Recently at a press conference ahead of the launch of his sequel indian 2Kamal Haasan is asked a question that makes his colleagues on stage smile. He is asked if he is bothered by the fact that the film has three beautiful heroines but he himself has no life partner. Kamal takes the mike and confidently replies: “My life partner in the film does not have to be a woman.” There is a test hidden in that one sentence. Kamal shows how great an artist he is, what his relationship with cinema is, what his philosophical approach to the medium is and that even though he is appreciated as a hero, his relationship with films goes far beyond formulas and stereotypes.

K. Hariharan has said the same thing Kamal Haasan: A cinematic journeyNot an easy task initially, but perhaps it is best executed by a filmmaker with a deep understanding of politics, history and culture, but most importantly, the ability to connect them all into a single intelligible thread. He picks 40 films (from Kamal’s repertoire of about 260 films) and makes a contextual analysis, replete with references to world cinema, its masters, political theories, running parallel to real-time events. That is the strength of this book; the skill of a historian picking from a veritable smorgasbord and placing them on his charcuterie board, selecting the finest, though not necessarily the most popular, slices. This will again serve as a touchstone, a window into the life of Kamal Haasan, the actor, the filmmaker, the technician, PolymorphicA quick-change performer who physically transforms into multiple characters in their fullest sense.

A view Sakalakala Vallavan.

Dramatic arrival

The book begins, appropriately, with confidence, with the extraordinary circumstances surrounding Kamal’s birth, in the midst of intense drama. While Hariharan stays away from the star’s private life, he collates Kamal’s early personal life and the influences of his immediate, eclectic family into a capsule that attempts to measure the heights he has achieved. For someone who learned not formally or in schools, but from actors and directors turned gurus, from the screen, from behind the camera and from life, there now stands a man who is a fine entertainer, but more than that, a genuine person. octave A man of many talents and accomplishments.

A view Nayakan.

The trick perhaps is that Kamal never thought his education was complete, that he had a degree or a school leaving certificate, which he did not have. So, he keeps trying to learn, innovate and find joy in whatever he discovers. After a recent trip to China, he spoke with childlike awe about the revolution taking place in the East with animators and film screenings. At these points, he is completely oblivious of his achievements, his ability to inspire awe among his countrymen.

K. Balachander (left) and Kamal Haasan. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

the storyteller

The lotus is Facilitator In a way, not just because the book is about him, but also because the author has assigned him this role. He allows Kamal and his films to hold together a nation and state in the throes of development, free from the shackles of colonialists. In one chapter, while talking about the epochal collaboration between Kamal and his greatest guru K. Balachander, Hariharan gives a hint of how he will approach his subject and the book: “The performances and conviction that create the characters of the story are many times more important than the personal story and beliefs of the actors.” As the guru and disciple delve into the depths of filmmaking, the author looks back and ties together the social themes they explored, and the way they were handled. If the sound of the celluloid projector alone was enough to bring about a revolution, the Kamal and KB duo would have pulled society into a more progressive, liberal matrix, featuring caste-agnostic and feminine themes, portrayals of unadorned human relationships, deliberate casting of androgynous heroes and the redemption of rebellious heroines. Behind the cameras, masks and face paint were revolutionaries marching towards Bella Ciao, urging change in the urban, middle-class homes where their films were set. As Hariharan points out, all this was done without undermining the tenets of mainstream entertainment.

A view 16 Vayathinile,

Political turn

The book is filled with short stories that showcase Kamal’s brilliance, not just in acting but in all aspects of filmmaking. From the way he can tell if there is no film in the camera just by looking at it to the sound emanating from the camera on a film set when there is no film in the camera. 16 VayathinileThis book, for example, is a testament to the extraordinary wisdom he possessed. Though it steers clear of Kamal’s later incarnation as a politician, just as it steers clear of his private life, this book is a deliberate history of Kamal’s emergence as a political being, as if he had no other choice given his circumstances.

Hariharan has also struck a balance in questioning motive and technique, which avid film viewers and fans would probably dismiss as a ‘willing suspension of disbelief’. For avid film viewers, this is a book one can never stop reading, as exciting as the moments before the brilliant cinematic transformation of the feminine Kathak dancer Vij into the athletic detective Wisam Kashmiri. Vishwaroopam. By then, as viewers, we know that Vij might actually be a Tamil Muslim, but still, that scene is a revelation. It’s another touchstone, a masterclass in acting. We might have been left speechless many times watching Kamal on screen, but Hariharan’s book is still a revelation.

A scene from Vishwaroopam.

Kamal Haasan: A cinematic journey; K. Hariharan, HarperCollins India, ₹ 699.

ramya.kannan@thehindu.co.in