With a lot of media hype going
on, about Kamal Hassan celebrating 50 years of filmdom, I feel a compulsion
within myself to express my admiration for this great versatile actor, of whom
I have been a great fan since my childhood. I think it is just my way of paying
my tribute.
It is such a delight to see so
many people, from different walks of life, showering praises on him, at this
milestone year of his career. This handsome, dynamic and ever youthful actor, has always deserved a Oscar, but has not even
one to his credit, till date. Yet he is not demotivated. He keeps trying. He is
innovative. He works on new ideas. He wants to bring the latest in world cinema
to the tamil audience. His movie “Vikram”, was the nearest to James Bond movie
in tamil film industry, those days. A man of bold attempts, who does not get
bogged down by criticism and does not fly too high on praise. He knows the
balance. He is a man, who is so passionate about his choosen career – cinema. It
would not be high sounding if I say, he eats cinema, sleeps cinema, breathes
cinema.
Cinema has been a very powerful
medium, for ages, much before television crept in. His movies have influenced
people greatly, not only by the different hair styles he keeps or the fashionable
dresses he wears, but by the variety of roles he plays.
Kamal has not been just a role model
to many, but many roles he has played in his films are worth being modelled. I personally, have been greatly influenced
by his films. I would not hesitate to say that my life, has been greatly
moulded by this silver screen hero. To start with, I aspired to do a MBA
abroad, after seeing his movie “Thoongaathe Thambi Thoongaathae”, wherein he
plays the role of a foreign return. His movie “Unnal Mudiyum Thambi” triggered
the natural instinct in me to do something good for my society. “Thevar Magan”
was yet another film, which reinforced my beliefs of living and doing good for
my home town. “Anbae Sivam” was a classic portrayal of good human relationship.
There are many such films, but these movies in particular have created a real
life impact, on me. Some of the values
that are deeply rooted in me, has got to do something with the morals, I
imbibed from his films.
In real life too, there are so
many qualities I have admired in him. He was the first person in the cinema
industry, who had all his fan clubs converted into service clubs. No matter how
good these clubs serve, I am sure his intentions were good. He propogates the
cause of blood donation and organ donation, by being a living example. He is a
full body donor. He practices what he preaches.
He is a perfectionist. You can
see perfection, in the role he plays. I have heard that he spends a lot of
time, observing people, whose role he is about to play. Like, if he has to play
the role of a mentally handicapped person, he spends several days watching
mentally ill people, their actions, re-actions, physical movement etc. Many a
times, he criticizes himself, for his own flaws , which I think is a great quality, that has taken him so close to
be a perfectionist.
Inspite of all his greatness, he
is so humble. I had the opportunity of meeting him in a cinema shooting, when I
was in my college days. He was shooting for the movie, “Sathya”. I shook hands with him, but I had no words to
say. I was just spell bound when I saw the shadow image in reality. It is the
awe feeling, anyone of us feel when we meet someone, who we have admired from a far distance.
I don’t know whether it is
befitting to call him a “Universal Hero”, as he is fondly called by his fans.
But undoubtedly, he is a hero Tamil Cinema can be proud of in this century, not
just for his acting skills, but also for the technological innovations, by
which he has taken Tamil Cinema to global standards.
Happy Birthday, Kamal. I wish you
live many more years and keep giving more meaningful movies, to tamil cinema.
Happy Reading
D.Senthil Kannan
Article dated Nov'09
