Controversy’s Child Kamal Haasan

Kamal
has
a
crisp
pen
when
it
comes
to
writing
short
and
yet
powerful
film
dialogues.
But
while
speaking

ex
tempore
—
and
that
has
been
his
style
—
he
looks
every
bit
a
confused
man,
observes
N
Sathiya
Moorthy.

The
avoidable
Kannada
language
row
has
come
at
a
wrong
time
for
matinee
icon
Kamal
Haasan.

The
Karnataka
release
of



Thug
Life,
his
first
joint
venture
with
ace
film-maker
Mani
Ratnam
in
37
years
after
big-hit

Nayakan,
has
suffered
a
delay
or
outright
denial.

But
that
is
only
one
side.
On
the
other
hand,
the
ruling
DMK
alliance
has
named
him
as
the
MNM
founder-head
for
a
Rajya
Sabha
seat,
and
the
six-year
term
will
commence
in
mid-July.

Ruling
BJP
back-benchers,
particularly
from
neighbouring
Karnataka,
could
make
it
difficult
for
him
to
make
his
maiden
speech,
possibly
defying
the
custom
against
interference
when
a
member
is
making
his
first
appearance
before
the
chamber
mike.

Back
home
in
Tamil
Nadu,
they
are
already
infuriated
by
his
constant
disowning
of
god
and
religion
despite
his
Brahmin
birth.

The
Kannada
row
may
add
only
one
more
dimension
for
them
to
paint
him
as
a
‘pan-Tamil,
Dravidian
chauvinist’
where
they
have
placed
the
DMK
and
parent
DK
since
inception
in
the
forties.

A
quick
look
at
the
video
footage
of
the

Thug
Life
audio
launch
function
where
Kamal
made
the

faux
pas
clearly
indicates
that
he
did
not
think
before
talking
—
as
has
been
his
wont.

A
man
full
of
ideas
that
go
beyond
his
extensive
and
expansive
knowledge
of
the
cinematic
world,
Kamal
has
a
crisp
pen
when
it
comes
to
writing
short
and
yet
powerful
film
dialogues.

But
while
speaking

ex
tempore
—
and
that
has
been
his
style
—
he
looks
every
bit
a
confused
man.

The
powerful
and
emotion-emanating
eyes
look
blank
and
stare
at
nothing,
and
the
words
are
halting
and
unconnected.

The
meme
industry
on
Tamil
social
media
is
full
of
them,
whether
it
relates
to
Kamal’s
speeches
at
film
functions,
in
social
contexts
or
from
the
political
platforms
of
his
Makkal
Needhi
Maiyam.

This
habit
of
his
let
him
down,
and
it
was
visible
in
live
video
footage,
when
he
announced
to
the
audience
that
Kannada
matinee
idol
Shivraj
Kumar
was
among
them,
and
recalled
how
the
latter’s
celebrated
father
Rajkumar
used
to
call
him
after
viewing
every
film
of
his,
to
offer
comments.

He
could
well
have
stopped
at
that
—
but
that’s
not
Kamal
Haasan.

The
thespian
went
a
step
further
and
talked
about
the
filial
relations
of
their
respective
language,
and
ended
up
saying
that
Kannada
was
born
out
of
Tamil.

Yes,
there
is
a
notion
in
Tamil
Nadu
that
theirs
is
the
mother
of
all
Dravidian
languages,
apart
from
being
the
oldest
of
Indian
languages
that’s
in
daily
use.

Kamal
may
have
borrowed
from
it,
but
it’s
not
sure
if
he
meant
it
that
way.

It
is
not
impossible
that
Kamal
only
wanted
to
recall
how
the
late
Rajkumar
was
born
in
Tamil
Nadu
and
his
became
the
‘first
family’
of
Kannada
cinema
—
but
ended
up
saying
what
he
said.

The
moment
he
said
it,
it
was
clear
to
political
observers
familiar
with
inter-state
equations
flowing
from
the
‘Cauvery
water
dispute’
how
and
how
far
it
could
blow
instantaneously.

The
anticipated
thing
happened,
and
that’s
it.

Those
familiar
with
recent
events
and
developments
in
Karnataka
over
the
language
issue
were
not
surprised
when
Kannada-lovers
there
protested
loud
and
clear,
forcing
the
local
film
fraternity
to
rise
in
one
voice
against
Kamal,
whom
they
otherwise
love
and
revere.

For
a
few
weeks
now,
they
have
been
protesting
against
some
or
the
other
non-Kannadigas’
patent
refusal
to
learn
and
speak
the
language.

It
was
not
about
the
guest
population’s
inability
to
learn
the
language
in
a
short
span,
but
the
impression
that
they
gave
that
it
was
infra-dig
for
them
to
learn
Kannada.

Their
known
preference
was
Hindi,
though
not
all
of
them
came
from
the
Hindi
belt.

In
one
such
recent
episode,
a
woman
bank
manager
was
transferred
after
she
refused
to
speak
to
a
local
customer
in
Kannada,
and
declared
on
social
media
that
she
had
the
right
to
speak
in
the
language
she
was
comfortable
with,
or
knew.

There
is
the
other
side
here,
when
banks,
insurance
firms
and
even
the
public
sector
Indian
Railways
post
non-locals
in
sensitive
positions,
including
ticket
counters,
without
knowing
the
local
language.

It’s
so,
whether
in
Karnataka
or
Tamil
Nadu
or
any
other
south
Indian
state.

As
coincidence
would
have
it,
those
posted
in
these
positions
are
increasingly
from
the
Hindi-belt
or
from
states
where
Hindi
is
among
the
spoken
languages.

In
an
earlier
era,
Kannada
chauvinists
had
protested
the
same
way
about
Tamils
who
once
dominated
capital
Bangalore’s
job
market,
from
top
to
bottom.

Even
now,
construction
labour
comes
from
Tamil
Nadu
though
most
of
them
have
since
been
replaced
by
‘Hindi-speakers’
from
the
North
/
North-East.

But
there
was
a
time
when
the
corridors
of
Vidhana
Soudha,
the
state
secretariat,
reverberated
in
Tamil
—
even
as
inside,
the
assembly
proceedings
were
mostly
in
Kannada.

The
situation
has
changed
much
since,
and
today
you
cannot
hire
a
taxi
or
hail
an
auto-rickshaw
at
the
Bangalore
railway
station
without
knowing
Kannada.

The
locals
are
as
proud
of
their
language
and
expect
all
guest-employees
to
converse
in
it,
too.

It
is
no
wonder
thus
that
IT
tycoon
Mohandas
Pai
has
gone
on
record
that
professionals
from
outside
the
state
working
in
Bangalore
display
an
‘arrogance
not
to
learn
Kannada’.

Pai
points
out
that
only
a
third
of
the
city
population
comprised
Kannadigas.

What
he
did
not
say
is
that
increasingly
locals
from
rural
Karnataka
are
taking
up
low-end
jobs
like
janitors,
office
assistants
and
attenders
in
the
corporate
sectors,
replacing
Bangaloreans,
who
used
to
be
familiar
with
Tamil
and
also
Hindi.

This
has
also
been
an
added
cause
for
the
current
crisis
on
the
language
front,
though
it
should
not
mean
that
outsiders
who
are
settled
there
should
not
learn
the
local
language.

In
Kamal
Haasan’s
case,
rather
than
in
the
case
of
Tamil
Nadu,
however,
there
is
the
added
issue
of
the
Cauvery
water
dispute
between
the
two
states.

The
scars
from
anti-Tamil
violence
that
had
caused
death
and
destruction
in
Bangalore
and
other
Tamil-speaking
regions
of
Karnataka
still
hang
in
the
air.

This
has
to
be
weighed
against
the
longstanding
Kannadiga
perception
that
the
Tamils
had
taken
their
jobs
in
Bangalore
and
elsewhere
until
the
‘IT
revolution’
ushered
in
other
‘outsiders’
on
the
one
hand
and
provided
jobs
also
for
out-of-town
Kannadigas.

In
context,
the
series
of
anti-Karnataka
protests
by
the
Tamil
Nadu
polity
and
the
Tamil
film
industry
since
the
1990s
has
to
be
reckoned
with.

In
a
way,
it
had
all
begun
with
then
AIADMK
chief
minister
Jayalalithaa
going
on
a
surprise
fast-unto-protest
on
the
Cauvery
water
dispute,
mainly
to
embarrass
then
prime
minister
P
V
Narasimha
Rao.

Jayalalithaa
also
needed
to
prove
to
her
cadres
and
the
rest
of
Tamil
Nadu
that
she
was
more
Tamil
than
Kannadiga,
as
her
family
hailed
from
Mysore
—
though
a
previous
generation
had
trans-located
from
the
temple-town
of
Srirangam,
near
Tiruchi.

It
is
of
interest
just
now
that
Tamil
Nadu
politicians,
especially
from
the
DMK
combine,
and
the
stand-alone
NTK
leader
Seeman,
alone
have
been
backing
Kamal,
at
times
citing
literary
references
to
defend
his
position.

So
has
been
YouTube
channels
and
Tamil
TV
talk-show
persona.

However,
the
Tamil
film
industry
has
maintained
a
stoic
silence,
unlike
in
the
case
of
the
Kannada
industry,
which
declared
early
on
that
they
would
not
screen

Thug
Life
in
Karnataka
unless
Kamal
apologised.

Included
in
the
list
are
Kamal’s
close
friend,
‘super
star’
Rajinikanth
and
actor-politician
Vijay,
whose
infant
TVK
is
contesting
the
maiden
assembly
elections
in
the
state
next
year.

Both
of
them
have
new
films
waiting
to
be
released
in
the
coming
months
—

Jailer
II
of
the
former,
and

Jana
Nayagan
or
‘People’s
Hero’,
the
latter’s
bugle
call
ahead
of
the
assembly
polls.

Rajinikanth,
who
is
a
native
of
Karnataka
and
has
family
and
interests
in
that
state,
has
always
looked
the
other
way
over
the
Cauvery
water
dispute.

Instead,
at
one
point,
he
promised
to
donate
Rs
1
crore
for
any
project
aimed
at
linking
Himalayan
and
peninsular
rivers,
which
would
cost
millions
and
billions.

Today,
their
stoic
silence
on
the
Kamal-linked
language
row
has
led
to
social
media
criticism
of
their
wanting
to
protect
their
business
interests,
instead.

Often
times
in
the
past,
pan-Tamil
sections
of
the
media
and
social
organisations
have
run
down
Rajinikanth
especially,
pointing
out
how
he
made
all
his
money
from
Tamil
films
and
his
Tamil
fans
but
did
not
display
any
loyalty
to
both.

Those
voices
are
now
being
heard
in
the
case
of
Vijay,
too.

Between
the
two,
the
former
has
buried
his
political
ambitions
after
toying
with
the
idea
or
misleading
his
fans
for
two-plus
decades.

The
latter
has
just
begun
his
political
career,
quitting
at
the
top
of
his
film
career,
with

Jana
Nayagan
being
his
swan
song.

Kamal
has
seen
them
all
in
his
long
career.

Thug
Life
is
not
the
first
film
that
has
landed
in
controversy,
but
not
for
the
story
or
the
title.

Earlier,
his
film,
renamed

Virumandi
and
was
a
huge
hit,
ran
into
trouble
over
the
original
title

Sandiyar,
as
politicians
like
Dalit-centric
PT
founder
Krishnaswamy
claimed
that
the
term
represented
the
‘oppressor
caste’
or
a
goon
from
such
communities.

Over
another
of
his
home-productions,

Vishwaroopam,
the
Jayalalithaa
government
banned
it
initially
over
purported
representation
of
minority
Muslims
in
negative
light
in
a
film
on
international
terrorism,
based
in
Afghanistan.

Addressing
a
news
conference
at
the
time,
Kamal
declared
that
he
would
go
bankrupt
if
the
film
did
not
see
the
light
of
the
day,
and
he
too
might
consider
relocating
to
the
US,
where
there
was
greater
freedom
for
artistic
expression.

It
turned
out
that
another
film
by
the
name

Sandiyar
was
released
later,
and
no
one
protested
and
no
one
even
noticed
there
was
this
film,
over
whose
title
there
was
a
huge
row
involving
Kamal
in
the
none-too-distant
past.

Not
only
was

Vishwaroopam
released
ultimately,
there
was
also
a
sequel,

Vishwaroopam
II,
later.

There
was
no
government
threat,
nor
was
there
any
street-protest
by
Islamic
organisations.

Only
that
this
time,
unlike
on
earlier
occasions,
Kamal
himself
mouthed
the
controversial
line,
that
too
off-screen,
with
Shivraj
Kumar
in
attendance.

Early
on,
the
Kannada
superstar
was
seen
nodding
his
head
in
approval
and
even
later
issued
a
statement
in
Kamal’s
favour
—
but
that
was
not
to
be
so
later
on.

N
Sathiya
Moorthy,
veteran
journalist
and
author,
is
a
Chennai-based
policy
analyst
and
political
commentator.

Feature
Presentation:
Aslam
Hunani/Rediff.com