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Journalism of Courage
It has been over six decades since Kamal Haasan’s extraordinary cinematic journey started with Kalathur Kannamma (1960) that won him the National Award for Best Child Actor. In the years that followed, he transformed into one of India’s greatest film personalities — a brilliant actor, screenwriter and director.
Undoubtedly, Haasan’s amazing oeuvre, which can boggle any cinema-lover’s mind, deserves a closer look and documentation. Kamal Haasan: A Cinematic Journey, by K Hariharan, takes up the task of doing that. Before it delves into his cinema, the book, which is called “the most definitive guide to Kamal Haasan’s filmography”, gives an idea about his family’s background and his unusual upbringing in an Iyengar family. The first chapter, ‘A Star is Born’, provides context to Haasan’s career and unusual choices — dropping out of school to pursue art and eventual entry into films.
The following chapters are devoted to Haasan’s major films — delving into their themes, significance and his artistic collaborations. The second chapter studies the Haasan-K Balachander association that resulted in several landmark movies such as Apporva Raagangal (1975) and Moondru Mudichu (1976) and Manmadha Leelai (1976). Each of them challenged societal norms and earned him the reputation of being “a thinking actor”.
Subsequently, Haasan forged new creative alliances with filmmakers like Bharathiraja, Mani Ratnam and Singeetam Srinivasa Rao. What remained common all through these partnerships was his tendency to push the envelope. In Bharathiraja-directed 16 Vayathinile (1977), he plays a mentally-challenged orphan; in Ratnam’s Nayakan (1987), he embodies a self-styled gangster based in Mumbai; and in Rao-directed Pushpak (1987), he is a good-hearted unemployed youth who briefly takes on a wealthy man’s identity.
With Nayakan and Pushpak, Haasan received pan-India recognition that his previous Hindi films — Ek Duuje Ke Liye (1981) and Saagar (1985) — had not achieved. The book features interesting trivia such as his non-verbal film Pushpak, a hat-tip to comedic geniuses such as Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, was certified by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) multiple times with its title changed in different Indian languages — Pushpaka Vimana (Kannada), Pushpaka Vimanan (Malayalam) and Pesum Padam (Tamil). Or the fact that the box-office success of Ek Duuje… helped producer LV Prasad upgrade his Chennai studio.
The book makes an earnest attempt to capture the trajectory of Haasan’s incredible career, up to the making of Vikram (2022), and Indian 2 (2024). While analysing the theme of his films and social context, it tries to present Haasan as a maverick, visionary and, more importantly, a shape-shifter. But it needed more such anecdotes and insights into Haasan the man and the creative force to make it a compelling read.
