Master of the Arts III – The Crazy Kamal Connection

“When I look back, sometimes, I wonder if I was pretentious trying to make all those message oriented movies. I have no such illusions today. I am here to entertain people and all I will do is just that!”

This is the essence of his career – chequered with fantasies and social satire, thrillers and screwball comedies, romance and science fiction – an enriching albeit long journey of 54 years that has been filled with excitement and disappointment, glimpses of abyss and heights of applause – an abstract origami of past, present and the future – a haiku of hard work, humor and experimentation unfolded.

Two is a team
Kamal Haasan has a peculiar pickiness when it comes to acting. His fetish of experimenting with his looks, his inflexibility towards some people, making them feel insecure, inadequate, or threatened – and his bias towards some others, etc.

K.Balachander, K.Vishwanath, K.S Ravikumar, Mani Ratnam, Suresh Krisna and Singeetham Srinivasa Rao are a few directors who tried showing, exploring, and experimenting with the innate restlessness of Kamal to his satisfaction. Singeetham, not unlike K.Vishwanath, has Kamal completely in control and that is a rare thing for Kamal.

Singeetham and Kamal actually go back sometime. Their relationship started in Mumbai and grew in Chennai over a series of discussions and brainstorming sessions. Two thinkers – burning with an incessant desire to rewrite the movie making history with innovation – travelling on the uncharted lands of creativity, were levitated by their passion for cinema. They wanted to make a different movie – a trend setter – and ended up making “sommokoDadidi sOkokaDidi”, a trend setter in its own way.

Sommokadidhi Sokokadidhi – The cheque is yours and the meal is mine
Twins, one wise and the other otherwise, changing places, comedy of errors, dons, dens, family shackled, goons tackled, good prevails, group photo!

WTF, this story has been made hundred times. What’s the big deal about this particular movie? In fact Rajesh Khanna acted in a remake of this very movie (Hum Dono). So, what makes this SS of SSR so special?

Singeetham! Kamal! Jandhyala! These are the three names that made all the difference. Singeetham at helm was already famous for his subtle sense of humor as it was sampled by the viewers of his previous movies. This was his first full length comedy and he did take it seriously. Enter Jandhyala – the wittiest Telugu writer that was ever born – and Kamal – the excited molecule in the whole equation. What’s the result? Two and a half hours of non-stop slapstick.

Aakasham nee haddu ra, avakaasam vadaloddura – you are right dude, sky is the limit, and leave no opportunity go in vain!

An Urban Legend – During the shoot one day the camera that was used for shooting Kamal in slo-mo gave some unexpected trouble. Singeetham was not happy. Kamal called Singeetham aside and said “I think I have a workaround, just go and ask for the take using the regular speed” and so did the director. The director shouted “action“, camera was rolling in speed, and Kamal then did a slo-mo move – a perfect slow motion run while the camera was running at 24fps. The crew were ecstatic – the hero really saved the day! Rest of the scenes were shot using the speed cam when the glitch got fixed. Singeetham later dared his friends, while previews, to find out the shot in which Kamal did his “move”. Of course, no one could.

Rajapaarvai – Amavasya Chandrudu
A blind musician falls in love with a beautiful girl. The girl’s father doesn’t like this situation, but his father (girl’s grandfather) blesses the couple, and they both, somehow, live happily ever after. Is that all? Hell, NO! Amazing screenplay, futuristic edits, heavenly BGMs, and never-seen-before camera shots – backed by a powerful and a really hatke screenplay by Kamal Haasan (his first) the film was a technically futuristic feast to eyes, ears and soul. In an era when traditional techniques were ruling the roost in south, this movie ushered in a whiff of freshness and showed how technique could really help the story. A new genre took shape in the history of South Indian Cinema.

Being Kamal’s 100th movie, and with all the big names associated – Singeetham at helm, Ilaiyaraja as the MD, Kamal scripting, producing, and playing the blind protagonist, Madhavi playing his lover, Chandrahaasan acting as her father, and the legendary L.V.Prasad playing the role of her grand father – this movie was released amidst very high expectations.

First day – the adrenalin rush – excited fans – young men, college girls, and of course the Kamal Fans Association members throng the theaters in Tamil Nadu, in hundreds, expecting some crazy Kamal-ish antics.

Shows beings – Kamal is blind (oh no!), Madhavi look sexy (good, keep the fires burning), L.V Prasad is awesome (long live, old man), Chandrahassan sucks (take your black humor and shove it! We don’t want to think.), Ilaiyaraja plays his classical best (Hmm. What’s with this cocktailing man? Give us western or give us classical) and Singeetham has a new stylized technique (now, tell the story already) – show ends.

And the fans ask, “WTF was that“?

But that was 25 years ago (1981).

Oh! How they would enjoy this master piece, if they could watch the movie now!

Ilaiyaraja’s celestial compositions – picking a classical raaga – carnatic style – starting with a solo Violin and then adding a Sitar and then a Mrudhangam and later a tabla – then slowly sneaking in a Synthesizer and then a Bass Guitar and suddenly, before you even realize it, Thyaragaja meets Mozart and the carnatic meta-morphs into western classical, and then again, with a sleight of the hand, Mozart hands over the baton to Thyagaraja and the explosive rock is re-morphed into carnatic music again. All this in two minutes. Thalaivaa! aNDruM, inDruM, enDruM, neenga nijamAva maestro dAn!

The songs… Andhimazhai – the musical showers, Azhagey Azhagu – the sensual shivers, the BGMs in every scene, the camera, the smart edits – the movie would be a blockbuster hit if it’s released today!

Let me try to give you a sample of the genius that Singeetham (and Kamal) has shown in this movie.

Scene – The girl has a prescheduled rendezvous – to meet her blind lover. However her Dad doesn’t leave until it’s about time – she cannot step out until he leaves. Dad leaves for airport and the girl rushes out to meet her lover at their “spot”. How did Singeetham shoot this scene?

Shot – Madhavi is in the frame behaving like she’s on drugs, with the mental energy of a road runner or an E2 Bunny, at a super speed – in the same frame are her father and others shown in slow motion. Dad is delaying his depature and the speed frame on Madhavi’s side perfectly captures her impatience and restlessness – dad finally leaves to the airport. Madhavi sees him from the balcony, boarding a cab, grand father is next to her, the taxi carrying her dad takes a turn around the corner of the street, she disappears from the frame. The BGM – a single theme musical bit will be playing in slow tempo and other set of instruments in normal speed capturing the contrast in the sense of urgency felt by various characters in the frame. One word – awesome!

I still remember the bit in one of the songs where Kamal starts sketching a landscape and slowly, oh so slowly, the landscape on the canvass is in the frame and is being transformed into the actual location – with Ilaiyaraja the great playing notes that pluck at your heart strings – got to be seen to be believed. And all this was 25 years ago!

[Next Related Post: The Crazy Kamal Connection II - Pushpak & More]

BTW, I am going back for another date with destiny – my next post will be online some time next week – hopefully