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Senthil,
Ha! Seriously man. If you want to post anything demeaning Kamal, u jus love it! dont ya?
Among the actual things said by Kamal (as per things quoted in the article), I never saw the word "prefer".
Rediff too once screamed "MX is better than Munnaibhai" and the actual interview had something remotely close to it.
Are you carried away by media headlines?

P.S.:- if he did use the word "prefer" (which the article doesnt quote) it was a bad mistake from Kamal's part.
 

zero,
i knew you would be the first person to comment on this :).He did say those words.check out hindu.
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/009200505171520.htm
 

http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/may182005/index2022182005517.asp
 

Even in the new link, Kamal's statement (words quoted as-is, i mean) still doesnt seem to have the word "prefer". I mean to say - may be, it was media's way of putting the news.
Again, can anyone actually mean such a thing even if the words spilled out of him.

P.S.:- I knew that you would be knowing that I would be the first one!
 

New ind press says this.
"Bless and wish me for a national award which represents one billion Indians. I feel proud to win a national award than an Oscar,".Dont know which one to take.
 

These are my view points ..

1.Its Kamal's aspiration to get an international award at Cannes or a National Award -Quite obviously ,unless you think you are capable of u can't aspire of !Whether he is actually capable of ,opinions differ .My personal opinion is YES -but for his script writing skills .Virumaandi was judged the Best Asian film of 2004 ,FYI -the commitee had only Britishers and Yankees .

2.I definetely admire's Kamal's induviduality - Yes ,OScar is for american movie s- other countries's movies are given pea nuts there -Cannes might be a better place .

3.When he says 'prefer' ,it does'nt mean that these are in queue waiting for him -Its like saying 'I prefer Sun's certification to Microsoft' for xyz reasons -does'nt mean that they are waiting for me to give teh certification .
 

Basically Oscar awards are given based on votes from its members. National awards are also done in this manner. However the panel is smaller in size.

The basic point is , for a Indian movie maker there is no big deal in getting an Oscar, may be getting noted by a foreigner, thats all. An artist always prefers awards given by his fellow citizens.
Talking of Oscars, the Titanic won lots of them right, the most of dialogues in that movie, we have heard in a Bharathi raja movie long time ago.

Kamal talented or not, is another question. But Kamal is dam correct on one thing, when you are in Rome you are a Romanan. When you make English movies worry about Oscars. Imo, Seriously when Kevin Spacey got it for American beauty, I think our good old Major Sundarrajan deserves about 10 of this bald golden dolls called OSCAR.
We do have the talent. But the problem we have is we take the Oscar to measure or gauge our talent. Which is meaningless;
 

The new ind press had the words spoken by Kamal Haasan. The other sites never actually quoted him telling that he prefers. It was their dubious interpretation and this would catch the (un)aware readers!
 

Senthilu
lollu velaya arambichacha :) LOL
I used to be a crazy fan of Kamal, but now had enough of him. Good to see Kamal changing his opinion earlier he was also trying deseprate to get a 'pat' from vellaikaran, nammaooru alangugallukku eppodume appadidhan vellaikaran paratinadhan mathippu.
BTW when you watch old movies where both Kamal and Rajini has acted together , I personally think Rajini has outshined kamal with his mere screen presense.
Example Thappu thalangal(?!),Mundru mudichu,apoorva ragangal
what do you say?
BTW Chandramukhi collection has crossed $10 million dollars worldwide, vayasanallum Rajini still has something?
The best part, I read a review by one Thomas(mallu)who said Rajini presence in CM makes it much fun to watch the movie, BTW CM beat Mohanlals film in God's own country

PS: I loved your Peru Log ,excellent.
 

Ramki,
Lets say the oscar commite decides to give an award to kamal.will he say no??.why all these stunts.It is so much like him.out of blues goes to meetings to talk against american war on iraq in kerala just because he plays a communist role in Anbe sivam.

Well what happened , why is he not sending any movies to cannes.Cause he didn't take any worth while movies to send there.

Again tell you, he is an above average actor that's all.You saw ardh satya that is acting.no gimmicks, no head shaving,no muscle buildings and make ups , pure 100% acting.

Sriks,
I agree,my point was not that oscar is the ultimate scale to measure the talents, my point is that this statement is like the fox story "Che Che entha pazham pullikkum".There is no way he is going to get it, why make these statements.

zero,
Even if we take the new india stmt.Would he reject an oscar if given to him??

My peeve is that there are so many talented actors in india.kamal is no where near compared to them.But why is he always promoted as the becon of indian acting.Nasrudeen shah or Om puri dont give these kind of interviews,only he does.And we are so regional in our outlook that we are not appreciating other talented actors in india.Like a frog in a well we think that kamal is what acting is all about.

ganesh,
Etho nammalala mudinchalthu :)

i have been hearing this thing that chandramukhi broke all records blah blah blah.cmon there are so many movies that have broken the record, but have been forgotten easily and so many movies have failed at the box office and still remembered.Another movie called "gille, golli, or bambaram" might break all those records again.
 

ganesh,
mucho gracias senor for the compliments :).Approam part -3 enna achu??
 

Why not? Kamal is truly a world-class actor.

IMHO, he deserves an oscar for Mahanadhi and Nayagan.!
 

The very fact that you are discussing the man so thoroughly one way or the other shows that hes in the news folks. You cant take that away from him. He rocks!!
 

I know passions run high on either side of the debate but this Anand guy of Outlook seems like a little biased to me (he seems to delight taking potshots at Kollywood) and so I would not put much weight for his statements.
 

Dont you think media plays the main part (OK, not the sole part :)) in Kamal talking about oscars.
Whenever Kamal is in a press meet, there is always at least one media person asking that question. There are similar other regular entries too - like politics, and of late movie titles.
They want news buddy. and they drop his names alongwith oscars. its the media who is finding him suitable for oscars (i.e., headlines abt oscars-India connection). Just that some of his movies were submitted for oscars from Indian front. from then on, it has been goin..
 

Senthil, any thoughts on Nayakan being selected to Time's alltime 100 films?
 

senthil

Part 3 is up check it out and let me know.
BTW Kamal has proved himself please dont go by whaterver S. Anand says
Kamal has won best actor award from FM 15times and best actor award 3times?
so lets give the man some credit please.

vamanos
 

narayanan,
No, he is not a world class actor.A world class actor inspires actor's around the world to act like him.Kamal is

one of those inspired regional actor who is copying the styles of dustin hoff man and Al pacino.

ROBBIE,
Is being in the news a sign of greatness.

thennavan,

I dont knwo about the rest of the statements, but the one that i quoted surely fits kamal.

Zero,
Yeah zero right the media, do plays.But as you said partially :).You ask this question to some other actor, he wont

entertain it.But they know if you ask kamal.He will utter some pearls.

Vijays
Iam not sure what was the criteria that the richard'S used to do the listing.They have listed both fedrico fellinis 8 1/2 and jackie chan's Drunken Master II.I would assume that they listed 50 entertaining movies and 50 artistic movies.And for them western/gangster movies are high on entertainment value iguess. you can see a bunch of ganster movie in them.I have my own complaints against nayagan but none the less it is a very entertaining movie.Looks like that all they cared when selecting the movie.There are so many good movie, but as foreigners they are exposed only to a few important directors and they have choosen from it.Iam glad atleast they choose nayagan rather than "kuch kuch hotha hai" or something to represent a song filled typical bollywood movie.

ganesh,
Let's give the credit,but not all the credit.There are lot of other talented people also in this country.And there are other 3 time national award winners also. Wait,this year shobana will get her third.
 

Kamal was inspired by Al Pacino ,Ben Kinsley ,Brando in his earlier movies - Most of the later movie s like Vasool Raja ,Mahanadhi ,Guna ,Vasool Raja ,Mumbai Xpress ,Alavandaan ,Hey Ram,Nammavar,Thenali ,PanchatHanthiram etc had his own trade mark - May be 1-2 scenes ,he had some inspirations .Also we need to differentiate his inspirations as a director and as actor .
But to say he is just an inspired actor - i wld'nt agree with that

In music field ,every damn guy is inspired -but since we understand visuals much more easily ,i think we tend to give less credit .

Credits - what credit does Kamal have at National level ? Very less when compared to N .Shah .He deserves more credit than what he is given .
 

Ramki enna vasool raja 2 times pottu irrukinga? :).First of all is that a movie to be listed under good acting category??.Even if it is,i found Sanjay dutt's version far better than kamal's.i wont put most of the movies that u have listed as examples of good acting.

coming to the other movies,yes some of them were inspirations, especially guna.. it is an amalgamation of characters played by dustin hoffman and nasrudeen shah.

For me acting is potraing the soul of the character.The character lives in your mind long after the movie is finished.kamal is good in making you remeber the physcical traits of a character but not the soul of a character.

Example HeyRam, he is good in protating the hero side, the anti- gandhi all male character, but when it comes to repenting his past and asking for forgiveness from gandhi, he fails miserably, u cannot identify and feel the need for forgiveness from him.

Kamal does badly when it comes to crying scenes.All he does is howling.He can express his pain only through howling, whether it is nayagan or mahanadhi.When an actor feels the pain of a character, he can make the audience cry with a few facial expression(mohanlal, nasrudeen and farooq sheik are very good at it), no need to make these kinds of exaggerated emotions.That is needed only when you are trying to act without feeling the character.

kamal for me is someone who has mastered the art of distraction, he keeps the audience distracted with various things and gives an average performance.but because the performance comes wraped under a beautiful cover, the audience think he is great.
 

Senthil ,

I think we differ in few terms .The basic defintion of what is a good acting .SO the argument will continue ..:)


But i agree with you on HeyRam _ it was excellent acting ,but at the last hurdle ,it was not strong .I did feel that
 

Enna discussiona will continue pottu.Oru mega serial akkitinga...
 

Arvind,
The scene that you mentioned is a good one.Probably this is one of those rare scenes where he had done it subtley.But could that scene have been done better,could someone else could have done it better than him.Yes.

First of all in that scene that comes for a minute. half of the time, he does not show his face to the camera.He covers his eyes face and mouth, with his hand.He Turns his face way from the camera etc.It only reminded me of sad scenes of MGR.When ever he has to cry, MGR will cover his eyes with his arms.I take it as a sign of not knowing how to emote before the camera that good acting.
 

Senthil even if guna is an amalgamation of charachters by dustin "wuff" man or whoever that other person is no one else in India will ever be able to replicate that scene where he goes round and round the hospital room and delivers a dialogue for 5 minutes with every possible emotion expressed. Let any of your fat coconuts from mallu land emulate that and I will accept all this crap about who is indias best actor.
 

When the "whats his name?" guy can imitate ray charles a living legend and win an Oscar why cant Kamal Haasan imitate a dustin hoffman? Isnt acting simulating real people and events?
 

well sorry about that mistake in the previous post, I meant Ray charles the legend delete "living" please
 

Arvind,
Kamal might have howled in Mahanadhi, when I was watching the movie ten other guys sitting in the same row were immersed in a mahaaaaa nadhi of tears. If that didnt touch you dude nothing will!
 

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
 

Jeez dude! why the hell did ya write such a long one to make such a dud point! be short and crisp on the next one and start with something positive about thalivar!
 

well..
I am not going to continue defending that Kamal's acting is of course subtle..
futile.. to each his VERY own!
 

yes arvind perceptions differ.Maybe you are right and iam wrong.But till proved wrong i will stick to my perseptions.Actually you bought up a nice scene.It is indeed a good scene, mahanadhi has quiet a few of them.
 

" mahanadhi has quiet a few of them."???
Nothing debatable here.
That pretty much sums it up man!
 

Do you actually see Naseer in Kamal's portrayal of Guna? Thats very strange. Naseer is very very restrained and even his voice is so special that makes his portrayals very real. I havent seen him doin any abnormal characters like that of Guna. If you are talking about Sparsh, its still not abnormal. Which movie are you talking abt?
And do you think Naseer doesn't give interviews that way? He is a very charming person and too bold in his interviews. He knows he acts pretty well and has no qualms to tell that aloud. I think your awareness of him is not been all that well; you claim that he doesnt give such grand interviews just because he is from the non-glamourous side of art cinema.
 

Senthil, be more specific and tell us what movies of Dustin and Naseer was Kamal trying to use as inspiration and imitation for Guna!
 

Zero,
you are right naseer is very restrained.As far as guna is concerned i think kamal might have got inspiration from the tungroos character that nasrudeen plays in maandi.Tungroos is the dim witted helping hand in a brothel.But acting wise it is more from dustin hoffman in rainman.

He is a charming person. But i havn't read any interviews like what kamal has given .But kamal is pure showman you have to agree.He will die if he does not have any one to show his talents.
 

I actually wanted to include Tungrus from Mandi as well, in my ususal suspects for ur claim abt Kamal's inspiration from Naseer, coz of the role being that of a dumb and dimwitted guy. But, it was so very well underplayed that I never thought u could pass it off as an inspiration for Guna's character who over-emotes in the movie and is very much deranged. Tungrus* is dimwitted, but not abnormal or mentally deranged, unlike Guna. Period. I see no similarities. In fact I see some aspects as polar opposites. Tungrus' submissiveness as against Guna's obesession and so on.
Thats why I added Sparsh where he plays an intelligent man, but with a curious intensity which I thought might have given cues (as absurd as it could be, but I could not make a better guess) to you as inspiration for Guna's cries in the movies.

All this doesnt mean I demean the way the role of Guna is written. He is a deranged guy and the way it was enacted was fitting in and Kamal revelled in a number of scenes!
have heard of similarities with Rain Man. But, yet to catch Rain Man.

* - There is a scene where he comes to the brothel house drunk. Watch Naseer's monlogue for more than a minute or two!
 

Tungroos is the dim witted helping hand in a brothel
Oh!
I was still wondering why u thot the 2 chars were similar (I wasn't just thinking on the lines of the similarity in the brothel settings, then) until I read the above lines again.
Now, I got why u called it an inspiration.. coz of the similarity in the settings of both the characters, making their living in a brothel. Man, thats a similarity at plot level. The characters are very very different, IMHO.
 

Yes zero you are right.The characters are different.But combine the setting of maandi and the character of rainman we are closer to guna.There is still an unknown factor X, maybe another undiscovered inspiration or a rare case of kamal's creativity.
 

There is still an unknown factor X
Oh! U still dont know about "Tie me up! Tie me down!"?
A movie released about a year before Guna with a similar storyline as Guna's. But, the movie is more of a comedy. Some people do claim Kamal was inspired/plagiarised from that movie. Raghu Romeo (which does have a similar storyline as Guna) is much similar to "Tie me up! Tie me down!" in its spirit and storyline.

That doesn't make Guna any lesser a movie, though! :)
 

Is that right.The story looks kind of close to that.I loved naseers monolouge in maandi.He roams around like an invisble ghost in the movie.But suddenly with that scene he steals the whole movie.Have u seen sai paranjpayes KATHA.I loved him in it.
 

Kamal differs from N.Shah's acting a lot - Kamal basically acts like the one who acts in a street -just as such from heart ,with those physical traits .he also gives equal importance to his eye expressions etc .

N.Shah ,Mohan Lal ,Om Puri act in a different way - Their approach is restrained ,a bit calmer .

I like both of them - They are complementary to each other .Depending on the role ,one has to vary both the proprotions which i feel kamal does it well .Somehow i feel we use hollywood actors as the standard -I think it will not work .

Also Tamizh stage plays are very different from Marati plays .I have seen one marati play in TV .This cld be another reason .
 

Ramki,
no kamal does not act st from his heart.Most of his acting is based on certain traits of famous actors than straight out of the heart acting.

No we dont have to use hollywood actors as measure.Let's measure by how much is the acting in sync with the story.Is the acting makes us get involved with the story or shows a great actor who sands out of the story/movie?.In most of kamal's movies you tend to remember his action than the story of the movie.