DR.KAMAL HAASAN'S MARUDHANAYAGAM

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Topic started by alwarpet_andavan on Fri May 20 11:13:05 2005.

Idhaya Dheepam Ulaganayagan Padmashree Dr.Kamal Haasan himself has reportedly said we might hear good news about Marudhanayagam soon. It's not only HIS dream project but ours as well.
I'd like to know what fellow-fans feel about this? We'd do well to remember that the situation and the context which existed during the initial schedule of Marudhanayagam (in which 30 minutes of the film were shot) are very different much from the situation now. This is especially so since lesser (IMHO) talents have taken the lead in taking one saga "Lagaan" to the world stage, and are on the verge of taking the next big step -"The Rising".
More specifically, i'd like to know what you people (Kamal fans) think about Marudhanayagam with respect to the cost involved, risk involved in the event of a failure (the risk is not merely monetary), losing the first-mover advantage, and loss of continuity (we know a lot of cases where movies failed due to lack of continuity). If i'm radiating negative energy, pardon me but i have no great faith in our audience and also for a movie of that magnitude to be profitable, the degree of success should be nothing less than staggering. However, one advantage of being pessimistic is anything which is not bad is a bonus Smile

Have your say. Sound off!

[Although this is a public forum and obviously everyone has a right to post, it is my humble request for people not to post rabble-rousing and hate-mongering posts. We'd like to see something constructive here, including criticism]

alwarpet_andavan

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Responses:

From: deepu on Fri May 20 18:00:56 2005.

what else will a die hard kamal fan want other than to see kamal release marudhanayagam!!!!!!!!!!!!the dream project is a nighmare in respect of the cost involved but wish kamal really finishes it off...yes lagaan and devdas have turned the attention of hollywood towards indian cinema but i'm very sure hollywood will be astonished if only this venture is accomplished by kamal..
hope kamal finishes it off atleast to show a preview of the movie to the queen.
From: P_R on Sat May 21 0:05:55 2005.

alwarpet_andavan wrote:

Idhaya Dheepam Ulaganayagan Padmashree Dr.Kamal Haasan himself has reportedly said we might hear good news about Marudhanayagam soon.alwarpet_andavan
Engappa ? Link irukka ?
From: Cinefan on Mon May 23 2:17:38 2005.

AA,it would be great to see 'Marutha.......'being revived but Kamal,Nasar,Pasupathy etc have changed(physically) considerably in the last 8years,so how can Kamal retain that 30min(Cost:1 crore,is it not?).Devdas had a 35crore budget&recovered it despite being a rank bad film but it had SRK.Kamal's all India BO status is nowhere near his.I have a feeling Kamal was testing the waters with MX in Hindi.If yes,i don't think he will be very happy with the results or will he interpet it differently?As of now he has the Sathi ... remake in Kannada&by June will be shooting for VV.So if at all Maruth... has to be revived,it will be only by the end of the year.Personally,I feel Kamal should stick to just script,direction&cast another actor in the lead role.My choice would be Vikram for Tamil&Aamir for Hindi.Even SRK would be fine if Kamal can control his energy levels&bring out another dimension in his acting.
From: sakaLAKALAKAlaa Vallavar on Mon May 23 6:54:42 2005.

The following are excerpts from Dr.Kamal on Marudhanaayagam, on different situations. Also there are some positive facts on Kamalji getting

Managed for Funds for His Magnum Opus Marudha Naayagam, Shortly MN.

1.He, when stopped the 30 mins part of the movie said that there come an title that "After 10 years.......", so there is 2 more years for kamal in advance, to start MarudhaNaayagam

2.Once he said MN will start on 2006. It seems he is starting the initial works so he can re-start the fims atleast on 2006 end

3.He once has said that all the 30 mins part of the film are the scenes where the situation demands that Kamal shoud look young. Only those kinda parts are filmed. This shows his future forseeing capabilities.So No problem on his ageing and appearance.Afterall Still he is the most young looking actor as said by many.

4.His move to Bollywood on with Bi-Lingual Mx has given lukewarm response to him there. He is further proceeding to other language domains on Indian Cinema like Kannada[Recently announced Ramesh aravind srarred Remake of Sathileelavathi] and Telugu[Talks are on witha famous telugu Producer] So he may refresh and renovate the brand Kamal Hassan Name all over Indian Cinema which project him as an Whole Indian Actor with support in all India Level.This will help him to manage getting Funding Sources either From or Outside India.

5.He has spoken to a "Business Standard" Reporter that His Rajkamal International has an turnover of 40 crores in 2004-2005 Financial Year. and Plans are eveluvated for Rajkamal International Going Public, IPO to get Funds for MN. Already he has been to Distribution of his films to Us\UK and has setup offices there.Thus raajKamal goes truly International, Further more increasing the chances of getting Funds.

6.When he goes to Us for VV shooting he is set to meet some Filmi delegates and Production Houses. Keeps his mouth closed on these.....

7.For Long Time he is having and maintaining Links and communication wordwide with Writers\Directors\Production Houses of Hollywood, French and UK ect.He frequently attends Film Festivals allover the world and many times got selected for screening his Films in those Festivals there, thus having an ground level introduction and rappaport. His few films has been in consideration for some levels of Oascar and Other Global Filmi awards.

8.He has won lot of Awards inside India and has a very good track record here.

9.The very fact that this film has been clap-started by Queen of England is also a supportive factor, but funding ppl may look in to the reason why it got ceased in middle. Kamal once said that a French financier rejected funding of MN, after India tested the Hydrogen Bombs at Pokraan, and Refused signing the CTBT.But that was long back and given the positive facts above, Some one else shall find intresting to fund this Project.

Hope the best, Always for Kamalji.
From: alwarpet_andavan on Tue May 24 9:50:54 2005.

Cinefan wrote:

Personally,I feel Kamal should stick to just script,direction&cast another actor in the lead role

I share the feeling but hope you didn't mean in all his future films!

Cinefan wrote:

.My choice would be Vikram for Tamil&Aamir for Hindi.Even SRK would be fine if Kamal can control his energy levels&bring out another dimension in his acting.

Vikram - First Kamal has to be convinced that Vikram can do justice and the role should also require Virkam. Moreover, between Vikram and Surya, i feel Surya is more discerning and is completely devoid of the "HERO" mentality and has a slight edge over Vikram w.r.t accents etc. Apart from that, the above mentioned points apply to Surya as well.
Aamir - Unlikely because Aamir does VERY few films and the likelihood of Kamal and Aamir coming together is little, i feel.
Moreover, Aamir is a wee bit overrated IMO.
And about SRK, let the Hindi audience first learn to watch SRK without designer clothes and foreign locales

alwarpet_andavan
From: alwarpet_andavan on Tue May 24 10:07:11 2005.

Sakala,
Yeah those were interesting points.....
He might manage to get funds but i'm not sure if the matter ends there....
Friends,
I'd like to see ONE thalaivar movie do magic at the BO and the movie should
1) Not be a comedy
2) I know Virumaandi was not a comedy and was a very good movie. However (i'm about to dive into politically incorrect territory), i've always had a feeling the Tamil (and Telugu) audience like violence in movies in a big way. Before anyone pounces on me let me give you my take on violence in Tamil cinema. Most movies show violence which more or less glorify the act or make a mockery of it by not showing it naturally. Govind Nihalani has said he uses violence in short spurts but it has to be real to show the impact. He never intends to glorify violence. You just watch it in the film like you watch a murder on the street and you feel nauseated and angry after watching that, angry that the act has been committed. This is the reaction the director wants. I think Virumaandi falls in this category. Somehow, the audience feels a thrill on seeing violence or anything involving the show of power, though the director might/might not want that reaction from the audience. Again, this is subjective and i cannot say others might share this view.
Now, there is this other type of violence typified in movies like "Sullan", "Thirupachi" etc which needs no further explanation
I watched Kill Bill Volume 2 (in Bangalore many things run on the callous, condescending hype of the urban elites and even the midle-class. After watching the movie, i wonder what all the hype was all about. Maybe i was not smart enough to get the point (i seriously consider this argument even now), but i just thought it was a very ordniary movie, not very superior to Alavandhaan.
Now with "violence" explained,
the point i want to make is i'd like to see a Kamal movie (which is not a comedy and also which doesn't have violence in it) run like it's on fire. That, and only that will convince me that our audience is ready for Dr.Kamal Haasan.

Keenly awaiting viewsfrom you guys.

P.S:
1) I know there are A LOT of movies which ran successfully in TN and some of it were Kamal movies too. I'm talking about KH movies in the recent years. Show me one. (This goes to show the narrow spectrum that is Tamil cinema. I'd go far enough to say this applies not only to KH, but that's a different matter)

alwarpet_andavan

From: Pras on Tue May 24 10:12:46 2005.

Cinefan wrote:

AA,it would be great to see 'Marutha.......'being revived but Kamal,Nasar,Pasupathy etc have changed(physically) considerably in the last 8years,so how can Kamal retain that 30min(Cost:1 crore,is it not?).Devdas had a 35crore budget&recovered it despite being a rank bad film but it had SRK.Kamal's all India BO status is nowhere near his.I have a feeling Kamal was testing the waters with MX in Hindi.If yes,i don't think he will be very happy with the results or will he interpet it differently?As of now he has the Sathi ... remake in Kannada&by June will be shooting for VV.So if at all Maruth... has to be revived,it will be only by the end of the year.Personally,I feel Kamal should stick to just script,direction&cast another actor in the lead role.My choice would be Vikram for Tamil&Aamir for Hindi.Even SRK would be fine if Kamal can control his energy levels&bring out another dimension in his acting.

From: alwarpet_andavan on Tue May 24 10:15:13 2005.

Cinefan wrote:

My choice would be Vikram for Tamil

BTW, i have a story conceived about a year back with Kamal directing Vikram in the lead role

alwarpet_andavan
From: Cinefan on Wed May 25 2:20:50 2005.

AA,I was referring to only Maruth....... when talking about Kamal only as a writer/Director&not as an actor.Having said that I feel Kamal can be more selective in his acting assingments.After watching Virumaandi,i felt Kamal was so taken up with writing,producing&directing it that he sleepwalked while acting.Vikram/Surya or even Vijay(don't hit me )would have been a better choice.MX did not present any challenge to Kamal, the actor.

I also agree with your comments on a Kamal film running like a rabbit on fire at the BO before taking up Maruth.........The last time he gave a massive hit was Avvai 9 years back.After that let's see

Kadhala..... -below avg/flop
Chachi 420 -Hit
Hey Ram-flop
Aalavandhan-flop
PkS/Panchathanthiram-Avg/above avg
Anbe Shivam-Flop
Virumaandi-Above avg/Hit
VR MBBS-Hit
MX-Avg/flop

Quality wise Hey...Anbe...&Virumaandi were brilliant while the rest were abv avg to avg to bad.With such a BO track record I feel it would be a disaster to start Marut... that too with himself in the lead role.Let him see how VV is received&then decide.At the same time I also feel Kamal is intelligent enough to understand where he stands at the BO&MX,Sathi... in Kannada,A direct film in telugu are all attempts to test the waters.There is no way he can make Marutha..... only in Tamil&get away with it.

From: sakaLAKALAKAlaa Vallavar on Wed May 25 3:16:25 2005.

Cinefan wrote:

AA,I was referring to only Maruth....... when talking about Kamal only as a writer/Director&not as an actor.Having said that I feel Kamal can be more selective in his acting assingments.After watching Virumaandi,i felt Kamal was so taken up with writing,producing&directing it that he sleepwalked while acting.Vikram/Surya or even Vijay(don't hit me Very Happy

)would have been a better choice.MX did not present any challenge to Kamal, the actor.

I also agree with your comments on a Kamal film running like a rabbit on fire at the BO before taking up Maruth.........The last time he gave a massive hit was Avvai 9 years back.After that let's see

Kadhala..... -below avg/flop
Chachi 420 -Hit
Hey Ram-flop
Aalavandhan-flop
PkS/Panchathanthiram-Avg/above avg
Anbe Shivam-Flop
Virumaandi-Above avg/Hit
VR MBBS-Hit
MX-Avg/flop

Quality wise Hey...Anbe...&Virumaandi were brilliant while the rest were abv avg to avg to bad.With such a BO track record I feel it would be a disaster to start Marut... that too with himself in the lead role.Let him see how VV is received&then decide.At the same time I also feel Kamal is intelligent enough to understand where he stands at the BO&MX,Sathi... in Kannada,A direct film in telugu are all attempts to test the waters.There is no way he can make Marutha..... only in Tamil&get away with it.

even though u sau he is not powerful in BO, see the list u written, u can see how versatile and different are his heach of the films then no actor even rajni have a very good bo track record, arunasalam baba were flop.he gave long gaps...ect

even though MN is super duper hit, the Tn market is small when somparing the budget og MN

From: sanjay on Wed May 25 3:42:48 2005.

There are many problems with Marudhanayagam.

1. The budget will be a constraint.
2. There is hardly any info/book on Marudhanayagam.
3. The klangauge in which it will be shot. Kamal has mentioned tamil, telugu, hindi, french & a few other langauges.

Being an admirer of kamal's acting, I sincerely hope he makes a film in tamil (only) to cater to internatinal standards.

After all, we must remember, Lagaan was made keeping only the Indian audience in mind.

One of the reasons for MX flopping is that in the tamil version, the nativity was missing. It was as though hindi actors were performing tamil roles.

Kamal would do well to concentrate on doing tamil films & not venture into doing them in hindi also. His films like Abhay, Hey Ram & MX were disasters in Hindi.

From: Alien on Wed May 25 3:55:50 2005.

Cinefan wrote:

U missed Thenali. It was a big hit.

From: RajaRam on Wed May 25 5:16:22 2005.

sanjay,
5 week collection of MX(Hindi) in Bollywood is 4.12crores(Excluding overseas)
http://ibosnetwork.com/
if we include over seas also it will come around 5 crores.
Remember MX(hindi)sold for only 2.2 crore.
Still MX is doing better than lucky.
but in verdict they have mentioned FLOP. why?
From: RajaRam on Wed May 25 6:09:42 2005.

CF,

Defenitely we cann't expect that
Heyram,alavandhan,Anbesivam,MX to become super dooper hit though MX(H) is doing well.

also in Kadhala..kadhala he acted in guest Role.

Except that PKS,5thandthiram,virumandi,VR MBBS.
PKS and 5thandthiram are average or below average and
virumandi and VR are above average or hit.

if you see the hit movies of 2002,2003 and 2004 are
2002-Gemini,run
2003-dhool,samy,thirumalali
2004-virumandi,ghilli,autograph,VR,new,Mkumaran.

in the above movies ghilli only ran 100 days(due to vacation time) in Madurai.
Even in chennai some movies ran 100 days for MS only and some movies(ghilli,dhool,AG,samy)ran 100 days in small screens(babyalbert,Devibala-250 seat capacity).

Reason is: PIRATED CDs.

As a whole after 2001, Tamil film Industry totally affected due to pirated CDs.

Now the Pirated CD is somewhat controlled. because of that only I think he has decided to start MN.
From: balakumar86 on Wed May 25 6:22:36 2005.

vara pogadha padathukku oru thread thevaiya...

From: alwarpet_andavan on Wed May 25 6:31:05 2005.

Cinefan wrote:

AA,I was referring to only Maruth.......

Oh ok

Cinefan wrote:

.After watching Virumaandi,i felt Kamal was so taken up with writing,producing&directing it that he sleepwalked while acting.Vikram/Surya or even Vijay(don't hit me Very Happy

)would have been a better choice.MX did not present any challenge to Kamal, the actor.

I beg to differ. First of all, i differ from a general view point which many in India have that if there is no strong emotion involved, it's not great acting. In Virumaandi, to use a phrase i hate very much

, he has "lived" the role . His accent (no problems here, it's his native accent), body language, anger, the mischief in romance, guilt all have been spot on and cannot be matched by any other (except maybe Sivaji, even though in the physical dept even sivaji would have struggled). In fact, this role literally got into me and i couldn't get it out of my system for quite some time (I was working in Mumbai at that time and i used to talk to every Tamil guy i saw in the Madurai lingo)
Just to mention two scenes -
1) the scene were he gets drunk is funny alright, but can you imagine any other actor carrying it off?
2) the scene where he confronts Rohini in the prison. His facial expressions (apart from dialogue, of course) were just ike that of a rustic.
Note that i'm not mentioning the classic scene at Appatha's death. IR rose to the occasion by using silence as a haunting BGM.

And about MX, maybe this is long overdue, but i found his role very unusual. As far as acting is concerned, i could see only a small flaw which i had already mentioned earlier - he wasn't 100% convincing with the Tirunelveli accent. Apart from that, it was a role well underplayed.
Avinasi: "Saar, vanakkam saar. Nalla irukkengala saar..?" This is the scene where he calls up Santhana Bharathi - very difficult to imagine any other actor injucting so much innocence (most actors would have brought humor to this situation, but innocence - NO).
And after lying to the cop in the highway (was it Vikram Dharma?), the way he winks at Pasupathy is special!

If you noticed, one accusation non-Kamal fans have of his acting is that he only knows to cry or he cries the same way all the time. They wouldn't say so if they understood and appreciated his wide spectrum of acting - underplay being his recent forte Anbe Sivam, MX).

alwarpet_andavan

From: sakaLAKALAKAlaa Vallavar on Wed May 25 6:50:19 2005.

A_A,

leave all,
any actor dare to co front before the jallikatty kaalaigal? just ask this alone...

ella kizha nadigargalum oodi viduvaargal
From: Cinefan on Wed May 25 7:15:17 2005.

AA,
I am also not the kind of person who believes that only when strong emotions are involved,it is great acting.If that was the case,I would not have become a Kamal fan in the first place .I also agree that Kamal was very good in the film(virumaandi)as a whole&in particular the scenes you have mentioned.But somehow his performance didn't touch me the way they did in say a Anbe... or Mahanadhi or Guna.Why,I can't explain.But I was bowled over by the way he executed his almost perfect script.It was a clear case of the writer/director in him overtaking the actor.

As for MX,Yes his expressions with Pasupathi after talking to the police man,the way he says "Vanakkam Sir"are brilliant but still I feel the role on the whole was not a challenge.BTW,in the trailor he released on the start of the film,his Nellai accent was spot on.Wonder why he diluted that in the movie.

I also got to watch the Hindi version of MX on cable,his Hindi has improved considerably but still the spontaneity is missing.

From: ramsri on Wed May 25 10:15:51 2005.

Cinefan wrote:

AA,
Kamal was very good in the film(virumaandi)as a whole&in particular the scenes you have mentioned.But somehow his performance didn't touch me the way they did in say a Anbe... or Mahanadhi or Guna.Why,I can't explain.But I was bowled over by the way he executed his almost perfect script.It was a clear case of the writer/director in him overtaking the actor.

that's a spot-on analysis of the film. and what is more, it would be a tragedy if 'Marudhanayagam' were to be afflicted with the same disease, which is why i agree with what someone said earlier about the idea of casting someone else in the lead role, and kamal wielding the mantle of writer/director. as for the choice of lead actor, i don;t see an alternative to vikram, as there really is no one else today who has the physical stature and the screen presence to carry it off. kamal, of course, is an exception. he could do it himself, but that takes us back to the same argument...

From: ramsri on Wed May 25 10:20:06 2005.

Cinefan wrote:

As for MX,Yes his expressions with Pasupathi after talking to the police man,the way he says "Vanakkam Sir"are brilliant but still I feel the role on the whole was not a challenge.

one accusation i've heard hurled at him after MX is that the role didn't require an actor like kamal haasan to play it ... that it didn't give him enough scope for any histrionics/'character acting'. i, for one, find that absolutely absurd ... i mean, c'mon guys!! ... give the guy a break! he's progressed way beyong the point where he needs to prove his acting credentials. for God's sake .... it was a normal role, so he played it normally. what's wrong with that?

anyway, digressing from the topic too much - back to Marudhanayagam ...

From: Crab on Wed May 25 11:26:21 2005.

I have a strange hunch that Marudhanayagam may be released first in EU than in Asia. Plus I don't expect the film to last more than 100 minutes. Plus I don't expect songs. Plus I don't expect it until 2009. Plus I expect atleast 2,000 prints!

Historicals do well in EU than in US.

From: breadpuli on Wed May 25 11:32:47 2005.

Crab wrote:

I have a strange hunch that Marudhanayagam may be released first in EU than in Asia. Plus I don't expect the film to last more than 100 minutes. Plus I don't expect songs. Plus I don't expect it until 2009!

Historicals do well in EU than in US.

Razz

Plus I don't expect it to be a commercial success

From: Kumar on Thu May 26 1:25:41 2005.

ramsri wrote:

anyway, digressing from the topic too much - back to Marudhanayagam ...

You nailed it again ramsri. I think one of thet hardest roles to do is a mediocre, plain, everyday person. Many Tamil actors (read heroes) are used to playing larger than life characters- the saviour type. Pretty one dimensional. Not many of them can be subtle or 'underplay'. (On that note, I must say that Napolean did just that in Virumaandi, which made his role in that movie one of his best. This is coming from someone who used to make fun of him!)

I've also heard a critic (and other's who have mimicked him) accusing Kamal of narcissism in Hey Ram. Apparently Kamal appeared in very single shot (he didn't). But how else can you make a movie on an individual's tumultuous life during a chaotic period? In Hey Ram, Kamal did what most main actors cannot do today - portray a real person, a 3-dimensional character who goes through good times, pain, anger, etc. Most heroes now just do their mandatory fights, punch-lines, romance, and then leave everything else to the comedians and song sequences.

As for Marudhanayagam, I really don't know if Vikram can pull this off. I take it that Kamal wrote the screenplay. I suppose the only person who can truly understand the character would be Kamal himself. He can decide what MN's traits are, his habits, movements, etc, which may involve spontaneous action during filming. Like ramsri said, Kamal lives his characters (not method acting though). When he writes on his characters, he creates histories for them which the audience may never see or realise. For example in Virumaandi, his friends have names, occupations, histories, etc, which we don't get to see. It gives them depth. Vikram is good, but I don�t know if he has that look and feel for such a character as MN.

From: Cinefan on Thu May 26 1:39:23 2005.

Ok,Ramsri&Kumar,I accept your point that there is nothing wrong in Kamal doing a MX.

Speaking of Narcissism&Kamal,I always wonder why he is accused of that.It is those heroes who get songs,dialogues written praising them,tell punch lines,give messages to their fans looking into the camera who are narcissictic&not Kamal.These accusations come from frustrated reviewers like S.Anand&Khalid Mohammad&jealous contemporaries.They don't deserve any attention.

From: Roshan on Thu May 26 3:35:48 2005.

Nice discussions friends !!!

ramsri wrote:

Well said ramsri !! There are people who criticize him when he plays a normal role saying there wasnt enough scope for his acting part but when he tries to prove his acting skills then they scream that he dominates the whole film without giving importance to his co-stars. For example - at the time of Vasool Raja MBBS - these guys criticized Kamal for not giving enough scope for Prabhu ! But what kind of a scope Prabhu was given in CM ?( apart from being the producer Wink

)And a great actor like Nasar was wasted totally (he was wasted in Padayappa too) . But these so called intelligent critics would only try to vomit at Kamal. Twisted Evil

From: Roshan on Thu May 26 3:43:34 2005.

Kumar wrote:

As for Marudhanayagam, I really don't know if Vikram can pull this off

I too feel the same and Vikram is yet to prove his acting skills without any get up changes , specially in a normal role like Kamal did in his early days and then like 'moondraam piRai", magaanadhi etc. Apart from Sethu and Pithaa Magan I'm unable to recall any other movies for some good/different performance by Vikram. And those two roles bacame successful mainly due to his get up changes more than his acting skills. It's highly irritating when I see people trying to compare Vikram with Kamal, Dhanush with Kamal ( after Kaadhal KondEn - some ariavaikkaadus started comparing him with Kamal), Simbu with Kamal etc. etc
From: sakaLAKALAKAlaa Vallavar on Thu May 26 5:00:02 2005.

//For example in Virumaandi, his friends have names, occupations, histories, etc, which we don't get to see. //

You can see thouse even now, go to www.kamalhassan.net and its a Virumaandi Site and u go to gallary to see this, abrief word an every charecter u see in viru.

Kamal is more of in to it.

From: Crab on Thu May 26 7:00:05 2005.

Cinefan wrote:

...It is those heroes who get songs,dialogues written praising them,tell punch lines,give messages to their fans looking into the camera who are narcissictic & not Kamal. These accusations come from frustrated reviewers like S.Anand&Khalid Mohammad & jealous contemporaries. They don't deserve any attention.

Bulls' Eye!

From: Girish11 on Thu May 26 11:39:32 2005.

Roshan wrote:

Kumar wrote:

As for Marudhanayagam, I really don't know if Vikram can pull this off

I too feel the same and Vikram is yet to prove his acting skills without any get up changes , specially in a normal role like Kamal did in his early days and then like 'moondraam piRai", magaanadhi etc. Apart from Sethu and Pithaa Magan I'm unable to recall any other movies for some good/different performance by Vikram. And those two roles bacame successful mainly due to his get up changes more than his acting skills. It's highly irritating when I see people trying to compare Vikram with Kamal, Dhanush with Kamal ( after Kaadhal KondEn - some ariavaikkaadus started comparing him with Kamal), Simbu with Kamal etc. etc Twisted Evil

Totally agree with you Roshan, Vikram is way beyong Kamal
in terms of acting skills, but all the same, you missed out Kaasi.
What is your opinion about his perfomance in Kaasi?

From: ramsri on Thu May 26 11:54:05 2005.

Kumar wrote:

As for Marudhanayagam, I really don't know if Vikram can pull this off. I take it that Kamal wrote the screenplay. I suppose the only person who can truly understand the character would be Kamal himself. He can decide what MN's traits are, his habits, movements, etc, which may involve spontaneous action during filming. Like ramsri said, Kamal lives his characters (not method acting though). When he writes on his characters, he creates histories for them which the audience may never see or realise. For example in Virumaandi, his friends have names, occupations, histories, etc, which we don't get to see. It gives them depth. Vikram is good, but I don�t know if he has that look and feel for such a character as MN.

Kumar ... you have a way of putting these things across that makes them sound really convincing

i am with you on that - really doubt if vikram can bring the kind of depth to the role as would be expected in MN. but i felt the point made by someone earlier (i think it was Cinefan who raised it) was pretty valid too. it's just that sometimes kamal the writer or kamal the director gets so much involved in the film that he tends to eclipse kamal the actor, pushing him into the background and diluting the effect of the portrayal. 'Virumaandi' was the example given and i tend to agree with that. of course, one could argue in the opposite vein as well, 'Hey Ram' being a case in point - to prove that the guy really can do everything by himself if he really wants to ...

From: Kumar on Thu May 26 18:15:38 2005.

ramsri wrote:

Kumar ... you have a way of putting these things across that makes them sound really convincing Thumbs Up!

Convincing? Do you reckon I have a future as a politician?

I still feel that Virumaandi was one of Kamal's better performances. And yes, Hey Ram proves that our man can take the helm of an entire movie. I do see Kamal eventually focussing solely on writing and directing. The thing is, Kamal is a perfectionist, or at least strives for perfection. That's why he works with his tight knit group of preferred actors- Nasser, S N Lakshmi, Delhi Ganesh, Pasupathy, Om Puri, etc. It will be a task for him to find a main actor that would suit his needs. I can see Madhavan as a potential. I feel Surya has that 'X' factor too. And, yes, perhaps Vikram in certain roles.

OK, if there's anyone else I would like to see in the MN role it would be Surya. I think he has the look (his eyes have a kind of strength and depth, and he looks like he's carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders). But he looks quite young though; looks like he's still in his twenties. Kamal is the man for the role. And I�ve seen the MN still shots and I cannot see anyone else achieving this look.
http://www.geocities.com/pals008/Marudanayagam1.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/pals008/Marudanayagam2.jpg

[/tscii]

PS: Hi Roshan. How are things with you? Hope everything is well. Good to see you.

From: Alien on Fri May 27 0:21:56 2005.

Kumar wrote:

ramsri wrote:

Kumar ... you have a way of putting these things across that makes them sound really convincing Thumbs Up!

Convincing? Do you reckon I have a future as a politician? Wink

I still feel that Virumaandi was one of Kamal's better performances. And yes, Hey Ram proves that our man can take the helm of an entire movie. I do see Kamal eventually focussing solely on writing and directing. The thing is, Kamal is a perfectionist, or at least strives for perfection. That's why he works with his tight knit group of preferred actors- Nasser, S N Lakshmi, Delhi Ganesh, Pasupathy, Om Puri, etc. It will be a task for him to find a main actor that would suit his needs. I can see Madhavan as a potential. I feel Surya has that 'X' factor too. And, yes, perhaps Vikram in certain roles.

OK, if there's anyone else I would like to see in the MN role it would be Surya. I think he has the look (his eyes have a kind of strength and depth, and he looks like he's carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders). But he looks quite young though; looks like he's still in his twenties. Kamal is the man for the role. And I�ve seen the MN still shots and I cannot see anyone else achieving this look. http://www.geocities.com/pals008/Marudanayagam1.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/pals008/Marudanayagam2.jpg

[/tscii]

PS: Hi Roshan. How are things with you? Hope everything is well. Good to see you.

I felt the same too.

With vikram, i feel his acting is very repetitive even just out of his only less than 12 films or so......
But Kamal even after his 200 odd films 8)

Surya is quite versatile too.

From: rachel on Fri May 27 0:35:34 2005.

vasanth_luv,
why are you guys talking about maruthanayam film?
i thought kamal had dropped it. is he working on it again?
or you are talking about it just for fun.
From: Roshan on Fri May 27 0:36:53 2005.

Kumar wrote:

PS: Hi Roshan. How are things with you? Hope everything is well. Good to see you.

I'm fine Kumar hope things are fine with you too. I was away for a couple of days. Nice to see some interesting discussions. Keep it up.

Girish,

Regarding kaasi, Vikram did his best and worked hard I agree but after the first half an hour..it was kind of monotonous. Besides, almost all characters in that film were crying all the time (like in mega serials). I saw it on video and did not have the patience to watch the whole movie.

PS: Kalabavan Mani too - in the Malayalam original - has done a great job in that role. Therefore there's nothing new or creative about the role vikram did . That's why I left it out.
From: Roshan on Fri May 27 0:39:19 2005.

rachel wrote:

vasanth_luv,
why are you guys talking about maruthanayam film?
i thought kamal had dropped it. is he working on it again?
or you are talking about it just for fun.

That's Kamal rachel !! No matter he drops it, starts it, makes it or finishes it, you've got something serious to talk and discuss about
From: Alien on Fri May 27 0:40:41 2005.

rachel wrote:

vasanth_luv,
why are you guys talking about maruthanayam film?
i thought kamal had dropped it. is he working on it again?
or you are talking about it just for fun.

The talks r there that Kamal would be reviving the film soon, the reason why he dropped the project after some initial progress was, because the shortage of funds.
From: rachel on Fri May 27 0:47:06 2005.

Quote:

That's Kamal rachel !! No matter he drops it, starts it, makes it or finishes it, you've got something serious to talk and discuss about

oh..really...really..weird....kamal fans valzha although his films flop.

Quote:

Besides, almost all characters in that film were crying all the time (like in mega serials). I saw it on video and did not have the patience to watch the whole movie.

From: Girish11 on Fri May 27 1:24:03 2005.

Roshan wrote:

Kumar wrote:

PS: Hi Roshan. How are things with you? Hope everything is well. Good to see you.

I'm fine Kumar hope things are fine with you too. I was away for a couple of days. Nice to see some interesting discussions. Keep it up. Smile

Girish,

Regarding kaasi, Vikram did his best and worked hard I agree but after the first half an hour..it was kind of monotonous. Besides, almost all characters in that film were crying all the time (like in mega serials). I saw it on video and did not have the patience to watch the whole movie.

PS: Kalabavan Mani too - in the Malayalam original - has done a great job in that role. Therefore there's nothing new or creative about the role vikram did . That's why I left it out.

Thanks for the response Roshan. I have not seen the original
Malayalam version, have you seen it? I heard that Kalabavan Manis performance was very good, he got a national award for tha
movie right? What is the name of the Malayalam original btw?
Probably, not seeing the original version, I found his acting
to be impressive. Has Vikram tried to copy Kalabavan Mani and act
the same way or has he done it differently?

Do you see Malayalam movies regularly? I have a big list of Malayalam movies which are possible for me to get, but I need to know which are the good ones to choose from the list. Can you help me out? Or if someone can suggest a good trustworthy
unbiased website where there is a database of Malayalam movies reviews, shall appreciate, tried at IMDB, but no a couple of movies which I tried there, no luck.

Sorry for the digression.

From: Roshan on Fri May 27 2:09:47 2005.

Girish,

The name of the movie is 'vasanthiyum lakshmiyum pinne gnaanum'

I dont get the chance of seeing Malayalam movies regularly. And here in Sri Lanka it's extremely difficult to get Malayalam movie CDs or DVDs. I have seen a selected few and 'vasanthiyum lakshmiyum pinne gnaanum' is one of those. My bro who works in Middle East gets the chance of watching plenty of Malayalam movies and he brought me this movie and insisted to see it.

Kalabavan Mani badly expected a National Award for this film but unfortunately he was not awarded. At that time there was this news that he fainted the moment he learnt he had not been selected for the award.
From: sakaLAKALAKAlaa Vallavar on Fri May 27 2:38:51 2005.

rachel wrote:

vasanth_luv,
why are you guys talking about maruthanayam film?
i thought kamal had dropped it. is he working on it again?
or you are talking about it just for fun.

The following are excerpts from Dr.Kamal on Marudhanaayagam, on different situations. Also there are some positive facts on Kamalji getting Managed for Funds for His Magnum Opus Marudha Naayagam, Shortly MN.

1.He, when stopped the 30 mins part of the movie said that there come an title that "After 10 years.......", so there is 2 more years for kamal in advance, to start MarudhaNaayagam

2.Once he said MN will start on 2006. It seems he is starting the initial works so he can re-start the fims atleast on 2006 end

3.He once has said that all the 30 mins part of the film are the scenes where the situation demands that Kamal shoud look young. Only those kinda parts are filmed. This shows his future forseeing capabilities.So No problem on his ageing and appearance.Afterall Still he is the most young looking actor as said by many.

4.His move to Bollywood on with Bi-Lingual Mx has given lukewarm response to him there. He is further proceeding to other language domains on Indian Cinema like Kannada[Recently announced Ramesh aravind srarred Remake of Sathileelavathi] and Telugu[Talks are on witha famous telugu Producer] So he may refresh and renovate the brand Kamal Hassan Name all over Indian Cinema which project him as an Whole Indian Actor with support in all India Level.This will help him to manage getting Funding Sources either From or Outside India.

5.He has spoken to a "Business Standard" Reporter that His Rajkamal International has an turnover of 40 crores in 2004-2005 Financial Year. and Plans are eveluvated for Rajkamal International Going Public, IPO to get Funds for MN. Already he has been to Distribution of his films to Us\UK and has setup offices there.Thus raajKamal goes truly International, Further more increasing the chances of getting Funds.

6.When he goes to Us for VV shooting he is set to meet some Filmi delegates and Production Houses. Keeps his mouth closed on these.....

7.For Long Time he is having and maintaining Links and communication wordwide with Writers\Directors\Production Houses of Hollywood, French and UK ect.He frequently attends Film Festivals allover the world and many times got selected for screening his Films in those Festivals there, thus having an ground level introduction and rappaport. His few films has been in consideration for some levels of Oascar and Other Global Filmi awards.

8.He has won lot of Awards inside India and has a very good track record here.

9.The very fact that this film has been clap-started by Queen of England is also a supportive factor, but funding ppl may look in to the reason why it got ceased in middle. Kamal once said that a French financier rejected funding of MN, after India tested the Hydrogen Bombs at Pokraan, and Refused signing the CTBT.But that was long back and given the positive facts above, Some one else shall find intresting to fund this Project.

These facts will give what is going on inside kamalhassan's mind.....
Maruthanaayagam flows in Kamal's Blood
From: alwarpet_andavan on Fri May 27 6:06:12 2005.

Kumar wrote:

I still feel that Virumaandi was one of Kamal's better performances.

Vakkali sariya chonna pangu (Sorry, in Madurai they use it as a complement too )

Kumar wrote:

OK, if there's anyone else I would like to see in the MN role it would be Surya.

IMO, NOBODY can do the role of MN but KH. I rate Surya better than Vikram because he is a very secure actor and hasn't fallen for this "image" thing, he's a self-confessed thalaivar rasigan and he holds a slight advantage with respect to accent, etc.
However, for MN i doubt if he has the stature whereas Vikram does.

And about Kamal not being a method actor, i beg to differ. He himself has went on record saying he prepares for every role of his and he belongs to the Brando school of acting ("I'm Brando's son"), which is method acting. Of course, he does improvise if the shot calls for it.

alwarpet_andavan
From: Cinefan on Fri May 27 7:02:59 2005.

A lot of hubbers are talking of Surya as a possible candidate for the lead role in MN( If at all the film gets made in the very near future,I don't see Kamal giving it up for anyone else )but I disagree.Not because he is bad,as somebody mentioned he is better than Vikram but he loses out in age,nativity(Vikram is also Paramakudi)&personality.Anyway it's a case of wait&watch.But I think Kamal is very serious when he says MN might be revived,just look at the way he is going about dusting off his potential markets-MX in Hindi,Rama Shama Bhama in kannada,a telugu film for D.Rama Naidu.
From: RajaRam on Fri May 27 7:27:27 2005.

Hi guys,
I don't know why you all talking about other actors in MN.

Can you imagine chappani in 16 other than Kamal?
Can you imagine balu in salangaioli other than kamal?
and in so many films.

still both vikram and Surya have not proved their versatile and BO power.
Except TN they don't have market.

Then how can ask to act in 50 cr project?

MN is one and only for KH.

From: alwarpet_andavan on Fri May 27 7:50:09 2005.

RajaRam wrote:

Hi guys,
I don't know why you all talking about other actors in MN.

Can you imagine chappani in 16 other than Kamal?
Can you imagine balu in salangaioli other than kamal?
and in so many films.

still both vikram and Surya have not proved their versatile and BO power.
Except TN they don't have market.

Then how can ask to act in 50 cr project?

MN is one and only for KH.

RajaRam,
You are absolutely right.
When we're talking about others, we are just indulging in some harmless speculation and hyposthesis

alwarpet_andavan

From: ramsri on Fri May 27 13:21:50 2005.

alwarpet_andavan wrote:

When we're talking about others, we are just indulging in some harmless speculation and hyposthesis

that's right ... i don't think kamal himself, will, even for a moment envisage the possibility of anyone other than himself playing the lead in Marudhanayagam. we can talk for hours on end about how well vikram/surya/anyone else will or will not fit into the role ... but if at all the project is revived (and all of us will earnestly hope for the best in this regard) then it would a disappointment of untold magnitude to have anyone other than kamal playing MN.

From: ramsri on Fri May 27 13:26:39 2005.

sakaLAKALAKAlaa Vallavar wrote:

He once has said that all the 30 mins part of the film are the scenes where the situation demands that Kamal shoud look young. Only those kinda parts are filmed. This shows his future forseeing capabilities.So No problem on his ageing and appearance.Afterall Still he is the most young looking actor as said by many.

that's interesting ... yeah, that is really interesting. can anyone substantiate all this. bcos, for all the talk about revival of the project and all that, we still don't seem to know much about what MN is really about. can anyone shed more light on this?

From: Crab on Fri May 27 13:34:44 2005.

Who exactly is Marudhanayagam?

For a while I believed it was a misnomer for Madhurai Nayagan. So, the plot must be about Sundara Pandiyan who recaptured the city from the eunuch commander Malik Gafur who had earlier sacked it circa 1300 AD.

MGR had already done this one in the seventies!

But, now I am not so sure. I read somewhere online that its an 18th century plot (not 14th century as previously thought).

From: Girish11 on Fri May 27 14:24:03 2005.

Roshan wrote:

Girish,

The name of the movie is 'vasanthiyum lakshmiyum pinne gnaanum'

I dont get the chance of seeing Malayalam movies regularly. And here in Sri Lanka it's extremely difficult to get Malayalam movie CDs or DVDs. I have seen a selected few and 'vasanthiyum lakshmiyum pinne gnaanum' is one of those. My bro who works in Middle East gets the chance of watching plenty of Malayalam movies and he brought me this movie and insisted to see it.

Kalabavan Mani badly expected a National Award for this film but unfortunately he was not awarded. At that time there was this news that he fainted the moment he learnt he had not been selected for the award.

Roshan,

Thanks for the info. Should try to get this one.
To avoid digression, shall make a list of the Mal. movies which
I was mentioning about and post it in the Indian films section,
please point out the good movies you know about. Further,
if you are interested to get the Mal movies, you can get them
at www.tmstorrents.com

From: rachel on Fri May 27 20:14:20 2005.

Quote:

These facts will give what is going on inside kamalhassan's mind.....
Maruthanaayagam flows in Kamal's Blood

ayyo kadavulle......naan escape......
From: sakaLAKALAKAlaa Vallavar on Sat May 28 0:55:54 2005.

rachel wrote:

Quote:

These facts will give what is going on inside kamalhassan's mind.....
Maruthanaayagam flows in Kamal's Blood

ayyo kadavulle......naan escape......

evlo nalla facts athil irkku, athai vittuttu correctaa ithu mattum unga kannil padume
From: rachel on Sat May 28 2:11:16 2005.

Quote:

evlo nalla facts athil irkku, athai vittuttu correctaa ithu mattum unga kannil padume

yes...yes.....i agree.

From: alwarpet_andavan on Tue Jun 21 5:53:29 2005.

Friends,
This is what International award-winning cinematographer Ravi Varman (Anniyan) has to say about nammavar and Marudhanayagam:

Quote:

After the long shower, I called my guru Ravi K Chandran and informed him. Then I called Priyadarshan and he in turn passed on the news to Kamal Haasan.

At that time, I had just finished working as an assistant to Ravi K Chandran for Kamal Sir's Marudanayakam. The moment he came to know about the award, he called me to his office and congratulated me. He arranged a press meet and introduced me to the media.

Let me say one thing about Marudanayakam. When I say it is ten times better than Lagaan, you will know what kind of a film it is. If Kamal Sir were born outside India, he would have been a very well known international filmmaker.

From: vincent on Tue Jun 21 8:16:30 2005.

FRNZ,
I HEARD DAT KAMAL HAS PROMISED TO HIS FANS THAT HE WILL RELEASE HIS MARUTHANAYAGAM IN FIVE YEARS TIME??

IS IT TRUE

IF YES

IT'S GOING TO BE A BIG AAAAPPU FOR ALL THE DIRECTORS AND HEROES IN THE WORLD!!!!
From: sanjay on Tue Jun 21 8:52:42 2005.

marudhanayagam will never be made simply b'cos hardly any literature is available on him. Whatever there is is not authenticated. Kamal is barking up the wrong tree.

If he wants to justify the budget, he can take something like say Ponniyin selvan which he had dropped. It will be a classic. Hope he takes the advise of well wishers & drops MN.
From: RC on Tue Jun 21 10:09:06 2005.

Assuming that this hasnt been shared yet...

http://us.rediff.com/movies/2005/jun/20ravi.htm

Ace Cinematographer Ravi Varman's comments on Marudhanayagam..

I should have read AA's post before posting this

From: Crab on Tue Jun 21 10:10:31 2005.

sanjay wrote:

marudhanayagam will never be made simply b'cos hardly any literature is available on him. Whatever there is is not authenticated. Kamal is barking up the wrong tree.

If he wants to justify the budget, he can take something like say Ponniyin selvan which he had dropped. It will be a classic. Hope he takes the advise of well wishers & drops MN.

Nobody knew about Kattabomman until Sivaji said so.

From: tamizharasan on Tue Jun 21 13:49:09 2005.

Alwarpet andavan
I agree with what ravi varman said but unfortunate thing is aamir khan got world fame by nominating his movie to oscar before Kamal hassan did get nomination for his movie. In my opinion Hey Ram is far better movie than Lagaan but commercial success of Lagaan gave aamir khan money to promote his movie here in USA. Kamal has to come up with commercial as well as quality movies like Devar magan to get his movie nominated for oscar. Do you agree?

alwarpet_andavan wrote:

Friends,
This is what International award-winning cinematographer Ravi Varman (Anniyan) has to say about nammavar and Marudhanayagam:

Quote:

From: Alien on Wed Jun 22 8:20:53 2005.

alwarpet_andavan wrote:

Friends,
This is what International award-winning cinematographer Ravi Varman (Anniyan) has to say about nammavar and Marudhanayagam:

Quote:

From: alwarpet_andavan on Wed Jun 22 9:03:57 2005.

Tamizharasan,
I completely agree with you
a) that HR was far better than Lagaan. However, this is where the hype-factory and the lobby-machinery comes into play. It's daunting enough for a movie to be nominated at the Oscars. That done, the makers have to lobby like mad to get the people at the Academy and others to watch it. Requires lotsa $s.
BTW, Oscars are not the ultimate, though they are great for future marketability and saleability, not to speak of recognition
b) Yes, Kamal needs to make movies which are commercially successful, but no one, KH included, makes movies to make losses. It's just that he sometimes over-estimates our audiences. There's no "silver-bullet" formula to guarantee that a movie is a hit, at the same time maintaining quality.

From: alwarpet_andavan on Wed Jun 22 9:08:43 2005.

sanjay wrote:

Sanjay,
Even in my first post i mentioned my apprehensions about the risks involved in Marudhanayagam but authenticity is not one of them. So what if it's not all fact? Like Crab said, we don't know our own history that well

From: sanjay on Wed Jun 22 9:17:11 2005.

alwarpet,

what I mean is that it is just not worth the budget.
From: alwarpet_andavan on Wed Jun 22 9:24:05 2005.

sanjay wrote:

alwarpet,

what I mean is that it is just not worth the budget.

I hate to admit it but i feel the same....

How i wish thalaivar proves me (us) wrong!
From: Cinefan on Thu Jun 23 1:05:02 2005.

I feel Kamal should take his script to hollywood,get himself a big production house&'A' rated actor,make the movie in Tamil&English.He can act in the Tamil version.Then it will mean that the money involved will not become a risk.otherwise I don't see any reason why he has to get involved in such a huge production at this stage of his career.
From: vincent on Thu Jun 23 1:52:56 2005.

MARUDHANAYAGAM IS A DREAM PROJECT FOR KAMAL!!!!
VARUVARU... MARUDHANAYAGAM VARUVARU
AVARU YEPPA VARUVARU EPDI VARUVARUNU
AVARUKKE THERIYILE
AANA VARUVARU!!!!!!

VAORU PERIYANTHU VEPPARULE AAAAAAPPPUUUU
From: ramsri on Sun Jun 26 13:11:00 2005.

alwarpet_andavan wrote:

BTW, Oscars are not the ultimate, though they are great for future marketability and saleability, not to speak of recognition

interesting you should make that point, AA - i was just watching this interview with ashutosh gowarikar on BBC, where he was talking about the kind of marketability that an oscar (or even an oscar nomination) gets you ... whether or not an oscar is the ultimate recognition in cinema is open to debate, but there is no doubting the fact that hollywood in general and the academy awards in particular, have the kind of global reach that indian cinema can only dream of. which is why gowarikar was making the point that if he ever made a "crossover" film - the kind of movie which would be aimed at a worldwide audience, his first step would be to route its release and distribution through one of those big hollywood studios. in his opinion, that and only that can guarantee a truly global audience for a film.

i just wonder ... would a film like 'Marudhanayagam' fit into this category of "crossover" cinema? and would kamal ever consider going into a deal with a high-profile hollywood studio to release his film overseas?
From: sanjay on Wed Jun 29 3:34:19 2005.

Kamal initially thot that only hs films were fit for an oscar nomination. So, when aamir khan beat him to the post he started saying that oscars are not everything etc., etc.,

It is a case of sour grapes & professional jealousy.

But definitely his Hey Ram desreved to be the indian entry for oscar rather than a simplistic film like lagaan. That it made it to the final 5 was a surprise.

When ordinary films of kamal like sagar & indain have been nominated for oscars, I wonder how a classic like hey Ram was not sent.
From: alwarpet_andavan on Wed Jun 29 8:53:08 2005.

Sanjay,
You are wrong on many counts. First of all Kamal doesn't think only his films are capable of making it to the Oscars. Third, he has gone on record saying "Oscars are not the ultimate" many times even beofre Lagaan made it. Thirdly, no Kamal film has made it to the Osacrs. ie, Nominated for the "Best Film in a Foreign Language" category at the Oscars. In fact, only Mother India, Salaam Bombay and Lagaan have made it from India.

I agree with you that Kamal should not have got the National award for Indian but instead for some other movies

From: Girish11 on Wed Jun 29 13:59:26 2005.

alwarpet_andavan wrote:

Sanjay,
You are wrong on many counts. First of all Kamal doesn't think only his films are capable of making it to the Oscars. Third, he has gone on record saying "Oscars are not the ultimate" many times even beofre Lagaan made it. Thirdly, no Kamal film has made it to the Osacrs. ie, Nominated for the "Best Film in a Foreign Language" category at the Oscars. In fact, only Mother India, Salaam Bombay and Lagaan have made it from India.

I agree with you that Kamal should not have got the National award for Indian but instead for some other movies

Agree with you A-A because I feel the main reason for the
award for Indian is the old Kamal acting, good acting, no doubt
but it was very attractive due to the make up which show
expressions which are not original. Anyways, I thought he
deserved it for Sagara Sanagamam, Swati muthyam, Guna,
Mahanadi and was badly let down when he did not get the
awards for these movies. Especially Guna. It is just unbeleivable
a peromance as good as Guna did not get National award
and imagine Anil Kapoor getting the national award for Pukar,
just a big joke.

The national awards took a deep plunge by handing over
awards to unworthy perfomances for a few years. No idea
how it is now, hope it is back to being fair.

From: alwarpet_andavan on Thu Jun 30 5:04:09 2005.

Girish,
I think the National Awards are becoming more like our Indian cricket team selection with its quota system based on regions. ie, they are trying to maintain a sort of balance, which is OK in a way but i'm not sure. I'd rather be comfortable with one actor getting it many times if the basis is pure merit.
One more thing, a lot of people have the notion that we Kamal fans can't appreciate any other actor, when it comes to awards and all. I think it's not true, at least in my case.
All i'm saying is as long as Kamal loses out to someone worthy its OK, but the example you mentioned (Anil Kapoor) is what the problem is.

Another thing..... lets take the case of Lagaan and Amir Khan. IMO, he is able to pass of as a great actor (he's not, in my book) largely due to his "get-ups", more than anything else. One important thing i'd look for as an actor's skill is dialogue delivery ad variety in that. I think AK hasn't shown that yet. I'm not only talking about accents here - Old man in sagara sangamam, Guna, the forgotten Michael in MMKR, Nalla Sivam in Anbe Sivam, and recently Avinasi in MX are examples from KH.
From: RajaRam on Thu Jun 30 5:04:38 2005.

He also deserved for HeyRam and Anbesivam.
In fact he lost award by 1 vote for HeyRam.
From: alwarpet_andavan on Thu Jun 30 5:08:17 2005.

RajaRam wrote:

He also deserved for HeyRam and Anbesivam.

Absolutely
I would say Virumaandi also.
BTW, which film got the Best Screenplay award for 2003 (though Viru was released in 2004 it competed in the 2003 awards)
From: Alien on Thu Jun 30 8:06:47 2005.

RajaRam wrote:

He also deserved for HeyRam and Anbesivam.
In fact he lost award by 1 vote for HeyRam.

Exactly
Damn system

From: ramsri on Thu Jun 30 8:32:10 2005.

Girish11 wrote:

It is just unbeleivable
a peromance as good as Guna did not get National award
and imagine Anil Kapoor getting the national award for Pukar,
just a big joke.
The national awards took a deep plunge by handing over
awards to unworthy perfomances for a few years. No idea
how it is now, hope it is back to being fair.

girish,
i think we're way past the time when a national award used to be a genuine recognition of merit in cinema. of course, whether the awards, in their 40-odd year history, have ever really recognized quality filmmaking is another debate. but the point is, it would be grossly unfair to use the national awards as a parameter to judge the worth of an actor. yeah, maybe kamal should've won it for 'Guna', he definitely should've won it for 'Mahanadi' ... but then again, he's just another victim of what is essentially a flawed system. i mean, i thought mohanlal deserved an award for 'Iruvar'. mani ratnam even went on record to say he was disappointed with the jury for not recognizing what was actually a stunning performance. so these things happen ...
but then, i don't think any actor worth his salt (more so an actor of kamal's stature and repute) would worry himself sick over these awards. because in india, we still don't have what can be called our equivalent of the oscars. when you get nominated for an oscar and don't win, you're understandably disappointed ... not because the oscar as such reflects your true worth, but it gets you the kind of publicity that, let's face it, no other recognition can even match. winning an oscar pretty much guarantees your place among the most sought-after actors in tinseltown, at least for the immediate future. great offers, pay hikes, better scripts, more clout ... all follow as a result. but here we don't have that kind of system where a national award can bring with it the kind of 'value' that an oscar represents over there. maybe because everyone knows its a farce and people couldn't care less who won it this year ... ??

From: Girish11 on Fri Jul 1 2:14:34 2005.

A_A/RR/Vasanth/Ramsri,

Approx 12-15 years back, I used to have a respect for the
national awards and believed in them and used to try to
watch the movies getting the awards but once the gimmicks
started just stopped bothering about them and following up
the national awards, if someone happened to mention it, fine
but I have not taken interest since long time. A-A comment about
distributing the awards region wise is really shocking. It is
totally unfair IMO. Years back, I thought film fare
awards were a big joke, never had any regards for it, after seeing
some ridiculous results of Hindi filmfare awards. National awards
have come to the same level sadly. Although many Kamal
supporters/websites proudly state Kamal getting 16
filmfare awards, I personally never take it as a big acheivement
seeing the way these awards are given.

Amir Khan is definitely over rated there are many more much
better than him. I saw interviews recently where respected
personalities having good knowledge about acting/movies
have stated publicly that Amir is over rated. If I remember correct
Shabana Azmi mentioned it on the tv show Koffee with Karan.
Also some mentioned most under rated actor to be Irfan Khan,
very true. Anyone seen his work? Really great, very intense
acting.

Ramsri, it is good that national awards dont get huge
recognition to the winners like oscars, if that happened,
imagine how many unworthy actors/technicians will be over rated.
Already the industry is crowded with such over rated people.
From: Cinefan on Wed Aug 31 6:44:21 2005.

This week's 'Kumkumam'has a cover story on how Kamal is relaunching 'Maruthanayakam'.

Kamal's speeches at the state&national convention's of V-Can marketing(The MLM company which bought a lakh cassettes of ME) is being cited as evidence.

The thrust of Kamal's speech was entirely on the business aspects of cinema-what percentage of the population should watch a film for it to become a superhit,how the VCD menace affects the film industry etc etc.During the course of his sppech he is reported to have told the large no of distributors(of V-can)assembled that he is embarking on something big&with their help,he can show the true potential of the Tamil film market.

Kumkumam speculates that he was referring to Maruthanayakam.
V-Can is a MLM company which is trying to erase the bitter memories of the 'Kantha padukkai'case.They now market products of only reputed companies.Kamal has also reportedly thought a lot about how wise it would be for him to associate with such a company.

But a series of meetings has convinced him about their intentions states Kumkumam.The formula is simple,like an IPO,collect a fixed sum of money from each distributor of V-Can.The total comes to about 150 crores,more than enough money to make the film possible.But the magazine is silent on what benefit would be there for each distributor(or did I miss it?).

Anyway,the veracity of this article is suspicious&Kamal might have been referring to something else when talking about his big project.
The magz does not carry any comment from Kamal,his production house or from V-Can.

From: njv on Wed Aug 31 8:51:17 2005.

Cinefan wrote:

This week's 'Kumkumam'has a cover story on how Kamal is relaunching 'Maruthanayakam'.

Kamal's speeches at the state&national convention's of V-Can marketing(The MLM company which bought a lakh cassettes of ME) is being cited as evidence.

The thrust of Kamal's speech was entirely on the business aspects of cinema-what percentage of the population should watch a film for it to become a superhit,how the VCD menace affects the film industry etc etc.During the course of his sppech he is reported to have told the large no of distributors(of V-can)assembled that he is embarking on something big&with their help,he can show the true potential of the Tamil film market.

Kumkumam speculates that he was referring to Maruthanayakam.
V-Can is a MLM company which is trying to erase the bitter memories of the 'Kantha padukkai'case.They now market products of only reputed companies.Kamal has also reportedly thought a lot about how wise it would be for him to associate with such a company.

But a series of meetings has convinced him about their intentions states Kumkumam.The formula is simple,like an IPO,collect a fixed sum of money from each distributor of V-Can.The total comes to about 150 crores,more than enough money to make the film possible.But the magazine is silent on what benefit would be there for each distributor(or did I miss it?).

Anyway,the veracity of this article is suspicious&Kamal might have been referring to something else when talking about his big project.
The magz does not carry any comment from Kamal,his production house or from V-Can.

BS - They just wanted to say something on the cover to attract people to buy the magazine (if I was in India, I owuld have bought it!). This technique is used by all magazines, including TIME and what not, so I totally stoped buying magazines, just for this.

From: alwarpet_andavan on Wed Aug 31 9:39:12 2005.

Cinefan,
Thanks for the info and timely deterrence!
From: Cinefan on Wed Aug 31 12:50:09 2005.

njv&AA,
My small contribution towards preventing this rag from calling itself 'Tamizhnattin unmayana No 1'

The photos they have published of this convention has Kamal with a bandage on his wrist&has posters of MX behind.Possibly all this happened when V-Can bought the audio marketing rights of MX&Kamal was referring to the launch of his audio company.

I was flummoxed to why Kumkumam is using a 3-4 month old speech of Kamal&giving it a new twist.Guess to have details of Rajni's new film on the cover one week&follow it up with a story of Kamal's MN the next week makes sound business sense.
From: alwarpet_andavan on Fri Sep 2 4:45:57 2005.

In this week's AV , in Sujatha's "thodar" he has written about Mangal Pandey and Urine therapy extensively
More importantly for us, he says about the hyping up of the Sepoy mutiny and Mangal by the saffron fascists like Savarkar and the relative objectivity of British scholars on the same subject, without putting the movie down.
He goes on to say how the so-called First War of Independence was actually predated by an uprising in Tamil Nadu (Vellore), which is what Marudh is about. He says somehting like "Ippo mattum Marudhanayagam eduthu mudichu vandhirundhaal mangaL pAndE mangalA (dull) airukkum".

From: Cinefan on Fri Sep 2 6:55:14 2005.

alwarpet_andavan wrote:

In this week's AV , in Sujatha's "thodar" he has written about Mangal Pandey and Urine therapy extensively Smile

More importantly for us, he says about the hyping up of the Sepoy mutiny and Mangal by the saffron fascists like Savarkar and the relative objectivity of British scholars on the same subject, without putting the movie down.
He goes on to say how the so-called First War of Independence was actually predated by an uprising in Tamil Nadu (Vellore), which is what Marudh is about. He says somehting like "Ippo mattum Marudhanayagam eduthu mudichu vandhirundhaal mangaL pAndE mangalA (dull) airukkum".

I remember reading that at some film related function,Sujatha reportedly told Kamal(who was also seated on the dias)that he should forget about making MN.

From: Crab on Fri Sep 2 7:10:19 2005.

alwarpet_andavan wrote:

In this week's AV , in Sujatha's "thodar"...
He goes on to say how the so-called First War of Independence was actually predated by an uprising in Tamil Nadu (Vellore), which is what Marudh is about....

What the!

You mean Marudhanayagam is spun around the Vellore Mutiny of 1800s? Then, it means the plot is spun in the same generation as Kattabomman (1790s)!

Now, I am really really aroused.

From: alwarpet_andavan on Fri Sep 2 7:31:14 2005.

Crab wrote:

What the!

You mean Marudhanayagam is spun around the Vellore Mutiny of 1820s? Then, it means the plot is just one generation away from Kattabomman!

Now, I am really really aroused. Razz

Its surprising to me also, because even if the setting is before the Kattabomman generation, i thought Marudhanayagam was a small 18th century king from Madurai. Where's the link between Madurai and Vellore?

From: nilavupriyan on Sat Sep 3 12:55:40 2005.

Great news

heyy guys,
kamal is always a trend-setter we know.Now his plans to make movies are also turning out to be a new trends.the news is he is gonna use "multi-level marketing" for making marudha nayagam.By multilevel marketing there are about 600 distributers going to invest their money and it would turn out to make huge amount which is more than enough to make marudhanayagam.

According to kamal ,if 20% of people in tamilnadu watch a movie its hit.then if 40% watch a movie its a super dooper hit.The plus point of marudha nayagam is ,everyone will like to watch it atleast once.So,he is sure about its box-office position.Kamal fans are urging him to release marudhanayagam with shivaji..the things are going fine regarding the starting of marudhanayagam. [/b]

From: njv on Sat Sep 3 16:33:47 2005.

nilavupriyan wrote:

Great news

heyy guys,
kamal is always a trend-setter we know.Now his plans to make movies are also turning out to be a new trends.the news is he is gonna use "multi-level marketing" for making marudha nayagam.By multilevel marketing there are about 600 distributers going to invest their money and it would turn out to make huge amount which is more than enough to make marudhanayagam.

According to kamal ,if 20% of people in tamilnadu watch a movie its hit.then if 40% watch a movie its a super dooper hit.The plus point of marudha nayagam is ,everyone will like to watch it atleast once.So,he is sure about its box-office position.Kamal fans are urging him to release marudhanayagam with shivaji..the things are going fine regarding the starting of marudhanayagam. [/b]

BS news. Dont believe. Kamal is busy with VV, followed by Dhasavatharam , followed by a telugu movie. Its no so easy to revive MN, after 10 years of gap. MN will never hit the screen. Dont waste your time discussing abt it.

From: Shankar on Mon Sep 5 0:40:28 2005.

cinefan/aa,
Sujatha wrote a novel with that theme and its a great book..I think its called "iraththam orE niRam"
From: Cinefan on Mon Sep 5 1:02:23 2005.

Shankar,
Thanks.Will try to read that one.
From: Shankar on Mon Sep 5 1:27:26 2005.

Crab,
maruthanAyagam doesn't belong to the same period...MaruthanAyagam (or yusuf khan) is the one who played the 'ettappan' to puli thEvan...It was bcos of marudhanayagam puli thEvan lost his battle to Robert Clive. Not sure why kamal took up marudhanAyagam as his hero ! may be he got inspired by "oru vadakkan veera gAdha" a brilliant movie scrpited by M T Vasudevan nair on "chadhiyan chandu" (traitor chandu), who according to mallu folklore, killed the king by cheating him, and MTV Nair gave the other side of the story.

Anyway, kamal wud've done his homework, and the outcome would surely be great if the trailer was anything to go by.
From: Cinefan on Mon Sep 12 2:04:44 2005.

http://www.cinesouth.com/masala/hotnews/new/09092005-2.shtml

Kamal clarifies.
From: selvakumar on Tue Feb 14 8:38:40 2006.

Revived..

From: alwarpet_andavan on Wed Feb 15 5:56:16 2006.

Nobody i know [directly] has seen the Marudh trailor. A friend and a fellow Aandavar bhakthar Dubai Ananth has been trying to coax producer Natrajan [VR MBBS] into showing him the trailor, but in vain till now. Accordign to Natrajan, he hasn't seen anything quite like it and its just mind blowing stuff. similar comments were expressed by Cinematographer Ravi Varman

And recently, in the famous lazygeek blog, there was a comment left by someone called Kris:

kris wrote:

Lord of the Plains

Thanks a lot for the pictures. It�s awesome. Having seen the trailer, which was shown in Singapore, I could just say one thing. It was down right awesome.No.1 Reason is the film quality; the damn cinematography was so good it looked like a Hollywood film!! I was so lucky to meet him in person n I sat in the same row with him to watch the trailer!

This particular scene is where he blends himself with mud to escape the baddies who are chasing him. n he actually kills them one by one. It�s much thrillin then the scene in Rambo.. cos this was wat Marudanaaygam really did! There was this one scene that was shot fantastically..he would jump from one tree to another tree n landing on the bad guys n killing them quietly using his bare hands.. man.. I could just go on.

From: kamalsurya on Wed Feb 15 6:04:05 2006.

I thought surya in one of his interviews said that kamal hassan sir specially screened the trailer for him to see....and surya said the trailer was mindblowing and surya also said kamal is many steps ahead of everyone and it is difficult for one to reach that level
From: Thirumaran on Wed Feb 15 15:43:07 2006.

Marudanaayagam is being hyped as the most expensive film planned in this country.
Why are you taking such a big risk?

Because I am paying for it myself. In any case, I don�t think its too big a risk, because I have full faith in my director (laughs).

The driving force is the desire for recognition. I revel in recognition. I always refer to myself as a limelight moth. I like people to recognise what I recognise in myself. I get thrilled even when a poem of mine gets published in a local magazine.

As an actor, I still have a long way to go. I haven�t yet risen upto my own expectations. Sometimes, I feel, I am lucky to be called a good actor. When I look back on some of my performances, I am embarrassed. I saw Saagar the other day and wondered how I could have given such a bad performance. I couldn�t stand it. Though at that time everybody, including me, thought I had done a good job. I had even won awards for that performance. I told Ramesh Sippy if he agreed to remake the film, I would better my performance.

From: James Pain on Wed Feb 15 23:07:51 2006.

kamalsurya wrote:

I thought surya in one of his interviews said that kamal hassan sir specially screened the trailer for him to see....and surya said the trailer was mindblowing and surya also said kamal is many steps ahead of everyone and it is difficult for one to reach that level Thumbs Up!

I can't imagine anyone reaching Kamal's level for another 20 years!

From: Thirumaran on Thu Feb 16 10:28:35 2006.

James Pain wrote:

kamalsurya wrote:

I can't imagine anyone reaching Kamal's level for another 20 years! Thumbs Up!

In our life time we will not see that.

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