance resembled Kamal’s own during his early years before he started doing Jackie Chan from ToonggathE Thambi Toonggathe. Clift was a sensitive new age man way before there was new age and guys ever got sensitive.

And so was Kamal. Witness the films he did with K. Balachander, climaxing with NinaittAlE Inikkum. And later, we get to see glimpses of it in the likes of Vazhvey Mayam, Kathal Parisu, portions of Nayagan, and (full-fledge) in Guna, perhaps the most powerful romantic film ever in Tamil film industry and features my favourite Kamal Haasan performance.

He has the ability to truly get into our skin with his soulful eyes, with the Chaplin-esque “eyebrows raised towards the centre” puppy-dog look melted our heart and soul. When he smiles, we delight in it…when he cries, brother, get that entire Kleenex box on standby mode, please.

Sure, Sivaji Ganesan can take you on an emotional roller-coaster ride, as do his rightful successor in terms of physical presence, Rajinikanth. But Kamal’s emotion can enlighten you, engage you, engross and fervently traumatise. By the end of some very winning films he had done, you are drained emotionally. In the very early 80s Deepavali, at a small-town theatre, my brothers and I sobbed uncontrollably after watching Vazhvey Mayam. And as an adult, when properly fuelled during my alcoholic days, I would cry a bucket, almost literally watching the ending of Guna, any part of Nayagan, most of Sippikkul Muthu…and even the Neelavanam song in the insipid Manmathu Anbu drew tears out of my eyes.

The latter actually has nothing to do with the film itself. I suddenly felt vary that he was singing the song to us, the fans. It was a love song for us, telling us that time is passing by and we are not getting any younger. I know that this has nothing to do with the lyrics, but that is the message I get out of that song. There is a goodbye in it, though actual goodbye is not going to happen in decades.

But it somewhat told me that Kamal is now entering an entirely different phase. The glory that was the Kamal Haasan post Kalattoor Kannama till then was over. We saw glimpses of the genius filmmaker Kamal throughout the journey. We are now going to see it in full, in completeness that it may not be what we had hoped.

As I mentioned in my other articles, Kamal is not a fan’s star. As much as Rajinikanth is a very powerful actor, he still caters to the audience. Kamal runs his own race. You like it or you loath it. If the product is bad, most loyal fans swallow it and wash it down with water. In my case, I just feel bitter about it till he comes out with a better product.

Yes, I always forget…he is not a fan’s star. He is not even a director’s actor…his interference, whether they worked, friendly, co-operative or not, is legendary. He writes his own rules, and we are to accept it. There’s an auteur in him, but he knows well that he is not going to run away with what he has and what he can pull out of thin air. And we may or not like it.

This what makes my on, off and on-again fan relationship with him so intriguing. He was my first love as a cinema star. I may have moved on and call Clint Eastwood as my Talaivar, but Kamal was there first…ever since I was smitten by his performance as Kalyanam and Raman back when I was even too young to remember the film.

My love for him and his performance is firmly rooted in my adolescent years, and the only time it will perish is when I do. Till then, I am going to continue to enjoy my on and off relationship with him. That what makes my fandom of his very special, and different from other stars I admire and adore…it has proprietorship in it. We feel we own him, and he feels he doesn’t owe us. In between is his artistic struggle and the pain that comes out of it what makes his body of work intriguing…and we will never fall out of love with him.

Happy belated birthday Kamal Haasan ji. Oh…we love you so, so much no matter what!