In Conversation with Kamal

January 18, 2011

Do come if you’re in the area.

PS: I love how, according to the invite, two different people are in conversation with Kamal – a Baradwaj Rangan, along with a Bharadwaj Rangan. Yeesh!

LikeLike

Vijay Kumar

January 18, 2011

is it broadcast live as well?

LikeLike

Just Another Film Buff

January 18, 2011

Whoa! Videos/Transcripts if possible please!!!

LikeLike

kumaran

January 18, 2011

Rangan – Congratulations I hope you make it up and more for all those countless insipid exalting interviews that all the tv guys usually conduct!

LikeLike

bran1gan

January 18, 2011

Vijay Kumar / JAFB: I think I can manage some pictures.

kumaran: Thanks. But this talk is going to be Manto-specific, and he’s a big, big fan. I don’t think we’re going to veer much into anything else — though with Him, you can never say 🙂

LikeLike

S.Anand

January 19, 2011

‘DR’. Kamalhasan ! mmmm . . . this is a bit too much – don’t you feel so Penguin !!

Ha – ‘Dr’

You too Penguin ?

LikeLike

anon

January 19, 2011

great. are there..
btw – did you catch the jaya tv special this weekend w/ kamal/crazy. i loved it. kamal was not in his usual pethal mode.

LikeLike

Padawan

January 19, 2011

“though with Him…”, as in H capitalized? 🙂

LikeLike

rameshram

January 19, 2011

padawan

😉

LikeLike

complicateur

January 19, 2011

I went on a little Toba Tek Singh trip (only to end up severely depressed) after reading the poster yesterday. Unfortunately I am not in town, but I’ve informed a few people who are sure to be there. 🙂

LikeLike

MumbaiRamki

January 19, 2011

BR ,
Is it near to Taj coramandel ? My office is near t o SHankar Netralaya

LikeLike

Gradwolf

January 19, 2011

I like the capitalized H. And yes, thanks to the information from our esteemed GRCA President, I will be there. Need to put thundu when?!

LikeLike

bran1gan

January 19, 2011

MumbaiRamki: Yes, the one in Nungambakkam, near Gemini flyover en route to Taj.

Gradwolf: Don’t know how many seats etc. So totally your call.

LikeLike

Karthik

January 19, 2011

Rangan – Do ask him what his next movie is. Hopefully something not as vacuous as MMA

LikeLike

MumbaiRamki

January 19, 2011

I ahve been there couple fo times to Landmark . Wondering where is the space there !

LikeLike

Venkatesh

January 19, 2011

BR: Transcripts please .

LikeLike

vijay

January 19, 2011

I am disappointed that a rare opportunity to interview Kamal is wasted on something as boring as 40s Hindi cinema. Vera topic’e kedaikaliya?

Off the record, ask him why he has turned into such a rabid Karunanidhi nut-licker these past 3 years.

LikeLike

MumbaiRamki

January 19, 2011

Vijay ,
It is the other way around. The promoters of the book would have got KH’s time to promote the book /CD . It is not about Kamal , in this interview.

LikeLike

w

January 19, 2011

Are you ignorant? He’s been a fan of Karun far too long. He even mentioned him in the released script of Hey! Ram.

It doesn’t flip-flop like Rajini’s fascination with Amma’s and Karun’s.

LikeLike

Raj Balakrishnan

January 19, 2011

Congratulations! If you get a chance please do ask if he is embarrassed by the moniker ‘Ulaganayagan’.

LikeLike

Hermoine Granger

January 19, 2011

Congrats! Finally got past his “minions”, eh? 🙂
(Reference: Long-lost previous article) Kaal-le vizhundhuraadeenga! Any videos we can look forward to?

LikeLike

Ajay

January 19, 2011

BR,
Photos are fine but transcripts if not videos pls.Do ask him(make time for that plz)some posers which a good KH fan would want/like to ask,you are one,right?

LikeLike

Rohan

January 19, 2011

Yes I did, where they went overboard with silly slapstick Brahmin humor (born brahmin myself – before you pounce – and heard my uncles make such ‘jokes’ all my life). Grow up crazy mouli and the lot – good humour is a lot more than half-baked English-Tamil wordplay!

LikeLike

palanisamya

January 19, 2011

DEAR BR,

I am so glad that you are having a meeting with Alwarpet Aandavar!!! It would have been wonderful if he could give you a full-fledged interview, rather than just “in conversation”! But will take anything with you two…………..!!!

@vijay – somebody else asked him this @ Vikatan mEdai (where he is been answering every question (even the “below the belt” ones!) from readers!

Q.
”சமீபகாலமாக தமிழக முதல்வரை மேடைகளில் ஏகமாகப் புகழ்கிறீர்களே? கொச்சையாகச் சொன்னால், ‘ரொம்ப ஜால்ரா’ அடிக்கிறீர்களே… ஏங்க?”

Answer by Kamal:
”அது சமீப கால நிகழ்வல்ல. குழந்தைப் பருவம் முதல் பழக்கம். அவர் முதலமைச்சர் ஆனதற்கு நான் மட்டும் பொறுப்பல்லவே. தவிர, சமீப கால மேடை ஒன்றில் கலைஞரின் பெருமகனாரின் வாழ்க்கைக் குறிப்பு புத்தகமாக வெளிவந்தபோது, பெரும் பத்திரிகைகளின் ஆசிரியர், உரிமையாளர் பலரும் என்னுடன் மேடையில் இருந்து பாராட்டினார்கள். சிலர் அதிகமாகவே பாராட்டினார்கள். நான் கலைஞரின் ரசிகனாக அவர் ஆட்சியில் இல்லாதபோதும் இருந்திருக்கிறேன். அதைக் கொச்சைப்படுத்துவது உங்கள் குணாதிசயம். நான் எதை அடித்தாலும் தாளம் தப்பாது!”

LikeLike

Kishor

January 19, 2011

I don’t know why people give so much importance to this overrated actor. Better do all these good things to Naseeruddin Shah or Mohan Lal.

LikeLike

Mambazha Manidhan

January 19, 2011

The topic is such a downer 😦 . I wish it was just plain ‘In Conversation with BR’.

LikeLike

Venkatesh

January 20, 2011

Vijay : “I am disappointed that a rare opportunity to interview Kamal is wasted on something as boring as 40s Hindi cinema.” – Boring aaaa.. come on dude.

LikeLike

bran1gan

January 20, 2011

Hermoine Granger: I’m afraid I cannot take any credit for getting past minions. Penguin coordinated the whole thing 🙂

Mambazha Manidhan: The book is excellent — reveals a whole facet of Manto one doesn’t usually know and makes him more human (not in the milk-of-human kindness sense, but in the warts-and-all sense). I don’t think the topic is a downwer at all. But yes, limited in appeal probably.

LikeLike

rameshram

January 20, 2011

:Kaal-le vizhundhuraadeenga! Any videos we can look forward to?:

macchi! one HUUUUUGE maalai, one mallipoo kreedam and one pannadai…che…ponnadai, and one numbers sashtangam! minimum.

and video thereof.

LikeLike

Rohan

January 20, 2011

There really should be video… in this day and age?!?! Surely someone there could set up their mobile camera on a stand and capture this??

LikeLike

karim

January 20, 2011

Dai Ranga – Go kalakkufy maamu! Your blog’s rooting for you

LikeLike

MumbaiRamki

January 20, 2011

Attended the function …

1) Kamal’s reading of the book in tamizh was superb . You can see the words alive already, bubbling now

2) I have never heard of the writer Sadat hassan manto – but based on what i heard during excerpts reading and the conversation, he should have been a powerful writer .. chance a illa ..Don’t miss this writer , very effective , stylish, courage in every drop of ink !

3) BR was able to balance two factors well – allow kamal to speak more and at the same time not become like a sneha in Vasoolraja , being in awe of the master. It was a prick in ur skin that kindles to think and speak more . Nalla vela , BR did not use high sounding words – it was direct, open ended questions and it gave me the confidence that with less complex words also u can convey things …

PS 1 : As usual , there were few aunties who were from 60s ladies club personas and were trying to pass judgements ,an older version of rusted jalras..

PS 2 : From facebook pic , i was expecting BR with a pinch of peter-ish , wallace garden-journalist ( sorry !) , but he came as a nice , warm , Baradwaj swamigal . Nice , innocent, affectionate smile sir !

PS 3 : Pics , medium qualitty

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=5nuepy&s=7

LikeLike

Arun

January 20, 2011

’twas nice meeting you BR!
Enjoyed the session. Wished it’d been longer.
Did you get to ask most of what you wanted to?
Can we hope there’s a full length interview lined up sometime soon with mr.K? 🙂

And how’re you enjoying these new spheres of interaction?
College lectures,TV appearances and now live conversations…
I woulda imagined you’re someone who prefers working out of the public eye…

PS:Whats with the new look? Part Yoda-part Mushtaq Ahmed 😉

LikeLike

bran1gan

January 20, 2011

MumbaiRamki, Gradwolf, Arun, Hari: it was nice meeting you all and — to use a cliche — put a face to a name. I’m sorry if I sounded rushed and out of sorts, as the reps from Penguin wanted to speak about something. (Also, was frankly a bit dazed.)

MumbaiRamki: Adhukkulla vandhu taan-nu review-laam ezhudhitteengale 🙂 Thank you for the pics. BTW, do you mind I post them on my FB account? Thanks.

Arun: I did get to ask most of what I wanted to. As for these new interactions, they’re shaping up fine, I guess. Though not enough for me to stop writing and become a TV journo 🙂 One of the nicest things that happened today was when that woman who asked me to read — rather, she asked Kamal to read and he asked me — came up and said “nice oration” or somthing. I swear, my heart was in my mouth when I began to read that passage. I mean, with Him right next to me, and after all that wonderful poetry reading 🙂

LikeLike

Just Another Film Buff

January 20, 2011

Whaat!! Is that bearded man you, BR? Never imagined you’d look like that, especially because the caricatures and the one or two pictures that I’ve seen of yours had made me think of you as a slightly older Abbas Tyrewala. Now you look like a journo alright. Or a veteran cameraman.

LikeLike

MumbaiRamki

January 20, 2011

With pleasure sir !

LikeLike

Bala

January 20, 2011

beard, glasses, fabindia style kurta (fashion-conscious ille, so could be majorly wrong :D) .All that’s missing is a jolna pai 😀 Idhu enna Kamal-a attract panra intention oda panna looka ? 😀

LikeLike

Gradwolf

January 20, 2011

Heh I remember someone saw you at a concert in Brahma Gana Sabha in 2008 or 09 and said the same missing jolna pai comment here!

Was very nice to meet you indeed. And also listen to Him from up close.

PS
In some paper they had over there, did I read, “Legends Kamal Haasan & Baradwaj Rangan….”. Wasn’t sure from the distance. WAAW! 😛

LikeLike

Anand

January 20, 2011

Stuck in Mumbai…I hate my job.

LikeLike

NullPointer

January 21, 2011

Why would BR try to “attract” Kamal with a certain dressing style ..unless of course :-). Something his stalker might need to be concerned about!
Do you plan to “bitty ruminate” about this interaction?

LikeLike

Mambazha Manidhan

January 21, 2011

I loved it more than I thought I would. Btw, that ‘one art helping the understanding of another art better’ or something to that effect was a fantastic question. And, Bharadwaj Rangan, the wise uncle who reads a lot of books and is acting in Subramaniapuram 2 was an interesting counterpoint to Baradwaj Rangan, the film geek whom we interact with on internet forums and who gave a talk on English in Tamil cinema recently. 🙂

Call me sexist or anything. But, why do all Women have to be idiot journalists ?
I have seen my fair share of both Men and Women idiot journalists who do zero research and mistake stubbornness for strength. But, if there are 100 women journalists in a room, 98.79 of them will be idiots.

Everyone studies journalism wanting to be the next Barkha Dutt, but they do nothing to change their self-righteous opinions stemming from their limited exposure to the real world and think they can smile their way through everything.
The woman who could not distinguish between characters using curse words versus real people using them. And, after all the unwavering we-dont-need-expletives and the bold “Can I use an expletive on you?” she giggled and backed down without a concrete reply when Kamal asked her to go ahead. And, that other aunty. GOSH !

Their views were the exact opposite of self-censorship and the How-can-you-say-that-I-will-sue-you attitude that Kamal was talking about. Don’t put these bitches anywhere in the censor board! Otherwise, only Toonpur ka Superhero will get made. Thank God, we have Khushboo instead.

Reminds me of this vid.

LikeLike

Ini

January 21, 2011

Had my best day. I was all smiles to watch the two people I admire most sitting next to each other and talking. BR, I had this notion beforehand that you might use this opportunity to showcase your ‘thing’ for him. But you were surprisingly objective and carried out the deed amazingly well. It turned out that it was me who wanted to use this opportunity to showcase my ‘thing’ for you 😉 (I came up to you and smiled with all my braces sans any words that I wanted to tell you – hope you remember me). Btw, it would be nice if you could come up with an article like comparing and contrasting the answers you expected with those that actually came out of Him. Thanks.

LikeLike

Venkatesh

January 21, 2011

BR : Face to a name – fantastic , where is the jolna pai ?

LikeLike

Kavitha

January 21, 2011

Tch, it’s during events like these that I awfully miss being in Chennai 😦 ayyo…enakku azhugaiyaa varudhe. I bet it was some very interesting conversation (though I’ve never heard of the writer Manto and probably would never have in the future but for this blog) and hope someone posts videos or at least the transcript of the talk! Please, oh please!

LikeLike

Udhav

January 21, 2011

/////////Call me sexist or anything. But, why do all Women have to be idiot journalists ?
I have seen my fair share of both Men and Women idiot journalists who do zero research and mistake stubbornness for strength. But, if there are 100 women journalists in a room, 98.79 of them will be idiots.//////////

That sounds sexist, no? I mean, dumb people are everywhere. Trying to equate gender to dumbness is quite lame. They don’t know what they don’t know. Some one was talking about Burkha Dutt, Sigh!

The talk was fantastic and I think the Kamal Bhakths got what they wanted: A digression of sorts on how/why he made Hey!Ram.

LikeLike

prasanth

January 21, 2011

Is this capitalization of “Him” for Kamal a regular thing on this blog now? 🙂

LikeLike

jussomebody

January 21, 2011

very sexist, mambazha manidhan. not cool. and a very random generalization as well, don’t you think, considering that the sample size of journalists that you may have met is probably minuscule? unless you really are, umm, kamal haasan, with a pseudonym on this blog? and technically, if there are 100 women journalists in the room, it is impossible for 98.79 of them to be idiot. unless you qualify someone as a mukka loosu, of course.

and please, barkha dutt? journalists are probably better off not ending up like barkha dutt. better smiling your way through everything than suggest carpet-bombing pakistan. very strange standards for good journalism, you seem to be having.

point being: don’t generalize. it sounds terribly ridiculous. it makes people angry, or it makes them want to laugh at you. of course, we are all entitled to our own opinions. this is mine, just as that was yours.

LikeLike

MumbaiRamki

January 21, 2011

Yeah, it is preposterous to put things in general- but lot of aunties who came to the event( in 50s and 60s) who probably have their house in wallace garden 2nd street were arrogant. They seem to suffer from attention-deficit syndrome and were passing comments on a constant basis to fill the vaccant plots in their
brain , which nobody pays attention to !

( In the end , i felt this – although KH has read lot of Manto’s books – he mite be the wrong guy for this event , the audience were there only for Kamal Hassan and not for the conversation or the beauty of the language that is Manto’s works , even if the observation is restricted to the excerpts !.. )

LikeLike

MumbaiRamki

January 21, 2011

Esp , what manto had to say on his detractors or for the lawsuit against him stunned me – what a language and thought – and words that are simple which do not need visits to oxford dictionary ..

LikeLike

Hari

January 21, 2011

As a Kamal fan, I would like to see more of him in hindi movies. Sometimes, I wonder whether his creative appeal gets constrained due to the language he chooses as a medium-wish I could have asked that.

Also, why do the hindi version of most of his bilinguals end-up being poor cousins to the tamizh ones(right from chachi 420 to Abhay to Mumbai Express and even hey ram to a great expent)?

LikeLike

Rohan

January 21, 2011

Just to wade in to this men/women journalists discussion: Journalism — especially the feature writing kind — is still viewed as a ‘soft’ profession in India. More women than men freely enter it. A majority of these women are urban english-speaking middle and upper-middle class (look at a typical batch at ACJ).

My take is that the discrimination we see – expressed here by Mambazha Manidhan – is one of Class and not of Gender.

LikeLike

theusualblogger

January 21, 2011

photos and video are up on indiaglitz.com
http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/tamil/gallery/Events/25309.html

LikeLike

Janu

January 21, 2011

Check this site for videos
http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/tamil/gallery/events/25309.html

LikeLike

bran1gan

January 21, 2011

And on BehindWoods:

http://behindwoods.com/new-images/photo-galleries-q1-09/tamil-photo-gallery/kamal-haasan-05/01-kamal-haasan-05-kamal.html

LikeLike

Arun

January 21, 2011

And in my case putting a voice to words.(because I missed your TV appearance).

Was this your first real interaction with Him?
Hope there’s an actual interview lined up.

btw those old women weren’t journalists were they?!

Didn’t know that the Hey Ram screenplay had been published.Do you have a copy? How much of it didn’t make it to the final cut?

PS:Immediately remembered this opening credit from Rajapaarvai when he talked about his father asking him to change the spelling of his name to make it unique…

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-66723542030897724#

LikeLike

kannan

January 21, 2011

Rangan – Any interesting tidbits, anecdotes, incidents worth sharing or is this the subject of another post?

LikeLike

kamil

January 21, 2011

Hi Rangan = Why’s Kamal talking about bald man?? Did he get a cue from you of some sort..What was that

LikeLike

Mambazha Manidhan

January 21, 2011

@ Rohan (& others)

“My take is that the discrimination we see – expressed here by Mambazha Manidhan – is one of Class and not of Gender.”

Actually, it’s neither, mate.

“A majority of these women are urban english-speaking middle and upper-middle class (look at a typical batch at ACJ).”

I don’t have a problem with the upper-middle women from the journalism class as much as I do with those who decided to study journalism because they couldn’t get a seat in the VisCom course, those who have never rolled down the sunscreened windows of their air-conditioned cars, those who think presentation can cover up for preparation, those who are inflexible to appear as bold and those who have decided to tear down works of art for a living based on the encouraging replies they receive from dozens of eager guys on their Facebook status.

It just so happens that most of these happen to the very same upper-middle class women from the journalism class you seem to be talking about. But, your observation will be first perceived as a class-based discrimination rather than a harmless observation.
Such a statement would be considered politically incorrect on the lines of ‘Women can’t drive cars well’ and similar chauvinistic opinions made by self-righteous men ‘generalizing’ their narrow-minded opinions rather than a fact. Another case of denying the stereotype becoming the stereotype.

I’m not generalizing at all. All women journalists are not dumb. Only most of them are.

LikeLike

bran1gan

January 21, 2011

All — Just jumping in to say that things seem to be heating up, and if people are going to insist on debating men-vs-women journos, could we keep it civil, please? If it’s just going to be ranting and venting, can we carry this elsewhere (aka outside this blog)?

LikeLike

apala

January 21, 2011

BR,

Saw the video of the even at Indiaglitz.com. It was just wonderful, wished it was longer. Any conversation with Him is never going to be dull or un-interesting not only because The Man has read so much and well informed, but has a flair of putting things in a witty and intelligent way…………

Can we expect some interview with Him on his films or films in general? Ah, that would be GREAT if it happens!

LikeLike

Hermoine Granger

January 21, 2011

Orey smiling from ear to ear wonly! Well the next time you cross His house, He will probably invite you to his guesthouse for couple of drinks, no? That dream may come true 😛

LikeLike

bran1gan

January 21, 2011

Arun: Yup, first interaction. (Though I met him wrt this a few days ago, just to set expectations and stuff.) I don’t know if they were journos. And no, don’t have Hey Ram screenplay copy.

Hermoine Granger: I thought I’d imagined us puffing away on cigars, not having drinks? 🙂

LikeLike

Hermoine Granger

January 22, 2011

You need to know how good a reader I am to write that without checking up. Here is the reference. Single malt is alcohol, no?

Being Kamal Hassan

LikeLike

NullPointer

January 22, 2011

Your questions to Him were interesting but In some places didn’t He veer off on a tangent(or at least I was baffled) -that entire analogy between fat ppl,hair loss blah and autobiograhy and the other response about housewives to your q on proficiency -didn’t know what to make out of this. And that “aygiri nandini” in the background totally cracked me up!

LikeLike

rameshram

January 22, 2011

Let it be said that neither ramesh nor x are in this heated debate. X is probably doing toad in some call center and ramesh is posting from an airplane on the way to sun dance.

Brannigan! Mudi yaar idea? Sabarimali aa?

LikeLike

bran1gan

January 22, 2011

rameshram: Lucky you. Want to write something first-hand for the paper — maybe a mood piece, or about the films per se? I can ask…

LikeLike

rameshram

January 22, 2011

Sure ya.. email anupparen

LikeLike

Shankar

January 22, 2011

Dei…ennada ithu vesham? 🙂 It seemed like you went in costume for this event!! :-)…especially considering that you had the 20-something cool dude sitting next to you!!

LikeLike

Venki

January 23, 2011

You did fine with your reading. Especially liked that subtle self deprecation with “which is what I am doing” when the reference to Nargis came about 🙂
It was a good show and was great meeting Kamal and you. 🙂

LikeLike

Shankar

January 27, 2011

Baddy, I had to tell you this!! 🙂 Recently, I happened to catch a few scenes from a re-run of Thoongathe Thambi Thoongathe on TV. I had a stunner when I did so. In the second half, there is a sequence where Sulakshana is trying to test the rich Kamal (after the swap) assuming that he is the other guy. She takes him to a garden and aks him to recount the things they did prior…the song they sang etc. To my greatest surprise, Kamal (with his heavy accent) belts out lines from JCS….the JCS!! Who would’ve thought?!! 🙂

LikeLike

	soorya N on Interview: Fahadh Faasil (…
	Rocky on Election talk… for those…
	KK on Election talk… for those…
	KK on Election talk… for those…
	vijay on Election talk… for those…
	Rocky on Aditya Suhas Jambhale’s ‘Artic…
	Rocky on Election talk… for those…
	mvky on Interview: Fahadh Faasil (…
	Venky Ramachandran on Interview: Fahadh Faasil (…
	abishekspeare on Interview: Fahadh Faasil (…
	Jay Krishnan on Interview: Fahadh Faasil (…
	Enigma on Election talk… for those…
	brangan on Interview: Fahadh Faasil (…
	Faroo on Prabhu Ram Vyas’s terrific ‘Lo…
	brangan on Interview: Fahadh Faasil (…

In Conversation with Kamal

Leave a comment

Blog Stats

Follow Blog via Email

My books

Other blogs

Recent Comments

Archives

Categories

Recent Posts

In Conversation with Kamal

Rate this:

Share this:

Related

Leave a comment

Blog Stats

Follow Blog via Email

My books

Other blogs

Recent Comments

Archives

Categories

Recent Posts