Kamal Hassan’s latest – the 10 avathars crosses a legal hurdle
I had decided to write only about movies that have been released in PFC. For I thought building up hype of any sort for an upcoming release is in some ways a critical injustice to a work of art that opinionates the minds of a section of audience. However I take an exception in the case of Kamal’s “Dasavathaaram” (or the 10 avathars put in English). The movie has been plagued by controversies starting from who scores the music to alleged plagiarism case against the movie in Madras High Court by a little known Assistant director Senthil Kumar. The case was dismissed by the High Court and Kamal Hassan has reacted to the news. His reaction has been commented upon in blog circles. Here is the link of one Kamal fan. http://soonapaana.blogspot.com
It is a pity that an artist like Kamal is being sidelined continuously and his every release has to go through such problems. Right from moral policing to language policing and cultural policing, every Kamal release faces some problem or the other. When are people going to learn to respect the greatness of an artist like Kamal Hassan and give him space to make movies freely? If this is what Kamal hassan has to face everytime, then what is the state of new and aspiring directors who want to tell a story without compromise? Though Kamal has won the case this time, he had to sacrifice the secrecy which guarded his story. Now a section of audience that might have come to the theatres to watch the movie to know the story might never turn up thinking that it is not of interest to them. This in one way explains why I want to write about this movie ahead of its release to raise the interest on the movie.
May cultural censorship on movies die ahead of the abolishment of actual censorship – a tragedy that has reduced an interesting movie on Rajiv Gandhi assasination – “Kutrap pathirikkai” to a movie that has a beginning , an end but a whole lot missing in between. A whopping 174 cuts to a movie!!! what is left to tell if 174 cuts are made to a movie? Every true work of art trying to touch subjects like politics, religion and actual facts is standing on the chopping blocks of officers and self proclaimed “cultural protectors” in addition to attention seekers who seek publicity by filing false petitions on genuine work of art.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
For someone who is honest, committed to what he does, very much dedicated to cinema and frank in his words, he is struggling in an otherwise fickle-minded TFI.
While Kamalahaasan’s talent as an actor and filmmaker is obviously noteworthy, let us also take into consideration the disgustingly loose structure of Indian law pertaining to intellectual property rights. A man like Kamalahaasan has money and resources to hire a top-of-the-line lawyer to argue his case in court, whereas as a Senthil Kumar can barely even afford a rookie lawyer. Add to that a loosely written law that can easily dismiss similiarites between two scripts based on a simple difference of a few pages and character names and/or setting. In that environment, what chance does a Senthil Kumar have to argue his case? I obviously do not know the entire truth but it’s just a little premature to side with Kamalahaasan because of his stature as an actor and filmmaker. He has made original films, and at the same time a lot of his good films have also been blatant remakes. Case in point, Avvai Shanmughi (Mrs. Doubtfire), Anbe Sivam (Planes Trains & Automobiles – heavily inspired, some scenes even directly lifted), Thenali (What About Bob?), Kuruthipunal (legal remake of Droh Kaal), Vasool Raja MBBS (legal remake of Munnabhai MBBS). So I wouldn’t necessarily dismiss the possibility of Senthil Kumar actually being on to something here. Kamalahaasan’s narcissistic personality is no secret. The court may have ruled in his favor, but coming back to the structure of how loosely intellectual property is protected in Indian courts, the court’s decision doesn’t really mean much.
Vijay,
I agree with you that some of Kamal’s movies have been “inspired”. We can debate on the level and nature of these remakes till all the cows come back. However, the case in point being the fact that some one like Senthil Kumar whom according to you might not have access to top notch legal talent at his disposal goes to court and files a petition. It is just simple fact that the judgement was delivered after reading both the scripts that were submitted (Yes, thanks to the case, now the scene by scene screenplay of Kamal’s movie is out). After comparing the scripts, the judges have taken this decision and I wonder how the presence of a hot shot lawyer can alter course of justice in such a matter as to compare the scripts of a movie. Probably a top notch lawyer could have delayed, but never have twisted the ultimate decision. The very basic truth is that the attempt was actually to delay the release of the much awaited movie by Kamal and nothing else.
“Kamalahaasan
“Senthil Kumar can barely even afford a rookie lawyer.”
Wow, now you are assuming things. Why such a strong bias against Kamal Haasan?
Industry rats backed Senthil kumar because they are prejudiced against Kamal. You overlooked that and strongly criticized him.
“a loosely written law that can easily dismiss similiarites between two scripts based on a simple difference of a few pages and character names and/or setting. In that environment,”
Vijay, the plot was read out by the Judge and the media published it.
Vijay,
Senthil couldn’t afford a lawyer but he did get one! See??? Now, how could he do that?
Did you read the judgement? did you know that Senthil was a post-holind member of a Rajini Rasigar Mandram? Do you mean to say Kamal Haasan lied about a particular ’screenwriter’ approaching Oscar Ravi and the involvement of 3 industry ‘doyens’ in this? So, we’ve got to believe your word against Kamal’s? Wow, you are something!
Some people think that Kamal tries to hog all the limelight and occupy the screen totally. This is a myth and totally untrue. The only fact is that Kamal the creator (screenplay and script writer) has been quite neutral. Just that the detractors are so glued to his face that they forget the rest of the cast. There was this criticism on his Hey Ram that he ate up all the screen space. If a movie is all about one individual’s thoughts and emotions, then a film will have only that person’s presence in every frame. It is something unavoidable. On the contrary if th movie is about events in which the central character is not a participant, then we can show others in more wholesome perspective. The fact is that in many movies Kamal has let his co actors steal his thunder totally. given below are some instances.
1. Nasser and Sivaji in Thevar Magan. Kamal’s Sakthi Thevar character is in many situations caught with nothing to say before the characters of Periya thevar(played by sivaji) and Maaya thevar (Nasser). Nasser (not to be confused with Naseer of Hindi cinema) stole the limelight in the panchayat and climax scenes, while Sivaji was the paper weight for the first half. Kamal’s character seems understated and underplayed till the climax.
2. Nasser once again stole the limelight along with Arjun in Droh Kaal’s Thamizh adaptation “Kurudhip punal”. Nasser’s role as Badri the corrupt naxal leader is still one of the feared villain portrayals in Thamizh film history. Till the “Shoot me my boy” climax Kamal’s character seems to simply amble along leaving performing and awe capturing to the talented nasser and Arjun.
3. In Hey Ram Atul Kulkarni and Naseeruddin Shan as Shriram Abhayankar and Mahatma Gandhi occupy some of the most intriguing and thought provoking screen spaces in Indian Film history. In the first half, after the “hunt” that follows Saket’s wife’s murder, Atul Kulkarni starts stealing the limelight playing a Maharashtrian hindu fundamentalist to the T. In the climax, it was Naseer playing the chirpy and talkative Mahatma who brings clarity to the troubled mind of Saket (played by Kamal). I am leaving out Shah rukh khan’s Amjad out of the equation to be judged by everyone else if Kamal was narcisstic to hog the limelight all for himself.
4. In the comedy movie Tenali( adaptation of All About Bob – uncredited), Jayaram(Malayalam actor) as the troubled psychiatrist had all the best lines and humorous scenes while Kamal was a bumbling slapstick in the same movie.
5. Last but not the least, Nagesh, easily the best character actors in India in a ten minute scene in “Nammavar” gobbled up all other actors in that movie. Kamal was simply standing and watching in that helluva 10 minutes!! What a performance by Nagesh!!!
Note that Atul Kulkarni and Nagesh won the “best supporting actor” national awards for their performances. In a strange coincidence, When nagesh won the award, Ashish Vidyarthi shared the award with him for “Droh Kaal”. The next year Kamal remade Droh Kaal and gave the meaty “award winning” role to Nasser. All thamizh weeklies and magazines wrote that it was Nasser’s movie all the way!!
Blame him( Kamal) for anything but not for narcissm as he has been one actor who has introduced many a talented actors to Thamizh film industry giving them the right recognition.
I have left out the role of Kothala thevar essayed by an energetic Pasupathi out of this list as i thought these five instances are more than enough to prove the generosity of Kamal towards his co stars.
Madhavan in Anbe Sivam seals the argument.
Moreover Atul kulkarni’s and SRK’s interviews can shed some light into this issue. This is one form of injustice that Kamal had to face all his life. The point is, he has no time for narcissism. If you interpret it that way, he would be the first person to feel bad about it.
Vijay,
1) “He has made original films, and at the same time a lot of his good films have also been blatant remakes. Case in point, Avvai Shanmughi (Mrs. Doubtfire), Anbe Sivam (Planes Trains & Automobiles – heavily inspired, some scenes even directly lifted)”
Those were not *remakes*. Why? Well, there’s this little thing called ’screenplay’ which nullifies that accusation (i’m not even talking about the plots).
2) Innocent until proven guilty is the judiciary mantra but in your case, it seems to be guilty even after being proved innocent
3) Narcissism: Jaiganes and Kumar have clinched it leaving no room for doubt whatsoever. Moreover, pairing up with Kovai Sarala hardly seems narcissistic to me. Neither does letting Pasupathy walk all over him in the super-dud Mumbai Xpress. Still, let’s take another look at it. Let’s assume (or interpret, rather), for argument’s sake that Kamal IS narcissistic. What is showbiz all about? Are other actors doing a social service by acting? Are they reluctant to get applause and credit for their acting? Are they doing it at gun-point? Or, in other words, which actor is NOT narcissistic? A ‘hero’ who spouts sexist ‘crap’ dialogues in film after film gets appreciated for “being magnanimous to give Ramyakrishnan a character like that”, while actually the character in question is a regressive one. Another wannabe ’star’ is even more sexist in his films and he is lauded for being the darling of “family audience” and “ladies”. And why does it become a crime only with Kamal even if his characters are not sexist and he (mostly) doesn’t mouth camera-facing “punch” dialogues?
What does that have to do with this case anyway?
Phew, nalla maattikittaaru Kaml saar namma makkal kitta
Vijay: please read up details of the judgement before coming up with prejudiced theories.
I’m not debating Kamal’s talent here at all. I have been one of his biggest fans since as far back as I can remember, and still am. He is one of the few who dares to be different, but at the same time, as I have said, he has openly taken ideas from other sources.
Now, I get that you are all obviously fans of the great actor. I am really interested in getting your point of view on Kamal’s films that have ripped ideas or scenes from other films. Again, this is not to say that he has not brought his own to the films. Avvai Shanmughi is still a classic. No doubt. But if he takes an idea like the plot and does not credit the source, is that something we can condone? So on those lines, I was trying to have a debate on the Senthil Kumar issue. He may have submitted a script to Kamal’s office. Kamal may have loved the idea, but not the script. So based on that idea he may have written his own script and started shooting, but not credited Senthil Kumar for the idea. Again, I am not making any claims here. I am just curious and keen to have a debate on whether an act like that is justified or not. Legally within the parameters of Indian law, he has done nothing wrong. But is it ethical?
Again, let me reiterate, this is not an attempt to malign Kamal or anything. Just trying to get multiple points of view on an issue that in the future can affect any budding filmmaker looking to sell his script to a reputed production house.
multiple pts of view n debates?? i doubt u will gt tat in a pro kamal forum. its a kamal lovefest.
hi srinivasan,
why dont you open new POVs and the third front here?
Vijay , I appreciate your sincerity in opening up the angles in this case. For your kind info, if any film maker has a script and sense, the person would go to South Indian Chamber of Film Commerce and register his/her script and then sell it to big production houses.I am not able to beleive that this Senthil Kumar does not have money to register his script, but all resources to file a petition against the mighty Oscar Ravichandran and Kamal Hassan.
Though you have explained why you think Senthil might have a point in this case, conjoining your supportive statements, you have accused Kamal of “Narcissm”. You haven’t explained this yet. If you can explain, then we can compare other film makers and off course international films on their “Narcisstic” content.
When I spoke of narcissism, I was saying that the impression one gets from watching a Kamal movie is that more often than not, everything in the film is always about him. Even if he hires another director, there is a lot of talk that he tries to take over and ghost direct a film. Again, I wouldn’t call it an accusation on my part, and my comment was poorly worded, and my apologies for that. What I said was based on hearsay from stories regularly circulated like the Gautham Menon-Kamalahaasan tiff during Vettayadu Vilayadu, or the Shantanu Sheorey walkout of Chachi 420, and some personal conversations I have had with numerous people who have worked with him before who all seem to have similar opinions. I shoudl have clarified that better. And from what I have heard, he has a habit of taking credit for other people’s ideas. Again, it may just be a case of sour grapes, but there is never any smoke without fire, and all I was trying to say is, taking that side of the reputation also into consideration, we cannot simply dismiss Senthil Kumar’s claim. I have been in a similar situation with certain reputed filmmakers before which is why one some level, there is cause for me to lend an ear to the lesser-known Assistant Director despite being a Kamalahaasan fan.
And you can ignore Srinivasan. I know who he is. He works in my office and hates Kamalahaasan with a passion. Do not get him started please.
daiii…enna sollanumo nerla vandhu sollu! the guy looks like he’s crying when he laughs and looks like hs laughing when he cries. and he pisses me off when he just stammers pretending tats realistic acting.
Ok cool Vijay.
I disregard srinivasan’s comments.
As far as ghost directing is concerned, i guess it is true. As far as taking credit for other people’s ideas is concerned, I have some disagreement there. Anyways, if you feel that Senthil Kumar has a genuine bonafide case then it is your opinion, but I would feel happy if you could present some facts. I posted the news because there was a script that was read out and decision taken by judges and that should count for something. Probably this decision itself could be a precedence in deciding such things preventing people from plagiarizing and poaching other ppl’s ideas.
The law is the law, and the decision has been made. It’s not my place to say whether the AD had a bona fide case because I don’t know the truth. None of us do, except those directly involved in the dispute. This is all mere speculation. I guess, I’m not trying get into the specifics of the case necessarily, but talk more on a generic level. I was trying to use the different possibilities in this case to see whether a lesser known writer who submits a script to a big banner for consideration is really protected under the current law. You did clearly mention that he had the option of registering the script with the South Indian Chamber of Film Commerce. Similarly in Bombay too, there is a writer’s union where one can do the same. But the legal parameters are still loose. There are ridiculous clauses like if a certain amount of pages don’t match, if character names, the setting etc are different, it is treated as a brand new script of its own. So it’s a catch-22 situation for aspiring writers. Do they openly market their screenplays or should they be worrying about their idea being adapted into a different screenplay without receiving credit for it?
“None of us do, except those directly involved in the dispute. This is all mere speculation”
- Correction. WE do
What YOU are doing is speculation. Please don’t call a high court judgement as ’speculation’.
Forget all this –
1) Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu’s audio release function was held in Feb/March 2006. Senthil Kumar says he submitted the script to Kamal in June 2006 (if my memory serves me right. Correct me if i’m wrong). In that function, Kamal publicly mentioned to writer Sujatha that he was kick-starting Dasavatharam (the project had to wait because of delays in VV release). Now, why do i say this? Even before this incident, Sujatha had written about Dasavatharam’s in a Tamil magazine saying he was working with Kamal on its script.
2) Senthil never spoke to or met Kamal as he claimed. He just had spoke to (or corresponded with) one Mr.Murali, who works in the Eldams Road Raajkamal office.
3) While the 2 points mentioned above by themselves do not rule out the possibilty of Kamal using Senthil’s story subsequently (for argument’s sake, again), here’s the clincher – How could Senthil possibly know what Dasavatharam’s story was? Nobody outside the crew could know what the script was. Did he have a copy of Kamal’s script? Did he somehow get it smuggled? Had Kamal ‘narrated’ the script to him? I mean, where’s the case?
4) There is this producer called Kalai Puli S.Dhanu. This is not the first time he has stooped this low to sully Kamal’s image. There are certain things which don’t come out in “websites” which seem to be the Quran for bloggers – ‘the ultimate source’.
5) Gangai Amaran claims Thevar Magan is his script. So? Actor Chandrasekar claimed before Virumaandi was released that Kamal had stolen the story and he even went on to ‘narrate’ the story in detail in one issue of Ananda Vikatan. Of course, it had no resemblance whatsoever to the movie.
[Yes, Kamal has borrowed liberally from the West (and East) no doubt but that's a different issue]
5) DID YOU READ THE COURT JUDGEMENT?
“I was saying that the impression one gets from watching a Kamal movie is that more often than not, everything in the film is always about him”
- Please read Jaiganesh’s and Kumar’s posts on the same. Thank you.
“Even if he hires another director, there is a lot of talk that he tries to take over and ghost direct a film”
Yes and the directors themselves are fine with that
BTW, sorry for the multiple posts
Ok Bala, you are right and I am wrong. Thank you for taking the time to respond.
Jaiganesh I would like to continue this discussion in more detail with you, if that is ok. I think this discussion between the two us is going beyond just this case here, and the issue extends to a more generic level than the specifics of this case. I appreciate that you are willing to lend an ear to the flip side as well. Perhaps we can talk separately via email or in the club.
Vijay ,
I suggest you write a post in PFC on what you feel is the best way for anyone with idea (not just a script) and how to protect it. Coz I too have a lot of ideas and do not have screen writing training or background to write a script or screenplay. Still I would like to exchange ideas and claim ownership to them. As Bala highlighted Kamal uses ideas to write scripts and has never shied in publicly accepting as to where the orginal idea came from. When he translates it to the screen, the treatment you get to see is totally local. For example in Mrs.Doubtfire, you have a scene where Robin williams has to play both the old lady and the actor in the restaurant. The scene is a hilarious one. In Avvai Shanmugi there is no such scene. So Kamal has borrowed the concept of a man transforming to a woman to be close to his estranged family, but does not do frame copy. If you see the actual original idea, it comes from Mahabharath where Arjuna has to be brihanala in Kiingdom of Virata during their secret exile for a period of one year. There is a delightful movie in telugu “Narthaka shaala” on this subject. Similarly the idea of a patient troubling his doctor in “All About Bob” has been adapted (off course without credits) in tenali. However the indianization and screenplay are all 100% original in Tenali. He does do ghost directing and as Bala says, he doesn’t misuse anyone of the directors, be it Singeetham, Santhana Bharathi or PC Sriram. In fact Kurudhip punal was very much a PC sriram film as revealed by Kamal. However as Kamal produces and writes script, screenplay and dialogues in addition to playing the lead, majority of the decisions are done by him. It is very much similar to George Lucas controlling and providing vision to a Star Wars 2 or 3 though the directing credit belongs to some one else. It is very much George Lucas vision executed by some one else. That some one else doesn’t have to feel ashamed or perturbed as it is very much part of the deal that they got themselves into. In South, particularly Thamizh film industry, there is something called “Story Discussion”. What happens there is more interesting as it ranges from watching hollywood DVDs to robbing ideas to creating original ideas. Directors like Bala and Cheran rely on transforming real life incidents into “Stroy knots”, while lesser directors use these sessions to fleece Assistant Directors’ ideas into saleable scripts. Surely Kamal belongs to the former category and therefore he stands vindicated according to me.
I appreciate your response Jaiganesh. Will collect my thoughts and do a post in due time.
@Bala(Karthik) & VPJ,
Dumbstruck. Thanks for the info that most of us don’t know and don’t often speculate
I appreciate Vijay’s concern. But on the hindsight, I feel prolific filmmakers like Kamal are prone to cheapshots backed by people within the industry :o That’s sad [-(
Here’s Kamal’s side of the story about Sheorey:
http://www.screenindia.com/dec19/cover1.htm
What went wrong with Shantanu?
My judgement.
When did you realise this?
After the first five days. In the initial stages I wasn
Where is Shantanu Shorey now?
It would be nice to have his side of the story as well. In South Kamal has always gone ahead and done films free of cost or at reduced price to help talents. He has helped directors like Prabhu Solomon (see his recent film Kokki – pretty good). He might not come across as a very humble man, however you wouldn’t mistake him to be a corrupt man devoid of ehtics either. He has remarked many times that the ethics and devotion that he learnt from Sivaji and Balachander have made him what he is today.
Offcourse let us stop this discussion on one personality here and move forward with what is the real protection for ideas from being plagiarized and film makers put to great ordeals due to false plagiarism claims by spurious entities.
Jaiganesh: Shantanu Shorey, husband of Kimi Katkar?
Have not seen all the films Kamal Hasaan has made in tamil and Telugu. But based on his Hindi adaptation of Mrs Doubtfire, I can say that Chachi 420 is no where less than the original english film. Moreover its not entirely similar to the original and several changes are made in hindi version. That can be done only by a genius.
Only in concept it matches with original but story goes ahead differently and characters are more in Chachi and therefore many events are additionally added.
Its not simple copy to copy remake.
many actors are better than the original e.g, Amarish Puri, Om Puri and Johny Walker and Om Puri’s character is not there in original and Amarish Puri and Johny Walker’s characters are not given any importance in original.
hi to kamal hassan fans kamal is an universal hero and has a great acting performance in the kollywood film i wish him for the next dasavartham and murmyogi to be sucess for his life from babu and kiran from bangalore fans.
You ppl have an awful lot of time to yap !!!