Kamal@70: The Motto He Believes In

‘Kamal
has
surfed
and
navigated
a
lot
of
tidal
waves,
manoeuvring
the
peaks
and
troughs,
combining
rare
intelligence
and
commonly
available
intuitions
to
overcome
unimaginable
crises
all
his
life.’
‘There
is
no
looking
back
at
the
past,
for
his
only
motto
has
been
‘Tomorrow
belongs
to
us’!’

How
does
the
great
Kamal
Haasan
choose
his
films?

What
makes
him
say
yes
to
a

Vishwaroopam
2
or
a

Vikram?

On
Kamal
Haasan’s
70th
birthday
on
November
7,
we
follow
him
on
his
recent
celluloid
excursions
through
this
fascinating
excerpt
from
K
Hariharan’s
book

Kamal
Haasan:
A
Cinematic
Journey.

Let
us
pause
a
moment
to
locate
Kamal
in
his
journey
through
Tamil
cinema.

In
2013,
he
took
on
the
ambitious
two-part
project
titled

Vishwaroopam
I
where
he
played
Wisam
Ahmed
Kashmiri,
an
Indian
military
agent
delegated
to
eliminate
a
senior
ISIS
leader
to
protect
the
sovereignty
of
a
world
at
severe
risk
of
survival.
Cut.

Before
he
decided
to
don
the
greasepaint
for

Vikram
2
in
2021,
Kamal
did
an
amazing
film
called

Papanasam(Vanquishing
One’s
Sins;
2015),
directed
by
Jiju
Joseph,
where
he
played
an
ordinary
satellite
cable
TV
agent
named
Suyambulingam,
who
accidentally
gets
involved
in
a
murder
and
tries
to
save
himself
and
his
family
from
the
fallout.

This
film
was
a
phenomenal
box
office
hit,
asserting
Kamal’s
capability
to
channelise
a
good
script
into
a
more
superior
form
of
cinema
through
his
convincing
performance.

While

Papanasam
(a
remake
of
the
Malayalam
hit

Drishyam),
was
a
delicate
Hitchcockian
family
thriller,

Vishwaroopam
attempted
to
give
Indian
cinema
a
very
nuanced
Rambo/James
Bond-like
experience
in
a
global
ecosystem.

After

Papanasam,
Kamal
headed
out
to
finish
an
old
commitment,

Vishwaroopam
2
in
which
Wisam
tries
to
balance
the
guilty
emotions
of
a
good
military
man
having
to
sort
out
interpersonal
issues
in
the
forces
with
the
need
to
enter
the
chambers
of
a
cruel
ISIS
tyrant/leader
and
eliminate
him
and
his
global
associates.
This
film,
though,
turned
out
to
be
a
box-office
disaster.

Surely
this
would
have
put
Kamal
in
a
quandary.

Would
the
market
allow
for
another
actor-dominated
film
like

Papanasam
to
become
a
success?
Or
should
it
be
a
film
dedicated
to
sheer
action-domination,
the
current
market
favourite
genre?

Kamal
chose
the
latter.

With
his
penchant
for
experimentation,
the
time
had
also
come
for
him
to
enter
a
new
arena
with
a
more
global
formula,
namely
the
big-budget
super-action
drama.

Kamal
reopened

Vikram,
an
older
franchise
of
his
company,
by
announcing
the
production
of

Vikram
2
in
2021
to
navigate
the
spectacle
of
excess,
such
as
in
the
fantastic
sci-fi
world
virtually
propelled
by
Marvel
Studios’
‘Cinematic
Universe’,
which
dominates
theatres
and
OTT
platforms
across
the
world
with
multi-star
casts,
lavish
sets,
extensive
use
of
computer
graphics,
loud
music
and
thrilling
action
sequences.

The
villain
in

Vikram
2,
Sandhanam,
is
a
clownish
Joker-like
character
played
by
Vijay
Sethupathi.
The
Joker
in
the
DC
Universe
is
often
considered
Batman’s
antithesis.

While
Batman
is
driven
by
a
desire
for
justice,
the
Joker
operates
without
a
clear
motive,
only
wanting
to
spread
chaos.
The
Joker’s
existence
serves
to
highlight
and
challenge
Batman’s
own
principles
and
beliefs.

In

Vikram
2,
Sandhanam,
introduced
like
a
hulk,
plays
a
narcotic
drug
manufacturer,
producing
cocaine
on
a
‘massive
scale’,
who
supposedly
has
the
power
of
destroying
not
only
India
but
the
whole
world.

The
story
remains
silent
on
the
veracity
of
such
high-volume
drug
business
in
‘real’
India.
And
we
have
all
accepted
that
clarifying
such
information
is
not
necessary
at
all.
Fake
news
has
become
reality.

The
masquerade
or
secrecy
surrounding
such
‘mythological’
characters
and
organisations
ends
up
serving
as
a
narrative
tool
to
explore
the
themes
of
power,
responsibility
and
accountability.

In

Vikram
2,
a
local
drug
lord’s
daughter’s
marriage
scene
shows
Sandhanam
waiting
to
attack
while
cooks
sing
out
cookery
ads
and
visitors
dance
to
popular
music.

In
such
a
bizarre
intersection,
masked
men
(headed
by
Kamal,
also
in
a
mask)
enter
on
motorcycles,
wipe
out
Sandhanam’s
men
and
even
end
up
kidnapping
the
drug
lord.

The
portrayal
of
unregistered
or
‘secret’
national
security
forces
can
be
interpreted
as
a
commentary
on
real-world
concerns
related
to
government
secrecy,
classified
operations
and
the
lack
of
transparency.

But
does
it
resolve
the
balance
between
national
security
imperatives
and
the
public’s
right
to
know
in
any
tangible
manner?
No.

The
narrative
thus
mimics
the
opacity
of
existing
news
media,
mostly
packed
with
opinions
and
even
fake
news.

Superhero
narratives
have
a
long
history
of
reflecting
and
commenting
on
contemporary
social
and
political
issues.

The
portrayal
of
secret
national
security
forces
may
resonate
with
concerns
about
the
expansion
of
government
surveillance,
but
the
use
of
covert
military
operations
and
the
implications
of
unchecked
power
in
the
real
world
provide
a
new
level
of
credibility
for
modern-day
governments.

I
am
sure
that
Kamal
is
aware
of
such
dangerous
intersections
and
implications
in
real-day
politics,
where
he
is
a
committed
player,
and
therefore
the
structuring
of
logic
and
reasoning
into
a
film
like
this
becomes
important.

One
can
clearly
see
this
in
the
insertion
of
a
scene
with
Vikram’s
chosen
members
where
he
delivers
a
five-minute-long
sermon
about
his
rationale
for
doing
whatever
is
being
staged
in
the
film.

The
setting
is
a
dim
basement
packed
with
all
kinds
of
ammunition.

Vikram’s
team
members
are
feeling
unsure
about
the
plan
and
he
replies,
‘So,
you
think
I
am
doing
all
this
to
take
revenge
for
my
son’s
murder?

My
son
died
to
give
us
a
drug-free
society.
Should
we
not
respect
his
sacrifice?

This
drug
will
soon
take
us
back
to
the
law
of
the
jungle,
namely,
to
multiply
and
procreate
with
no
awareness
of
who
your
mother,
sister
or
daughter
is.
You
all
came
to
me
because
of
an
ideology.

Whoever
we
have
killed
is
not
murder,
but
a
statement
to
clean
the
crap
out
of
our
society.

And
a
masked
face
is
necessary
nowadays
to
carry
out
even
a
good
deed.

I
am
an
agent
and
known
for
my
secrecy.
I
have
a
success
track
record
which
I
cannot
reveal
to
the
world
because
I
am
an
honest
militant.

And
our
society
should
know
that
is
the
legacy
we
want
to
leave
behind
and
for
that
Sandhanam
must
be
killed.

One
man’s
terrorism
is
another
man’s
revolution.
The
freedom
song
of
yesteryears
has
become
our
national
anthem
today.

Rebel
is
not
a
curse
word,
but
a
virtue.
Sorry
boys,
I
am
lecturing.
We
are
warriors
of
tomorrow
but
now,
grow
up,
guys!’

The
Preamble
to
our
Constitution
assures
for
all
citizens
‘justice,
social,
economic
and
political’
and
a

rejection
of
violence
as
a
means
to
achieve
justice.
With
this
‘statement’
in
the
film,
is
Kamal
propagating
the
need
for
violence
as
a
contingent
measure
when
law
and
order
go
out
of
hand?
Or
is
he
announcing
the
new
‘Wagnerian’
narrative
as
the
norm?

Acknowledging
this
monologue
in
the
film
as
a
‘lecture’
is
in
fact
Kamal’s
statement
to
his
audience.
Most
of
the
lines
spoken
here
are
in
the
English
language,
subtitled
in
Tamil.

Watching
so
much
English
spoken
here
and
in
many
other
Tamil
films
today
is
a
clear
indication
of
the
‘surplus
enjoyment’
provided.

Finally,
the
tone
and
delivery
of
Vikram’s
speech
here
is
a
tribute
to
the
legendary
Sivaji
Ganesan,
Kamal’s
idol.

Registering
such
a
memory
also
portrays
Kamal’s
disposition
to
the
well-proven
narrative,
namely,
the
need
to
clearly
register
the
hero
as
a
‘positive’
person
with
no
ambiguity
at
all
which,
strangely,
is
clearly
not
the
narrative
of
the
Hollywood
superhero
films.

Kamal
has
surfed
and
navigated
a
lot
of
tidal
waves,
manoeuvring
the
peaks
and
troughs,
combining
rare
intelligence
and
commonly
available
intuitions
to
overcome
unimaginable
crises
all
his
life.

There
is
no
looking
back
at
the
past,
for
his
only
motto
has
been
‘Tomorrow
belongs
to
us’!

Excerpted
from

Kamal
Haasan:
A
Cinematic
Journey
by
K
Hariharan,
with
the
kind
permission
from
the
publishers
HarperCollins
India.