“Acting deals with very delicate emotions. It is not putting up a mask. Each time an actor acts he does not hide; he exposes himselfâ€. Rodney Dangerfield– the greatest actor of Hollywood, sums it all when he says this about an actor. Indeed, Padmashree Kamal Haasan has been carrying the striking appropriateness and pertinence of this quotation.
Marking his debut in 1959 with ‘Kalathur Kannamma’ directed by A. Bimsingh as a child artist, and continued acting in similar roles in the films of MGR, Sivaji Ganeshan and others. All of a sudden, the actor had to take a long break from films to complete his schooling.
He made his comeback as a supporting actor in most of the films directed by his mentor K. Balachandar (Arangetram, Sollathan Ninaikiren and more). He shot to fame more with prominence in ‘Naan Avanillai’ starring Gemini Ganeshan in lead role. Kamal Haasan bagged the first regional Filmfare awards for his spellbinding performance in Malayalam film titled ‘Kanyakumari’. From this point, there hasn’t been any turning back for this legend, as he continually gained more accolades.
Kamal Haasan geared up for new avatar as a producer with his 100th film ‘Raja Parvai’ under the banner of ‘RAJKAMAL PRODUCTIONS’ in 1981. Despites, the film not witnessing great results on box office, it still won him a Filmfare Award. The actor made high waves in Telugu film industry with ‘Maro Charithra’ directed by K. Balachandar that was later remade in Hindi as ‘Ek Duje Ke Liye’. One of his magnetizing flicks of 80s was ‘Moondram Pirai’ directed by cinematographer Balu Mahendra that gained him National Award.
He performed dual role for the first time with ‘Thoongadhe Thambi Thoongadhe’ produced by AVM Productions in 1983.
Later, Kamal Haasan started picking more offers from Bollywood that includes ‘Saagar’ starring alongside Rishi Kapoor. The film gained him couple of Filmfare Awards for ‘Best Actor’ and ‘Best Supporting Actor’ and that was one of his biggest achievements in B-town. He pioneered in conceptualizing ‘SEQUEL’ in Kollywood with ‘Kalyana Raman’ and ‘Japanil Kalyana Raman’.
The actor proved his versatility with top-notch performance in Manirathnam’s ‘Nayagan’ inspired from Hollywood ever-biggest classic ‘God Father’. The film was recommended for Academy Awards for ‘Best Foreign Film’ and was ennobled as ‘One of the best films in World’ by Times Magazine.
In 90s, Kamal Haasan delivered awe-inspiring performance with ‘Thevar Magan’ sharing screen space with veteran actor Sivaji Ganeshan and ‘Guna’. In 1996, he experimented with exceptional film ‘Kuruthipunal’ portraying him as a police officer. For the same year, he won National award for his dual-role performance as father-son ‘Indian’ directed by Shankar. The film was later dubbed in Hindi as ‘Hindustani’ and witnessed good appreciations.
With his earnest attempts of making historical epic ‘Maruthanayagam’ dropping off, Kamal Haasan ventured with ‘Hey Ram’– bilingual film in Hindi and Tamil revolving around the independence era and partition of Indo-Pak. The film featured Shah Rukh Khan alongside Kamal Haasan with Rani Mukherji and Vasundhara Das in female lead roles.
In contrast, his following film ‘Thenali’ was a rib-tickling comedy-entertainer that successfully crossed 175 days in Chennai Box office. The next film ‘Alavandhan’ was again a bilingual film in Tamil and Hindi titled ‘Abhay’ featuring him in dual roles of twin brothers (a psychotic person and military general).
Kamal Haasan continued marking his feat with more commercial entertainers ‘Pammal K Sammadham’, ‘Panchathanthiram’ and ‘Anbe Sivam’. Eventually, he wielded megaphone for a murder-mystery titled ‘Virumaandi’ that won critical acclaims. During the same year 2004, he geared up for the remake of ‘Munna Bhai MBBS’ titled as ‘Vasool Raja MBBS’. His next film ‘Vettaiyadu Vilayaadu’ was a crime-thriller with Gowtham Menon as the director.
Dasavatharam was the biggest of all his achievements, where he performed 10 roles. The film has won him awards on various criteria and indeed termed as milestone in Tamil Cinema.
At the moment, he has completed shooting for his bilingual film ‘Unnai Pol Oruvan’ (Telugu version titled as ‘Eenadu’)– remake of Bollywood blockbuster ‘A Wednesday’. The film is slated to hit the screens by September and Kamal Haasan has already planned for a big budget flick that will start rolling by November.
We convey our heartiest congratulations to Padmashree Kamal Haasan for dedicating his life for film industry, and wish him more success in years to come.
