Friday, September 25, 2009

Thank you, Kamal













Since we have had very few comments in the previous blog entry, I thought of a light topic this time. Currently we are working behind the scenes to set up a charitable arm to our class. More on that later , but first give it up for Kamal Haasan.




 Kamal's 50 years in cinema is being celebrated in Chennai. It brings special memories for me. I think I was in 8th standard when the movie"16 Vayadhinilae" came out. Though I was not allowed to see the movie, I claimed that it was the best movie ever.  Well, I grew up with some serious movie fans. My friends would go to the first day /first show of all important movies , survive getting beaten up  by the police while standing in line for the 90 paisa ticket, then would tell/act out the whole movie to the less fortunate ones like me. 

Kamal Haasan is a special actor to me and my favourite movies of his are - 16 Vayadhinilae, Hey Ram and Nayagan.

If you have any special memories please share, or if you want to honour any other actor or actress, that would be welcome too.

38 comments:

  1. Dear BEERBAAKAR

    Sorry for my long silence in the blog. Back again.

    Are you still allowed to see 16 Vayadinile? I thought it was an adult only movie.


    Kamal was a special artist with multiple talents. No wonder he survived in Indian Movie world for 50 years. I like several of his movies
    The most memorable one for me was apoorva sagodarargal and Michael madanakamarajan and Nayagan. I am an hardcore Rajini fan but I still like Kamal movies.

    50 years is a long time in Cinemas and Kudos to a great artist.

    Thanks for bringing this up to us.

    Regards

    Raghu

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  2. Dear Prabhakar and Raghu
    I still rate Hey Ram is bestfilm followed by acting of kamal in many movies. I dont know people have Knowledge to understand his capabilities.
    Ravi

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  3. Thanks Prabhakar for initiating a new topic on Kamalhasan. I still remember going to the movie Oru Kaidhiyin diary along with our classmates in the first year. My favourite ones are Salangai Oli and Nayagan. He was not only a good actor but also a very good dancer.
    Congratulations to his Golden Jubilee in Indian Cinema.
    Prem

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  4. Nayagan still is fresh in my mind. It was in Abhirami theatre when a few of us (me, Naga, Raghunath, Mathi and can't remember the others)used our Doctors coats to obtain tickets for this movie on its 3rd or 4th day of release. As usual we were tipsy with old monk and we were commenting on the scenes (Loudly of course) when one of the viewers went and called in the theatre manager to order us to shut up. Raghunath remembered him from his red cap and we had a bit of violent clash coming out of the movie. When we were asked why we were hitting that man, Raghunath said, he was trying to rob me of my purse and rest of the crowd joined in.

    The moral of the story as said in Nayagan is "if it helps people, Violence is acceptable" this was Raghunath's explanation that day.

    Raghu

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  5. I remember Kamalahasan in "Apoorva Ragangal, he was fresh faced and super good looking- long long time ago, but the fact he desired an older woman really made waves in those days.
    Also thot his acting in Moondru Mudichu, with Rajini ( who had 'style' and charisma and lacked everything else) and Moodram Pirai was 'par excellence'
    Of late, "Kamal hassan's" image is difficult to swallow given the fact he is trying to look/act like a 25 yr old when he is in his golden yrs- and Raghu, u know how the saying goes!"

    Ramzan

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  6. My other special hero was Mr.Jaishankar Nicknamed Friday Hero Jai. If you all remember, New Tamil movies used to be released on a Friday. This was based on a superstitious belief that if you release a movie on a holy day like a friday the chances are that they will continue for a good period of time and fetch good revenue. However in Mr.Jay's case every Friday you can expect a new movie to be released and the following Friday it would be replaced with another new movie of his. It is amazing how one could sustain in the cine world with such a poor track record. He made almost 150 movies as a hero with less than a handfull that was a box office hit. His career took a turn for good when he started acting as a Villain than a hero.

    Ramzan

    A man is not old until regrets replace his dreams-John Barrymore. So less of the old please. It is depressing.

    Raghu

    Raghu

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  7. I agree with Raghu, Jaishankar deserves a mention. I have seen one of his hits - Nuthuku nuurru(100/100). He had a title like makkal Thilagam for Shivaji, do you remember that.

    prabhakar

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  8. Dear Prabhakar
    Sorry to correct you there can be only one MAKKAL THILAGAM that is none other than MGR. He was later called puratchi nadigar and then thalaivar. Jai was called as Makkal Kalaingar.
    Raghu
    just because your are the fan of superstar dont deviate the topic from Ulaga nayagan to Jai.
    Ravi

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  9. We can probably confer "Uthavadha Nayagan" or "Uthai Vaangum Nayagan" Jai for his contributions to Tamil Films.

    What was the name of that film that we saw close to 15 times at Sangam Theatre? The only film that Pasupathi came with us for and after every time he watched the movie there was a forthcoming application and subsequent tragedy and tears. I am laughing as I type this comment!!! HEE HEEE HEEEE

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  10. Undoubtedly, Kamalahasan is the Ulaga Nayagan.My fav'it one is Punnagai Mannan. I think I saw the movie atlease 3 times in the theatre.I usually don't like watching a movie more than once. The original thrill of watching the movie fades away with every view.I think the only other movie that I ever watched 3 or 4 times with friends is 'Hero' (the Hindi one with Meenakshi Seshadri and Jackie Shroff)at the Sangam theatre(after bunking afternoon classes,duly appointing someone to give a proxy atleast for some of us).
    Anyone up there who watched the latest Kamal release 'Unnaippol Oruvan'. Heard it is such a good one, not to miss. I missed the Premier show here yesterday due to busy schedule.

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  11. And not to mention,we used the same technique as Raghu to get the tickets in a houseful theatre,either the coat or student id card. It worked everytime with royal treatment.

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  12. Hi All

    Enjoyed all your comments.brings back college day movie times.
    Congrats to Hassan ,gifted actor and dancer,I have not watched too many movies in the last 2 decades(pathetic) but I remember one hilarious movie(cant think of the title) where he donned 3 or 4 roles ,was quite funny as a youth from palghat .
    The Chennaivasi who has impressed me in recent days is ARR , the madras Mozart.
    I have enjoyed watching Rajini,Mammoty in college and postcollege days in certain movies.
    Those of us in the peanut gallery may not contribute to the conversation, but still read and relish all your intelligent,witty blogs.So keep it going guys.Happy Dashera,Diwali, and Yam Kippur
    Best
    Sathya

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  13. KamalHassan is a versatile actor with multifaceted talent. He was not afraid to try
    different roles. eg: uncouth chappani in 16 vayathinile, blind hero in Rajaparvai.
    Rajaparvai was not a commercial success, but I thoroughly enjoyed the film.
    Couple of my favorite movies of his : Michaelmadana kamarajan and Nayagan.
    The dialogue "Bhimboy,Bhimboy andha LOckerla ....",in palghat accent is hilarious.
    Crazy Mohan + Kamalhassan combination brings out fireworks.
    "Neenga nallavara kettavara?" from Nayagan -poignant scene.
    "naalu perukku nalladhu ...."-from Nayagan was
    such a popular dialogue those days.
    And of course Raghuram and friends took it to a whole different level.


    Meenakshi

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  14. Welcome Sathya.Keep blogging.We need more freshers to pep up the blog!

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  15. Amazing to see that Kamal is generating so many blogs so quickly, whereas the health care issue that impacts everyone of our lives drew absolute silence fot more than a week!
    Iam a big fan of Kamal's comedies rather than his serious movies where he tries so hard to change his real appearance. Michael madhana..., Panchathanthram, Thenaliraman,PammalK Sambandham are some examples.The one I hated most was Dhasavatharam! Chaos theory & butterfly effect!!!!
    Premalatha, I watched Unnai Pol Oruvan & it was O.K. But you can definitely see it once on DVD. For a change Kamal appears as himself without any makeup , but Iam told that the hindhi movie it is based on, "wednesday" is much better.I think Salangai Oli is is his masterpiece movie, which showcases his acting & dancing skills.
    Sathya, welcome & it is time to move from the peanut gallery on to the stage!

    Kalyani

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  16. I remember going to a movie along with Raghu and Co. I dont remember the movie except for Raghu's comments, shouting, whistling etc. It was a great fun.
    Prem

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  17. Glad to see blogs becoming alive again.

    Kalyani

    You should have known by now, anything complicated and difficult we revert back to our old technique of "referring to Text books (or a miniversion-nicknamed BIT) " under any circumstances be it in the class room exam or university exam. The question posed by Prabhakar was of course bordering on complexity, hence a scant response.

    Prabhakar was obviously trying to test whether our knowledge has improved over the years. He had to change the topic in a haste to keep the blog from dying down. And when it changed to interesting and easy topics like Indian Cinemas, look at the response!!!. Amazing.

    Raghu

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  18. Kalyani and Raghu,

    I was somewhat disappointed by lack of response to the health care debate on the blog. Since I follow the debate closely, it made me angry reading about the town hall meetings where people with extreme views got publicity. I also think the media is also at fault and they should educate the US public responsibly and people should start reading newspapers.

    My position - health care for all in the US , and if it means paying more taxes would be happy to pay. I also have a way for people to pay tax for health care - tax the gasoline.

    prabhakar

    Now what about favourite actress, no mention so far.

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  19. dear Raghu
    The movie we watched few times was PRAVUVA RAGHAVAM with few shows sponsored by pasupathy either by blackmailing or by will.
    Premaltha or Kalyani
    unnai pool oruvan nice movie i saw in theatre 2nd day 1st show. excellent dialogues. i will review in next time
    Ravi

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  20. Dear Prabhakar
    Sorry there were not many comments except from Raghu regarding the health care debate.
    NHS was founded with a very good intent that high quality health care should be available to everyone regradless of their wealth. Even though it is free at the point of use, it is funded by national insurance paid by the public.
    There are many disadvatage from this system but it outweighs the benefits bestowed towards the lay people
    I wish we have a similar system in India where there is a uniformity of basic health care available to our people. I still remember our politicians going abroad for their treatment in those days. I was suprised when I found present Prime minister Gordon Brown's first child was born preterm in one of the Scottish district Hospital.
    Come on Guys please join in the health care debate. Where are you kannan? I thought you will be commenting on this topic as you showed lot of interest.

    Prem

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  21. Prabhakar,
    I vote for 'health care for all in the USA' also. But I disagree with raising taxes on gasoline. With almost non existent public transportation in many states across the USA, it is not for luxury that we drive to work. People who drive to work are also the ones paying taxes, while those at home are not only 'not working and not driving' but they are also claiming social security and living on taxes paid by those who work. Instead, why not raise taxes on tobacco and other stuff that are injurious to health?

    Talking about health care issues in US, yes, media is at fault to a certain extent but, I think, people are at fault to a larger extent. People are afraid of 'change' because, with change comes uncertainty, and nothing makes people more uneasy than uncertainty... especially under difficult and testing circumstances like we are in right now!

    Banu.

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  22. Raghu,
    Do you see a pattern here..?

    Prabhakar makes a new blog entry, you stay away for a few days, everyone else stays silent.

    You come back and post one comment... boom...others cannot stop writing!!

    (Had Prabhakar waited for a couple more days before posting the kamalhassan topic, I think we would have seen a lot more comments following yours on the health care topic too!).

    You go dude...

    Banu.

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  23. Looks like Kamal gave way for the debate on health care issues!! Prabahkar & Banu, I disagree with raising the taxes on anything. As it is, nearly 40% of our pay check goes into some form of tax or the other & if Obama has his way, we'll be taxed more from 2010 because we are unfortunate enough to be in the "higher income" bracket. I do agree with healthcare for all, but with the existing recession & deficits, how are we going to pay for it is the question. Most of the hospitals & medical colleges in the U.S are doing salary cutbacks,hiring freeze & research funding cuts to deal with their budget deficits. I deliberately stayed away from discussing these in the previous blog, as it is a very complex issue.

    Kalyani

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  24. Guys

    Rationing of services has to occur if a socialistic policy is being proposed. I have been reading a lot about this of late for my assignment on Best Value in Health care. There are always going to be imbalances between the supply and demand in healthcare. How we tackle them is the real issue.

    You can increase supply through increasing taxes, copayments or insurance top ups but at the same time you can also work at reducing the demand by introducing concepts like standardising care across healthcare providers, implicit and explicit rationing processes and also more importantly improving efficiency and minimising waste within the system. My experience in US was that the treatment modalities and response to treatment and prolongation of treatment in many instances is an absolute overkill. If measures are put into place to improve efficiency and also provide best value (Quality/cost) this will go a long way in improving the current healthcare inequalities in US.

    I find the problem is there is a disconnection between policy makers and people who deliver the services and farther the gap between them, worse it gets. Hence the need for clinicians to become managers of healthcare.

    There you go I said it.

    Prem

    Healthcare provision constitutes 20% of the total expenditure of the government revenue . The contribution from National insurance is miniscule compared to the allocation from other forms of taxation. It is currently at 10% of GDP on par with other European states.

    Enough of this,

    My favourite Heroine is JUHI Chawla, I still can't remember the name of the movie I saw 15 times. Goes to show what I was really watching.

    Ravi, Kannan

    You guys should remember the name of the movie.

    Raghu

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  25. Raghu,interesting that you mentioned about improving efficiency by minimising waste. How exactly can you do that if you practice defensive medicine?And as for clinicians becoming policy makers, the situation is the same as in India where educated people don't want to get into politics.

    JUHI CAWLA??? Give me a break!
    She should be a grandma by now. Go ahead & root for Nameetha, we all know about you & nobody's going to laugh at you!

    Kalyani

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  26. Kalyani,
    are u kidding !
    Juhi Chawla is probably around our age and we are hardly grandmotherly!
    Raghuram
    are talking about 'Qayamat se Qayamat tak?
    Juhi Chawla and Amir khan? Amir was quite a dish, in those days.
    Rache, du u remember we saw it in Emerald or Safire? loved the movie, warmed the cockles of your heart.

    Ramzan

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  27. I accept Kamal is a great actor,recent one UPO- Unnai Pol Oruvan has replaced all his previous movies and became the ever best Kamal movie.Credit goes to him .
    Unusually Kamal has underplayed in this movie,Mohan lal has done a wonderful job.
    Negative comments about Superstar not acceptable(RAMZAN).
    .

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  28. dear raghu
    i have already mentioned the movie PARUVA RAGHAVAN hero was v. ravichandran and heroine Juhi chawla, pasu sponsoring for us few times. famous dialogue muttai, pasapa
    ravi

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  29. paruva ragham sorry
    ravi

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  30. Hi friends,

    Nice to see the blog effervesce again.
    Been South to connect with old folk of our family tree,

    Prem,

    We too had similar fun- filled movie shows when we never got to listen to anything spoken on the screen....only Raghus non-stop dialogue be it Puthiya paadai, or Khush's 1st movie where he kept swearing he'd shoot Faizal,the director!

    Rum,

    That was in Sapphire ,I think and I was translating to you half the time!Do you remember Nightmare on Elm Street?We went in undaunted and came out screaming and shaking !

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  31. It seems inappropriate to go back to health care, but since I started this I will address it one more time. I think we all agree that health care to all is a basic human right, but how do we pay for it is the question. Our views may differ but I feel its OK to discuss such topics. Let's hope for the best.

    Coming back my vote for favourite actress- Revathy.

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  32. From Kamal to Healthcare to JuhiChawla and Paruva"raghavan",QSQT and back to Healthcare...
    if it helps to sustain interest and retain enthusiasm, no problems there.., variety helps to break the monotony.

    From Nightmare on Elmstreet to a nightmare of a different kind..
    Healthcare reform is a confusing, complicated and an incredibly complex issue.
    About 46 million Americans have no health insurance.25 million are underinsured beacause of high cost of insurance coverage.I think that is pathetic for a so called developed country .
    This did not happen overnight.
    For-profit insurance companies, Pharmaceutical industry ,large corporations , their lobbying are largely to be blamed.
    There is a lot of waste, fraud and abuse in the system.If you know to "work" the system ,you"reap" the benefit.
    Doctors,Hospitals and patients themselves overuse the healthcare system. As long as there is third party payor and there are reimbursements,rewards and incentives for volume and procedures ( necessary or unncessary)
    this will continue. Factor into this the cost of defensive medicine in a litiginous environment.
    Public plan option/ government insuranceplan proposal .is being met with a lot of resistance from the conservatives. Even that plan will not bring down the cost if the problems existing in the present system are not regulated.

    Key part of the white house strategy is to strike deals with 'special interest'groups(Hosp,Pharm,Doctors etc). If these groups would support the reform bill , administration would agree to limit budget cuts for these groups.

    The billions of dollars needed has to come from eliminating waste and fraud in the system and from taxes.

    "fix what is broken and build what works" -for universal health care sounds great , but has to be done with utmost care so that the younger generation is not over burdened.

    Meenakshi

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  33. Revathy's performance in "Mouna Ragam " was very good. Lot of girls liked that movie and esp. Karthik.

    Meenakshi

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  34. Meenakshi, awesome analysis of the current healthcare situation!

    Juhi, Revathy, Aamir Khan, Karthik??? Looks like you guys are stuck in the eighties, Seriouly, have you all stopped watching Indie movies in the past 2 decades?

    How about presentday bollywood bombshells like Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra, Vidya Balan OR our very own Asin, Shreya Or Trisha from kollywood? No votes for these ladies?? Come on guys, wake up & move forward to the 2000s!!!

    Kalyani

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  35. Kalyani

    Now!! Now!! Now!!!. Juhi Chawla was miss India in the eighties before she came to movies and she is our age. Unless there was a lot of promiscuity (probably)and childhood pregnancies I suspect she would be grandma yet.

    As Ramzan put in the previous blogs

    "beauty is in the eye of the beholder (BEER HOLDER-My version). Juhi will remain beautiful even if she turns a grandma.

    Unfortunately I do not follow current tamil and hindi movies and hence do not know of any latest "Sittus". Apologies. But now that you have given me some names I will pursue these and come up with a new favourite of mine.

    Ravi

    Paruva Ragam- Yes that is the one. Many thanks.

    Healthcare Discussion


    Going back to healthcare, what Meenakshi is referring to is Provider Moral Hazard where in the supplier induces a demand due to the incentives that are provided to them. This has to be tightly regulated. But who is going to do them? US has allowed multiple insurances within the system compared to NHS which accounts for 86% of the total healthcare expenditure in the country. Maybe nationalising all insurance companies (similar to when NHS was founded in 1948 wherein all hospitals were nationalised) and providing an unified tariff at a reduced rate would be a solution.

    The second issue is about increasing taxes to improve supply of resources. Again if the system is not efficient (it is strongly indicative of this) this will soon lead to inadequacies. This will be politically unpopular and studies have shown that just increasing them will not work. So improving efficiency is a better way out.

    But what would I know, I am a simple low life from Madras.

    Raghu

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  36. There are a number of Health care BPOs here enabling the consumer get their rightful ,elusive bills from insurance companies .Whats your take on that,Meenakshi?

    From the choice of fav actrs or songs, one can guess our age group easily.None of our children would come up with names listed above! Aish ,Genelia,Vijay,Shahid ...?

    Time to shift gears, guys

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  37. Enna solli enna seiyae

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  38. Dear all!

    First of all as medical people we must salute Kamal for the donation of his body for the cause of anatomy class after his demise.

    He is the excellent one in bringing a thought or a feeling to live scenes. Repeatedly he had proved this in everyone of his movies.

    Like Prem I was also one of the admirer of Raghu's comments and never missed a movie chance with him... in fact... to hear his timely comments alone... many other groups too sponsored for the movie 'Apoorva sagotharargal' just to be with him and his comments while watching the movie with his team! I feel sorry for those who never had such a kind of a chance to watch movie with Raghu! Likewise we... sagotharargal of Raghu... could not be counted... watched 'Apoorva sagotharargal' countless number of times! Hats Off to Raghu... in a little off late recent way... we can say... namma raghuvukku yellarum oru "O" podunga!

    P.S. when I say Raghu, I mean Raghu Ram!

    As for this health for all samachar, personally I feel its all business. Of course, business is what everything is about but I happen to be very weak!

    Kannan

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