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Posted in: Cinema: Tamil, Interview
Interview: Lokesh Kanagaraj (Vikram)
Posted on May 23, 2022
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Baradwaj Rangan 
ivan
May 23, 2022
I find it unbelievable that Kamal was extremely “hands off” with this movie especially him being the producer. Why would he take a huge monetary risk to completely believe the directorial skills of Lokesh, a decent director but not a path breaker (maybe not yet)? If this is true, then I’d be interested to know what made Kamal to change at this point in his career – was he “experimenting” the overall creative vision outcome by surrending to the director instead of interfering? or was he so stoned throughout the movie making?
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vijay
May 23, 2022
thaatha kamalagaasan has sold his movie to DMK pvt ltd after a ‘humble’ request from udhayanidhi..may help him survive this one..
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Srinivas R
May 23, 2022
@ivan – last time Kamal was hands off from the movie, we got Vettayadu Vilayadu, if Vikram turns out be as good as that, I will take it.
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H. Prasanna
May 24, 2022
Great to see LK eager for the post-release interview with you, BR!
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Heisenberg
May 24, 2022
If I am not wrong, Papanasam (although a remake) was also completely directors movie. Kamal’s interference could be overstated myth because many of the movies that he gets blamed for interference are the ones written by him, but directed by a close associate (for whatever reasons).
For movies like Indian, Nayagan, Vasool raja, Vettaiyadu vilaiyadu, Papanasam, his interference is probably negligible.
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Satya
May 24, 2022
Heisenberg: Yes, to the extent of the spark “Of course Velu Nayakan doesn’t dance” in The Hindu which made an anniversary of a beloved film into something bitter. Very negligible.
The main issue with Kamal interfering is that he is too good. Years of experience and presence in almost all crafts of filmmaking has given him so much knowledge that only few gifted filmmakers currently can get him right. The thing which is inside his head cannot be translated by the poor chaps directing the Aandavar – Uttama Villain is a classic example, and IIRC BR had a similar opinion too on that film. Adding to that the standard narcissism and pretty no-nonsense behaviour makes people think he hijacks films from them. It’s time they learn to say a NO and explain why. Maybe going down the Rajinikanth path can help.
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Heisenberg
May 24, 2022
Satya – By ‘very negligible’ I did not mean Kamal has zero say in a film. I think every collaborators do have some say/inputs although the final call is by the director. In the list of movies I mentioned, these are primarily remembered as the respective director’s movies.
If we talk about kamal’s self indulgence in the screenplays he wrote, that will be different topic. For examples like dasavatharam, uttama villain on the other side there are well directed films like Anbe sivam, Thevar magan, etc
P.S. Uttama villain may have been a better film with a bigger budget.
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brangan
May 24, 2022
Heisenberg: Uttama villain may have been a better film with a bigger budget.
And a better cast/crew.
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H. Prasanna
May 24, 2022
@BR, you see a good writer and ask where are the good female characters in their work, isn’t this the feminist perspective? Did you mean “woke” perspective?
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Ivan
May 24, 2022
Heisen – While a part of that is true, we can argue that his contribution was limited to acting because none of the movies you mentioned was produced by him. But he’s producing Vikram and the stake is too high here, hence I’m puzzled by his non-involvement.
Director Shankar mentioned in an award show that he was surprised Kamal didn’t interfere while filming Indian and when questioned by Shankar’s associate, Kamal said ‘you guys are doing your job well, so am not interfering’. It’s likely that Lokesh is a competent director and I’m underestimating his prowess.
pH – maybe BR is being ‘inclusive’?
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KS
May 24, 2022
@Srinivas R
Exactly my thoughts as well. Vettaiyadu Vilaiyadu was the last Kamal movie that I thoroughly enjoyed and revisit even now. No stupid gimmicks, no ridiculous costumes, no obscure accents, no obnoxious political sermonizing. Just a stylish Kamal commanding the screen with his innate awesomeness.
The problem with Kamal is that he indulges in some gimmickry in every single movie of his. By now everyone knows he’s a master at his craft, he doesn’t have to keep going “look ma, i’m acting” each time. Tired of him putting on outlandish accents, playing grannies, and stuff. Not to mention his insistence on singing songs from the album (which means top musicians are out, resulting in mediocre MDs he can bully), and his holier-than-thou jabs at political/social issues.
And Uttama Villain was the absolute nadir. The reviews (including by @brangan) played that movie up, and I remember making the mistake of catching it in a theatre. It was the most obnoxious vanity project ever, and I still remember cringing through the insufferable movie-within-a-movie (which was supposed to be a comedy?).
Acting has seeped so deep into him that he can impress even when he effortlessly goes through the motions, like in Vettaiyadu Vilaiyadu. I really wish for more movies where he is jaded and disinterested, and doing it solely to pay his debts.
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KS
May 24, 2022
@satya:
This “sakalakala vallavan” personality can be a nuisance in a team exercise like making movies. Primarily he’s an actor, thats his core competence. Nobody can dispute his excellence in that, and thats what he is in a film for. Maybe he is a good director too, thats harder to say since he’s made very few movies and thats not been his main focus.
Regarding his other skills, he may be competent, but nowhere close to the top-level professionals in those fields. He might be a good singer and know music well, but he’s no SPB. He might be a dance choreographer, but he’s no Prabhu deva. The same holds for almost all other supposed knowledge and skills he has. It is admirable that he constantly learns, is curious and knowledgeable about all aspects. But thats all there is to it, and has limited utility beyond personality development. Maybe he could give TEDx talks on it.
But in a movie, his competence in a wide variety of skills may be more of an annoyance than an advantage, since division of labor ensures top level professionals in those corresponding fields are employed together. He would then come across as an adhiga-prasangi trying to poke into every aspect of film-making and telling people how to do their own jobs. Sort of like how doctors get very pissed off by patients reading up on their illnesses and arguing with them.
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Madan
May 24, 2022
“Maybe he is a good director too, thats harder to say since he’s made very few movies and thats not been his main focus.
Regarding his other skills, he may be competent, but nowhere close to the top-level professionals in those fields” – Amen, thank you. I am a huge Kamal fan but he doesn’t know his limitations or rather has lately tended to get confused by his multi faceted skills and seems to concoct new projects with the sole intention of leveraging on ALL those skills. Which as you say can become a nuisance more than an attraction. He may have good directorial skills, sure, maybe better than er Ramesh Arvind who ‘officially’ directed Uttama Villain. But surely we are not going to claim he is a better director than Mani, Balu Mahendra, KB, Bharatiraja or even GVM?
There is a reason why his films with those directors shine brighter than the ones where he either officially directed or ghost directed. Even the ones where he and Crazy clearly hijacked the show – like MMKR or Sathy Leelavathy. The presence of a good director at the helm (Singeetham and Balu respectively) seems to have reined in his excesses and made the project palatable to a mainstream audience. And after all, Kamal wants dhoddu as much as anyone else end of the day. He is no parallel cinema/avant garde auteur prizing art over commerce (which is why Rudraiah complained that support from Kamal was wanting for his own left-leaning cinema).
Anyhow, this project does look promising and I am looking forward to it. It’s been a long time since I have said that about an upcoming Kamal film (not since Vishwaroopam 1).
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Madan
May 24, 2022
To make a rock guitar god analogy, one could say Kamal could have been a Gilmour but has somewhat ended up becoming an Yngwie instead!
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ivan
May 24, 2022
VV is by no means a terrible movie, but we don’t need someone of Kamal’s calibre to do that kind of a movie. Any tom dick harry can act is such roles or remakes. If I had to nit pick, it has cringeworthy moments too ” it’s called Raghavan’s instinct” and he wasn’t stylish but out of shape and sleep walked throughout the movie. It is a sheer waste of talent if Kamal is not interested or jaded, instead he should be a team player without being jack of all trades – chip in the premise and let others to prune and shape it into a compelling film or watever that works.
As most creative stalwarts age and progress in their career, their ideologies and belief system change, and that reflect in their movies. I don’t see why Kamal incorporating ideologies in his movies is wrong. It’s problematic when such movies don’t intrigue the audience yet the directors are stuck in the same movie making approach.
If one is aversive to certain genres or political leanings, it’s best to avoid those movies. Also, I’m not sure if it’s fair to trash a movie due to one’s inability to comprehend. UV worked for the niche audience.
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Madan
May 24, 2022
ivan : There’s nothing wrong with Kamal making political films but he has kind of wanted to have the cake and eat it too for a long time. He still craves the mainstream success and at the same time wants to also insert his ideology, which is fine until the ideology overtakes the film itself.
The box office results of Kamal’s last several films do suggest that his approach hasn’t worked and yet he has kept doubling down on it. Oh and if you don’t think he wants mainstream success, I hope you are aware that he made GVM rewrite the second half of VV to give him more prominence, with the argument being “you need to give the fans what they want”, always the favourite pretext of a star who wants to pretend he is above all the attention that he thoroughly enjoys.
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KS
May 24, 2022
@ivan:
“not sure if it’s fair to trash a movie due to one’s inability to comprehend. UV worked for the niche audience.”
Thats some condescending bs, as if one needs 200 IQ and superior taste to “comprehend” a trash film like Uttama Villain. I don’t know who the “niche” medhavis you refer to are, even Kamal fans loathed that movie. Even if you’re in tune with all the hat tips, references, hidden kuriyidu and stuff, it was a dull exercise in narcissism, and too excruciatingly boring to sit through.
“As most creative stalwarts age and progress in their career, their ideologies and belief system change, and that reflect in their movies. I don’t see why Kamal incorporating ideologies in his movies is wrong. If one is aversive to certain genres or political leanings, it’s best to avoid those movies. ”
Duh, thanks for enlightening me that I have the right and freedom to avoid movies I don’t want to watch. But I don’t have a problem with his movies like Satya, Varumayin Niram Sivappu, Unnal Mudiyum Thambi, Thevar Magan or even Anbe Sivam. These movies all expounded on his personal ideologies and worldview in more nuanced detail, and did full justice to the theme without rushing it. My problem is more with his hijacking of movies with unrelated themes, or abruptly and casually dropping in a few half-baked opinions wherever possible in his other movies. But maybe you’re right that this is not such a big deal, so I take it back.
“we don’t need someone of Kamal’s calibre to do that kind of a movie. Any tom dick harry can act is such roles or remakes.”
Would Vettaiyadu Vilaiyadu have worked with someone else? Maybe, but it would have been a very different movie. My point was that he offers a uniquely strong presence and subtle acting even when he doesn’t try too hard. And it would be a delight to see him unconsciously bring his style and innate artistry into less-flashy roles where he doesn’t have to do outlandish clown acts to impress.
Just to clarify, I’m not asking for him to pick generic trashy movies. Just good movies and stories, but with his role being that of a normal guy his age, without prosthetics or cosplay, without any wonky accents, without terminal illnesses, etc. For a change, I want to enjoy his role without having to marvel on the insane effort he’s put into the role. And I’m not even saying he needs to completely quit his desperate gimmicks and showy roles. Just once in a while at least, I want him to waltz through nonchalantly, relying only on his Raghavan instinct that he has thanks to five decades immersed in cinema.
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Akhilan
May 24, 2022
Hey KS, “adigha-prasangi” ahahahaha. Um just curious though, when you say “normal guy”, forget Kamal, but when was the last time (say within the last 5 years maybe) any of the superstars in Tamil cinema play a “normal guy” in any of their movies that ended up being a major success commercially and/or critically…? (This could also help with my movie watch-list 🙂
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Vidyakar
May 25, 2022
I would take his flawed but ambitious attempts like Anbe Sivam, Virumandi, and Hey Ram any day over the likes of Vettaiyadu. Some of his directorial/screenwriting “failures” would put the crowning glories of others to shame.
I don’t have too much hope for Vikram. I get the feeling that the film doesn’t really need a talent of his stature. Explains his complete lack of interest translating to not even a single feedback to LK. Poor guy – he must have thought the days of tolerating the likes of S P Muthuraman, K. Vijayan, and K S Ravikumar are over to only relive the horrors of the past again with the new gen directors.
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Thupparivaalan
May 25, 2022
But surely we are not going to claim he is a better director than Mani, Balu Mahendra, KB, Bharatiraja or even GVM?
There is a reason why his films with those directors shine brighter than the ones where he either officially directed or ghost directed.
Madan: Major disagree on this. I don’t think GVM has made anything as well directed as something like Virumandi, Hey Ram or even Vishwaroopam. I highly respect Kamal as a director purely based on those three films. The scale, ambition, the layers of Hey Ram and Virumandi is unparalleled. Till date I don’t think MR has delved into the subject matter at hand as throughly in any of his films as Kamal did in Virumandi and Hey Ram.
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Madan
May 25, 2022
Thupparivaalan: “Till date I don’t think MR has delved into the subject matter at hand as throughly in any of his films as Kamal did in Virumandi and Hey Ram.” – But subject matter is not a proxy for direction, no? You are giving me reasons why Kamal is a good screenplay writer which I can believe. And he IS a good director. But can he just take a very run of the mill mainstream subject and still leave his mark on it and make it special? That’s what Mani at his best could do and which GVM also did in the beginning. Vishwaroopam is a much more typical type of film and…it remains fairly typical. Considering that GVM had done Kaaka Kaaka and VV already in 2000s, I don’t see why he wouldn’t be able to do Vishwaroopam. Yeah, maybe it wouldn’t have all the context-setting geopolitical discussion but again, that is screenplay.
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brangan
May 25, 2022
I have a different take on Kamal supposedly “ghost-directing” films. Firstly, no one really knows what went on behind the scenes – as the cinema industry is filled with whispers and rumours. Secondly, with the rare exception of a Mani Ratnam, we have not had consistent “directors” — not screenplay-writers, not storytellers, but “directors” who understand that the most holy relationship in a visual medium is that between the director and the cinematographer. And these two then decide on the staging, where actors should stand, what lenses should be used to convey meaning etc.
The KANNATHIL MUTHAMITTAL scene where the runaway girl is found in a railway station, and how Mani/Ravi K Chandran stage the subsequent meeting is what direction is, it’s what a director should do. In the sense that: the screenplay will say “avoiding her mother, Amudha rushes into her father’s arms” — but HOW? By changing the focus from Simran to Madhavan, from long to mid, blurring out the mother and and showing us the change in the mother/daughter relationship in purely VISUAL terms.
That is why I love Mani Ratnam, even if I do not care as much for some of his films, some of his screenplays. As a pure director, he has CONSISTENTLY been at it — “it” being the page-to-visuals translation — for some forty years, with increasing sophistication. Or look at GANGUBAI. A sub-par, screenplay, but scene for scene, every shot shows you the presence of the “director”/ cinematographer (SLB/Sudeep Chatterjee) sync. Or see the staging of the deleted “curse” scene from MAHAAN (Karthik Subbaraj/Shreyas Krishna).
Not being able to see MAHAAN on a big screen is one of my biggest regrets of the year.
Now imagine an actor like Kamal, well-versed in cinema and mad about the medium, but unable to find many people who know how to “direct”, many people whose idea is simply keeping the camera somewhere and saying ACTION. There’s no scene choreography, there’s no bits of actorly movement — it is essentially a Tamil stage play, like most of our films. Basically, a bunch of people saying a bunch of lines.
And yet, for a while, he is happy doing AVM masala films and so forth, because that is how the scenario/cinematic landscape is. But in 1987 (the year he did PUSHPAK / NAYAKAN) something snaps. He realises that he has been wasting his potential, or maybe he realises the below-potential legacy he is leaving. He needs to find “directors”, people who know that there’s more to films than just a screenplay. He realises there are not many people like this. So he gets into production, appoints a series of “proficient” people to to the traffic-directing work, and actually does a lot of the directing himself. (Wouldn’t you do the same thing?)
It is not “interfering” when the appointed director is happy to handle this job-delegation. Look at the Santhanabharathi who “directed” GUNA/MAHANADHI and look at the Santhanabharathi who “directed” CHINNA MAAPLA/VIETNAM COLONY. Do you think it’s the same “director”? (VIETNAM COLONY and MAHANADHI even shared the same cinematographer, a really talented guy named MS Prabhu. Don’t know what happened to him!)
For me, Kamal’s “direction” is up there with the best, even when Kamal the screenwriter tries to pack in too much into a scene. He really knows how to (visually) translate the page to screen, and shot for shot, VIRUMANDI and HEY RAM contain some of the most amazing pieces of “direction” in a Tamil mainstream movie.
It is only recently — say, the last twenty years — that you have “pure directors” coming up (say, Mysskin). But in Kamal’s peak-time, how many were there? So he took it up himself.
That is my hypothesis, the truth may vary, etc.
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Heisenberg
May 25, 2022
To add a sidenote, kamal has talked about how an actor like Sivaji did not scripts that could challenge him. To quote kamal’s exact words “Andha singathuku kadaisi varaikum thayir sadham dhan potanga. Thats why I decided enakana samayal naane pannikren”.
Kamal has always encouraged young talents. He found Selvaraghavan, GVM and Mysskin interesting in very early years and offered them to direct his scripts which did not workout for whatever reasons.
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vijay
May 25, 2022
Even Mani rathnam has hinted about Kamal’s ‘inputs’ in the past. In fact in his first meeting with Kamal, he says he told Kamal a story and Kamal told him 5 stories back..Maybe this has got something to do with why Mani himself has not collaborated with Kamal after Nayagan with the convenient excuse of “not being able to find a script good enough for Kamal”. Selvaraghavan in the 2000s and Mysskin need their own space as well.
I didnt think Hey ram was very well directed. Those graphics scenes with lizard and all that was cringe-worthy. Somebody like Mani would have toned those things down. Same with the last 30 minutes of Virumandi and its climax. The film couldnt make up its mind on whether it wanted to talk about different versions of truth liek Roshomon or whether it wanted to debate capital punishment. So that last sceen where Kamal cries about annalakshmi in the TV interview came across as really odd.
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vijay
May 25, 2022
anyway kamalgaasan is looking more like Rajdeep Sardesai with a beer belly these past few years. The actor in him has not impressed since mid-2000s and his films work even less. I have zero expectations from this one. Plus if Kamal is going to mouth politically tinged mass one-liners now and then to compensate for lack of physicality in action scenes its going to grate even more. Maybe thats why Fahadh faasil and VJS have been roped in, to make it more marketable.
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ivan
May 25, 2022
Vijay – could you name Mani Rathnam’s movies which suit Kamal and would have done full justice to Kamal’s talent like Nayagan? Same applies for Selva and Myskin.
Besides one two decent movies by these directors, do you see many both commercially and critically acclaimed movies from these directors? So what makes you think they had a terrific script with a guaranteed blockbuster for Kamal? Supposedly those movies were made with other actors resulting in massive success, then we could have argued retrospectively Kamal missed those opportunities.
It’s easy to speculate and it is one side of the story that those movies where discarded due to Kamal’s personality. But given these directors track record, I don’t think we can blame Kamal for not teaming with them. He might as well focus on his brainchild than someone else’s substandard scripts.
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Madan
May 25, 2022
ivan : One or two decent movies of Myskkin? I haven’t even seen all of his, especially not the more recent Thupparivalan and Psycho but Anjaathe, OAK and Pisaasu were all outstanding films. So maybe this “Kamal can’t find a decent guy to direct so he ghost directs” narrative was true in the 90s though even that stretches credulity for me, but it certainly isn’t anymore. And that is likely why he too is now comfortable collaborating with LK. The other aspect is likely that someone like Myskkin has his own strong creative vision and Kamal simply doesn’t want anymore to collaborate as ‘just an actor’, he wants to be at least comfortable with the vision of whoever is directing the film even if he is not going to influence it. With LK, he probably was.
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brangan
May 25, 2022
vijay: The film couldnt make up its mind on whether it wanted to talk about different versions of truth liek Roshomon or whether it wanted to debate capital punishment.
But that is not direction. That is screenwriting.
And about the lizard problem in HEY RAM, that was the general state of visual effects then. To take your Mani example, look at the odd matte shots in ‘vegam vegam’in ANJALI. That was all they could afford.
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ivan
May 25, 2022
Madan- I agree with you on ‘just an actor’. I am not against these directors, just that I’ve not seen any of their movies that fit Kamal until now. Take Myskin’s movies, his scripts primarily revolve around younger/low profile actors. I’m not able to visualise Kamal in his kind of movies, but I can see someone like Prakashraj doing senior roles. So that’s precisely why I agree with you – there’s not much for Kamal the actor to relate to in Myskin’s movies, so unless the script is marvellous and flawless, I don’t see why Kamal would put up with some moderately successful new directors with a domineering attitude.
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Madan
May 25, 2022
ivan : Well, there I think Kamal COULD step out of his comfort zone and explore possibilities. Amitabh had to accept character roles by force because he was clean bankrupt. Kamal isn’t but that’s also mainly because he has political patronage. At the box office, he has not been successful for a long time. So outside the echo chamber of him and his fans, he is not exactly hot property. He COULD explore what it would be like to be cast against type with less space than usual in the role. But, and he is ultimately no different from Rajni there, he still wants to be the star of the show in everything he does. Many, many once legendary stars in both Hollywood and Bollywood moved on to ‘elder statesman’ roles and Nadigar Thilagam did so as well in the 80s. The diverse nature of cinema today opens up lots of possibilities for a character to be old and still edgy or unconventional and not just boring lecture daddy. So I don’t see what Kamal would stand to lose by exploring that direction. But he is trapped by his own image at this point. That’s why he barely even acts anymore. He is only acting as Kamal Haasan lately. Maybe Vikram will finally break the mould and I would love it if it does. But not holding my breath. Just a decent Kamal thriller will do at this point.
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shaviswa
May 25, 2022
There were references to Anbe Sivam and Hey Ram in the comments here.
I found Anbe Sivam horrible…. And I still find it insufferable if I get to catch it on some channel. I thought both Kamal and Madhavan hammed their way through that film. Script wise hardly engaging and direction wise nothing great.
On Hey Ram, I found the movie very boring. A very tedious watch. And to add to that other than Kamal every other actor (except Saurabh Sukhla and Atul Kulkarni) were like cardboard cutouts. Nobody seemed to be make a mark. And all that forced intimacy on screen with Rani Mukherjee was a huge turn off 🤦
I like Kamal when there is a better director at the helm – MR, KS Ravikumar, Singeetham – all these folks did well to make entertaining films and minimise Kamal’s intrusions.
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shaviswa
May 25, 2022
I will be very surprised if Vikram is even in that “barely watchable” category.
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rsylviana
May 25, 2022
All this talk about the possibilities of Kamal doing ‘elder statesman’ roles in our movies is making me wonder how perfect he would be for a role like Amitabh’s in Piku. He could bring his own signature ease in showcasing icky topics onscreen and the role would effectivtely give him a proper outlet to voice out his political idealogies, his dismay at the current state of mainstream cinema and the audience’s reluctance to enjoy his attempts at intelligent movies and whatnot. Also think of THE KAMALHAASAN embarrassing his daughter in front of a stranger saying that “She is not a virgin” and judging her romantic life. Now that would be one for the ages.
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vijay
May 25, 2022
“And about the lizard problem in HEY RAM, that was the general state of visual effects then’
iam not talking about the visual effects here at all. This is not a sci-fi action or something. I am talking about how he chose to represent the state of mind in such a fashion via those scenes. Vasundhra das morphing into a gun and all that..other directorial flaws included insisting that Shahrukh and other Bombay actors dub in their own voices, as aresult a lot of it was lost on the audience. I still remember a guy shouting at the screen “thamizhla pesungada..” when I saw this in a theater. Of course, overall I still liked it and it was an unique effort no doubt. But I wouldnt put it on a pedestal.
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vijay
May 25, 2022
“Besides one two decent movies by these directors, do you see many both commercially and critically acclaimed movies from these directors? So what makes you think they had a terrific script with a guaranteed blockbuster for Kamal?’
I dont think that at all. They didnt even think of Kamal as an option for their scripts is what I think. Its not like they made a script with Kamal in mind and decided to go to somebody else at the last minute. .
and their job is not to deliver “a guaranteed blockbuster’ for Kamal. that is project manager KS Ravikumar’s job. These directors have a clear vision and they want to see it through. Mani didnt have mass punchlines and breaking the 4th wall type of scenes in Dalapathi just because it had Rajni. So the Ulaganayagan image would have repulsed him even further I think. If Kamal turns over a new leaf and becomes an actor-for-hire in somebody else’s production/direction then I would’nt rule out another collaboration between him and these directors. Otherwise it will be indian 2, thevar magan 2, Vikram 2 etc. with fanboy directors..
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vijay
May 25, 2022
I caught Kaidhi only recently. I am already tired of Lokesh’s multiple threads of action and intercutting, all happening in one night, the screen being dark for the most part that sometimes you need a falshlight to see who’s on it and so on. There are no lady characters too worthwhile in his films and that’s a lesser complaint. Kaidhi was a concoction of Con Air, Assault on Precinct 13, Departed and so on and on.. Our directors, the likes of Nelsons, Lokeshs, Maatheswarans, should be banned from watching Hollywood flicks for a year. Let them be forced to come up with a spark inspired from things happening around them..Or atleast adapt a pulpy Rajesh kumar novel and put your own stamp on it..Cant be much worse.
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ivan
May 25, 2022
Master Vijay – how do you know what transpired between Kamal and these directors? You’re just speculating and make up scenarios in your mind.
The Ulaganayagan tag was first introduced in Dasavatharam in 2008, that’s 21 years gap after Nayagan! So what stopped MR from directing Kamal in the mean time? What if MR was being honest that he really couldn’t come up with a script that’s on par with their previous work.
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ivan
May 25, 2022
Master Vijay – I don’t need a magic crystal ball, I can already predict what you’re gonna say henceforth about Kamal Hassan and all the people associated with him, both living and dead
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Anu Warrier
May 25, 2022
For me, Hey Ram was a fabulous cinematic experience. And I absolutely loved the fact that the various characters spoke in their own languages in those specific regions where the story took them. It was unusual – and realistic.
For me, the intimacy with Rani did not seem forced at all. It was more real than the nonsense that passes off for a mature relationship on screen. The only screen that took me aback was that of Vasundhara morphing into a rifle but considering he’s supposed to be high, I could buy into the psychedelic imaginings of a tortured mind.
Even today, I think that that was one of the best films on the wounds inflicted by the partition and the communal fires that smouldered long after (and continue to smoulder).
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Anu Warrier
May 25, 2022
*scene (not screen)
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Akhilan
May 25, 2022
Hey Madan, like I posed the question to KS, when was the last time any of the major “superstars” step out of their “comfort zone” and explore possibilities? Would you put Suriya and Dhanush in that category of “superstars”…? Just curious to hear your thoughts.
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Madan
May 25, 2022
Akhilan : Surya has gone stale over the years and was never that much of an actor, so I give him props for even trying stuff like Perazhagan back in the day. Dhanush recently acted in Hindi and it was a very adult, sensitive role. I think given good writing, Dhanush can thrive. He is still sharp and is ridiculously fresh for his age.
But I also don’t think that because the two jokers at the top (we know who they are) don’t step a millimeter outside their zone means it’s OK for Kamal to coast. Kamal is one of the finest actors of Indian mainstream cinema and has terrific range, to state the obvious. That is why it is disappointing. It’s sort of like how I felt underwhelmed by Poo Poothathu as a Raja fan even though the song was perfectly alright by reigning film music standards. Either a past great finds a tone that consistently works (Rajni post Padayappa or even Amitabh who started acting as his KBC personality and it worked brilliantly) or keeps exploring. Sticking to one’s reflexes in the face of diminishing returns is what I get disappointed with. And it’s not like I single out Tamil greats. I find RDN really flat in most of his recent ventures (when I say recent, that goes back to clunkers like Family) and I haven’t dared to watch Pacino in anything in a long time. God knows how I endured Irishman. What one does for Marty-love!
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vijay
May 25, 2022
“And I absolutely loved the fact that the various characters spoke in their own languages in those specific regions where the story took them.’
No they didnt. they all spoke in Tamil, heavily accented. Atul Kulkarni speaking Tamil evoked unintended laughter from the audience where I watched it. Shahrukh barely managed.
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vijay
May 25, 2022
“The Ulaganayagan tag was first introduced in Dasavatharam in 2008, that’s 21 years gap after Nayagan! So what stopped MR from directing Kamal in the mean time?”
Kamal, is my answer, speculative or not. His directing and other forays increased in the 90s. Late 90s, he was obsessed with his own Marudhanaayagam and all that..Before that he wasted 2 years directing remake of a remake in chachi 420 in Hindi. Mani, must have seen what happened to Dhanu after Aalavandhan and must have panicked 🙂
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praneshp
May 25, 2022
@anu one of us needs to re-watch Hey Ram. Since you love it so much, can you confirm they were talking local languages, and not Tamil?
Before you confused me, I would have been willing to bit SRK was talking Tamil.
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Vidyakar
May 25, 2022
Bingo BR! Check out this interview with K S Adhiyaman (Thotta Sinungi) who was an AD on Mangamma Sabatham. Watch him describe how Kamal took out his frustrations about the pedestrian direction on him. This is kind of what drove him to direction/ghost direction.
(Watch from 11 min mark)
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therag
May 25, 2022
I think we can agree that if given an option to do your own thing, most people would prefer that. Both MR and Kamal had made it in the industry. Kamal had a huge fan following and Mani had a decent sized audience. They had their own ideas that they wanted to explore and they had the finance and talent to execute it.
I don’t blame Kamal for pursuing Marudhanayam. Yusuf Khan is a very interesting character and his story takes place at a time when the Brits were getting established and expanding. I think it would have been an amazing film. We got Hey Ram as a consolation prize after Kamal realized that Marudhanayam was not happening.
Marudhanayam was supposed to be made with funding from the UK but the funding got pulled at the last minute due to sanctions after Pokhran-2. Just bad luck.
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Aman Basha
May 25, 2022
Fun fact: This week, we will have two highly anticipated sequels to 80s films starring iconic stars in their 60s who are not at the top as they used to be.
27 May-Top Gun: Maverick (which is already getting insane reviews and I hope beats out the horrible Doctor Strange 2)
3 June-Vikram
(Feeling old? :))
About Vikram, people seem to be making some extreme comments here, extreme enough for me to adapt the Uttama Villain template:
a. It is an indisputable fact that Lokesh Kanagaraj is one of the most exciting talents in Tamil cinema today, if not has anyone gone from directing small timers in his debut to Karthi in his second film, Vijay (the biggest star in Tamil) in his third and Kamal/VJS/FaFa in his fourth? Also Master was a flawed but very enjoyable and well made masala film (don’t rebut if you haven’t even seen it) with some great masala moments (like the pen scene and the Parkala song). I would dare say that none post Mani Ratnam, have managed to hold a distinctive voice while giving out such successive blockbusters (Murugadoss and Shankar were always commercial directors). Both Khaidi and Master were smash hits in Telugu, so he has a pan South presence.
b. Said Lokesh has always been a huge fan of Kamal and has been saying so since ages, Master itself has a ton of references to Kamal films like Satya. When Mani made Thalapathi, he stripped away the star mannerisms from Rajini but Lokesh built Master around Vijay’s image in such a way that even the political scenes (such as in the end) make you admire his smarts.
c. Kamal would have definitely been impressed with this film maker, who has had a mix of art and commerce (which is what Kamal always desired) and can work his movie around a star image. The bonus here is that Lokesh himself has used Kamalisms (in a Vijay movie!) or is in awe of Kamalisms enough to happily incorporate them in his film. Just look at the lyrics of Pathala Pathala which Kamal himself wrote, but wonder at how popular it’s become with Lokesh’s presentation.
d. For people whining about Hey Ram, I suggest they watch the Hindi version since there was a similar discussion about accents in an old Reader’s Write In where BR suggested the Hindi version to be far superior. Also, do note Hey Ram, Virumaandi and Anbe Sivam especially have very high ratings on IMDB indicating their status as cult classics.
e. About GVM, can we really say Kamal interfered negatively by asking extra time for his character? The villains were unbearably cringeworthy and the film would have been terrible if they had any more screen time.
f. Check the production history of most Kamal films post 2005 and they were made as substitute films to fulfil obligations to producers since Kamal’s market status was such that his films went through production hell unfathomable to any notable star.
g. Just like Vijay, Kamal echoed Tamil public sentiment in attacking both the BJP and AIADMK smart enough to boost his sagging and almost irrelevant image. If not for BJP and AIADMK attacking Mersal and Sarkar, I firmly believe Vijay would not have shot up this way. For many who feared the worst with Kamal hosting Bigg Boss, he managed to recreate enough of his past popularity to ram through V2, start Indian 2 and have Vikram as the most awaited South Indian movie today.
h. A long, long time ago, I made a bet with gnanozhi that Kamal would win more votes than Rajni and that Vikram would outgross Annatthe. Should have thought about the stock market at that time too 🙂
Nandri
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TamilThanos
May 26, 2022
@BR curious to know what you saw in the staging of that deleted scene in Mahaan?
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Anu Warrier
May 26, 2022
No they didnt. they all spoke in Tamil, heavily accented. Atul Kulkarni speaking Tamil evoked unintended laughter from the audience where I watched it. Shahrukh barely managed.
Atul Kulkarni slips into Marathi; so does Vikram Gokhale, except when they are speaking to people like Ram who don’t know the language. Rani as Aparna speaks both Bengali and Hindi in Calcutta. Kamal and Vasundhara switch between Tamil and English. SRK speaks Hindi in the earlier parts when they are on the dig and then in Tamil to Ram when he is supposed to be in Tamil Nadu. I had no problem with his heavily accented Tamil because he is NOT supposed to be a native but he picked up the language while in college in Madras.
I am not saying they only spoke in those languages, but their slipping into their native tongues lent verisimilitude to the proceedings, especially for someone like me who, not rooted anywhere, is used to talking in at least two or three languages within a single conversation. And even though I watched the ‘Tamil’ version here in the US, this mixture of languages was really appealing.
As for “Thamizhile pesada’, I’m sure some chap watching the Hindi version must have said, “Abey, Hindi mein baat kar!” when the Tamil/Marathi/Bengali dialogues appeared. shrug
I do happen to think that the film was a seminal work in Indian cinema and a courageous one, given that there are very few films in Hindi that deal with the horrors of Pakistan, and other than Dharmputra, none that deal with the rise of the RSS and the Hindu Rashtra. Garm Hawa, Pinjar, Khamosh Pani and Train to Pakistan are the only films that tried to deal with the subject. Other than nods to it in films like Aag, Chhalia etc. But both Pinjar and Train to Pakistan were skewed to the Hindu/Sikh gaze. Which is fine, because that is one perspective and a very valid one.
But there is another – and Kamal had the courage to look at that. Not blaming the one or the other but actually delving into the ‘why’ of it all. I found it fascinating. My review of it, if anyone really wants to know what I thought of the film. 🙂
https://anuradhawarrier.blogspot.com/2016/05/hey-ram-2000_18.html
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Anu Warrier
May 26, 2022
*horrors of Partition, not horrors of Pakistan. Sorry about that.
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vijay
May 26, 2022
“As for “Thamizhile pesada’, I’m sure some chap watching the Hindi version must have said, “Abey, Hindi mein baat kar!” when the Tamil/Marathi/Bengali dialogues appeared. shrug”
the “thamizhla pesuda” comment came when the characters were actually speaking in Tamil(or trying to) onscreen. That tells you the story. Small things like these add up. it could have been one of the few reasons why the film didnt have a bigger reach and bombed. Since SRK had a longer screen time. I also didnt care for all those graphics scnees with Kamal standing in a desert with a storm blowing across him and all that..if he was trying to convey something abstract, like a state of mind, you dont literalize it like that. It probably left a lot of folks amused and confused at the same time.
Overall Hey Ram was a special effort no doubt. The debate is on his directorial skills. I think Kamal does have some rough edges in execution when it comes to directing. The last 20 mins of Virumandi felt like a masala movie ending that KS Ravikumar would have done in one of his films. Plus, he has directed only a few films in most of which, if not all, he is the lead actor and that sometimes hides his directing flaws as well because of his own performance(which can sometimes distract) and star charisma. Comparing him with somebody like Mani who has a 40-year body of work, purely as a director, is not a fair comparison. Being the brand he is now, not sure if Kamal would ever direct a film with him behind the camera and not in front of it. Like Mel Gibson did with Apocalypto or Sean Penn with Into the Wild. We’ll have to wait..
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vijay
May 26, 2022
“Check out this interview with K S Adhiyaman (Thotta Sinungi) who was an AD on Mangamma Sabatham. Watch him describe how Kamal took out his frustrations about the pedestrian direction on him.”
so with a better director Mangamma sabadham would have been a classic ? 🙂 Kamal knew what he was getting into when he was doing these kind of films in the 80s, didnt he?
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ivan
May 26, 2022
Kamal is sensible enough to distinguish between classic and non classic movies. Plot driven/masala movies as opposed to character driven movies have better chances of turning successful with proper execution.
I believe MS has a better storyline than say something like VIJAY’S Beast!
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Vidyakar
May 26, 2022
Well – the original (Kasam Paida Karne Wale Ki) was a super hit, wasn’t it? And, as readers of this blog we now know that form can makeup for lack of content so perhaps that’s what Kamal was trying on this set – unsuccessfully.
The point is – he was forced to participate in these mediocre projects by the kollywood system and pundits. He quickly realized he has to be the change agent and hence his forays into directing/ghost directing. If Pesum Padam/Nayagan phase hadn’t happened, he would have dished out a lot of Lorry Driver Rajakannus and Pattakathi Bhairavans, as Sivaji did before fading away quickly.
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vijay
May 26, 2022
“Well – the original (Kasam Paida Karne Wale Ki) was a super hit, wasn’t it?”
lot of mediocre masala films were remade in the 80s ..they didnt need a manirathnam or Mahendran in the first place. A Balaji was enough. Kamal had his own compulsions to do these crap movies knowing very well how they would turn out. Instead, if he had taken out his frustration on fanboys like Ramesh Aravind, in more serious efforts like Uththama Villian, or replaced them altogether with someone worthwhile (eg. for a movie like Anbe Sivam where all he could recruit was C.Sundar), it could have meant something and those films could have turned out better. Even his genre thriller Thoongavanam was helmed by a fanboy and it turned out to be very middling.
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ivan
May 26, 2022
Vijay – I get a sense that you’re engaging in character assasination. Never mind, I will give you the benefit of doubt and ask you this out of curiosity: What are your favorite Kamal movies?
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Aman Basha
May 26, 2022
Also BR, would it hurt to have subtitles for Tamil interviews? You are a pan India film critic, even FC South would update the interviews with subtitles after a while.
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Honest Raj
May 27, 2022
rsylviana: All this talk about the possibilities of Kamal doing ‘elder statesman’ roles in movies is making me wonder how perfect he would be for a role like Amitabh’s in Piku.
He would certainly agree – as long as he’s allowed to play DP’s role as well.
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Thupparivaalan
May 27, 2022
Madan: The direction in Hey Ram is simply spectacular. In each scene there’s so much happening in the background but Kamal stages it in such a way that we never lose track of what’s important. Both Hey Ram and Virumandi just keep flowing scene to scene and I don’t think it’s because of the writing. As BR said he translates the pages to screen without making it a stage play. Both Hey Ram and Virumandi could have easily been dialogue marathons but Kamal uses visuals when there’s no need for dialogues like during that stretch when he goes on a killing rampage in Hey Ram, and the psychedelic episode that is totally visual. He might not be as showy as Mani Ratnam but can direct brilliantly. Also I much prefer Kamal’s way of staging songs to Mani especially in the later years when MR simply seems to have lost interest in that, though Kaatru Veliyidai was better in that aspect. Kamal extracts mind-blowing performances with rank new comers like Vasundhara in Hey Ram and Pasupathi in Virumandi, and can direct action spectacularly well like he did in Vishwaroopam. GVM can’t even shoot an action scene without loads of tedious voice overs (I know he calls it his style) ; In terms of directorial talent I would put GVM much below Kamal, there’s just no comparison, and I’m someone who grew up with GVM films.
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Thupparivaalan
May 27, 2022
The camera does several things in this one single song. POV of initial character is high, so camera is not stable. He meets Kamal camera stabilizes. They convince him to drink, after which the camera is again in slo mo with slight instability indicating Kamal is kinda high. Then of course we switch to Kamal POV and we see his mind at work getting horny. There’s a lot of stuff being said just through visuals, and whole thing is seamless.
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Madan
May 27, 2022
I have a number of disagreements but I will address only two points of disagreement and the one that I agree with:
“Also I much prefer Kamal’s way of staging songs to Mani especially in the later years when MR simply seems to have lost interest in that, though Kaatru Veliyidai was better in that aspect. ” – ONLY later years as far as I am concerned. There is simply no comparison between vintage Mani and Kamal in staging songs.
“Kamal extracts mind-blowing performances with rank new comers like Vasundhara in Hey Ram and Pasupathi in Virumandi,” – I will only agree with Pasupathi. The other characters in both films put together didn’t go very far and that was the most disappointing aspect of it being a directorial venture of Kamal. He was mostly only directing himself and the other characters were only there to move plot points. To some extent, that is screenplay but here Kamal is wearing all hats, so the director Kamal should have seen that the screenplay is too overpowered by his presence. But why would he, he did the same albeit not to the same extent in Appu Raja (but the villains are pretty weak and poorly defined when you think about it). It just happened to work well because Panju and Singeetham reined in his excesses and the Janakaraj comedy bit provided relief at regular intervals. And of course peak Raja compared to noughties Raja – everyone other than the fanatics knows which Raja is preferable.
Use of camera is fine but that’s still only one aspect of direction. The primary task of a director is to extract a crisp movie from the screenplay, characters that come to life from the actors and, lastly, yes, visuals you remember. IMO Kamal only does the last aspect well. This is partly my criticism of later Mani too. If you try to do everything, you will not have self-recognition of where you are faltering and falling behind. Neither Kamal nor Mani should be directing their own scripts as they lack the ability to recognize the flaws in their scripts. But, again, the difference to me is simply that Kamal needs unusual subjects and to place himself at the centre of this unusual story to direct while Mani took a very, very commercial thing like Agni and still made it completely and unmistakably his own. That is also why I rate the early GVM highly, before he sort of became a Tamil version of Karan Johar and started performing psychotherapy on the big screen. I will accept that Kamal can do that when he does it on a film directed officially by himself as opposed to his fans appropriating the credit for possible efforts by another director officially credited for the film.
” and can direct action spectacularly well like he did in Vishwaroopam.” – Yes, this is finally the only point I agree with. And here Kamal imo lacks self analysis. From the get go, comedy and action have been his biggest strengths; he can also be a brilliant villain but has not tapped that nearly enough. But he got bored of action at some point and with comedy, he oversaturated it with too many Crazy Mohan confusion capers (mind you, even the penultimate one, Panchathantiram was still a classic of the genre nevertheless). It comes down to what others have said – Kamal the intellectual and activist has overshadowed the artist over the last two decades and this affects both those films too. In Vishwaroopam, his activist side only gets space in the Afghan backstory so the movie doesn’t run out of tempo.
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Rambo
May 27, 2022
Loving these discussions. But don’t see much of Kamal’s comedy performances coming through. I would love to see another solid comedy outing by the man. Mind you, those have also had hits and misses. Even so – the hits were really fun
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KS
May 27, 2022
@Rambo:
I really hope not. This might be a controversial opinion, but I don’t think Kamal has a flair for comedy. Can he do justice to comic roles and be competent at them? Absolutely, because he’s a versatile top-tier actor. But is he naturally funny or capable of creating humor beyond the script and material? Can he mine comedy out of something that isn’t funny on paper? I doubt it.
What I mean is, take Rajini for instance. I strongly think he is better at comedy, because he can create a fun atmosphere with very little material. His otherwise cool macho persona works well to create that dissonance and humor when he makes himself vulnerable in silly ways. He can embarrass himself, indulge in delightful self-deprecation, play second fiddle to comedians.
Not all his comedy scenes might be masterpieces of humor (that depends on the script and dialogues), but he can singlehandedly create a mood and atmosphere of levity with his antics.
In contrast, almost all of the examples fans use to hold up Kamal as a comic actor, have all been Crazy Mohan movies. Given Crazy’s crackling dialogues and wacky situations, anyone in Kamal’s role would have been just as funny. Not saying they would have been as flawless playing different accents, but thats not the point here. The input of Kamal in the comedy itself, is minimal. The few times when Kamal has tried to come up with and insert his own funny lines in his movies, have all been cringe and fallen flat. Even otherwise, he doesn’t have a persona that lends itself well to comedy- he’s the annoying self-righteous activist kind of guy, in most of his movies as well as in real life.
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ivan
May 27, 2022
Before anyone jumps in to vouch for KS, I want to remind you all. He/she/they is the same person who finds the out of shape stoic Kamal stylish in VV and ‘this is called Raghavan’s instinct’ as the coolest line ever uttered by a Tamil hero 🙂
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Madan
May 27, 2022
ivan : Don’t worry, it’s a hard disagree from my side when it comes to comedy I mean Crazy was nowhere in the picture in early-mid 80s and Kamal was already doing comedy then and just as well as in the Crazy films. It just so happens that the Crazy-Kamal comedy films were a whole genre by themselves which Priyadarshan also imitated in Hindi. That’s why they get mentioned again and again. But Kamal did comedy without dialogues – Pushpak. I would in fact really like to see Rajni do a whole comedy film without dialogue. I believe he may have pulled it off in the 80s but he is so beholden to his Rajnisms now that he would find it very difficult. And not that I care – Rajni does Rajni and Kamal does Kamal. I wouldn’t want Rajni to do Appu Raja or MMKR and I wouldn’t want Kamal to do Annamalai or Baasha, enough said.
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KayKay
May 29, 2022
KS makes a lot of good points I tend to agree with usually, but yeah, gotta part ways on the whole Kamal not really having a flair for comedy thingy. Given that way before the Crazy Mohan era, train wrecks like Mangala Vathiyam were only watchable because of Kamal’s comedy antics. His comedy tracks via an extended cameo in movies like Rani Theni and Maharasan is why those movies are still (vaguely) remembered. The thoroughly mediocre Singara Velan had only 2 noteworthy things in it’s favor: Raja’s soundtrack and Kamal’s comedy. Watch that opening stretch where Kamal imagines how his father was killed and that whole thing gets flipped on it’s head and tell me Kamal has no flair for comedy!
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Madan
May 29, 2022
Rajni does comedy well in a specific setting – where he is either posing as simpleton (Muthu) or placed in an awkward situation (the Pandian snake scene). That’s good indeed. But Kamal can do comedy in literally a hundred different ways. MMKR isn’t just about Crazy’s writing but Kamal making Madan, Kamesh, Rajan all funny in different ways. Another example: the uncouth ‘diamond in the rough’ of Pammal K Sambamtham is so different from the stylish NRI high flyer of Panchathanthiram and both in turn different from the paranoid Singala Tamil speaking patient of Thenali. Also, he adjusts the same comedic character (Kamal in sari, in essence) very well as Avai Shanmughi in the film of the same name and as Laxmi Godbole in Chachi 420.
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Madan
May 29, 2022
Now if somebody’s asking whether Kamal is a match for Robin Williams in comedy, I would say no. But then, nobody can. OTHER famous stand up comics said they turned up to watch Robin do it and get inspired. And being an ace dubbing artist, he could shapeshift his beautiful voice into virtually any character he wanted to enact.
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Cholan Rajendran
May 29, 2022
Was never a Kamal fan. Of course he’s talented, but he’s more interested in letting ppl know he’s talented than exercising his talent. That’s why his acting constantly comes across as overacting. The Papanasam scene is a wonderful example of that— in addition to his cringey over-aana azhudhal, I’m sure he held the director at gunpoint and forced him to make Tamil Georgekutty cry. If he got a bit more leeway, he would’ve fallen on the Inspector’s feet and begged for forgiveness too.
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Dora
May 29, 2022
So many interesting comments about Hey Ram on this thread. BR sir, like how you explained the nuances in the railway station scene in Kannathil Muthamittal, could you please talk about your favorite scene (or scenes) in Hey Ram?
My 2 cents – the movie was brilliant. I have watched the full movie maybe at least 10 times, and then certain scenes maybe 30 times or more. Sadly, the audiences were not ready for such a movie. Language was a big barrier. Ideally, the movie should have been made mostly in English with a bit of Tamil/Hindi/Marathi/Bengali when relevant (and English sub-titles for those scenes). The Tamil version of the movie almost ended up like this (there is more English in the Tamil version than the Hindi version), but we still had Sharukh Khan and other characters speaking Tamil which did not work out so great. Also, perhaps there could have been a voice over explaining the timeline a bit more?
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Rambo
May 30, 2022
As others have responded to KS – I do disagree that Kamal only shines in comedy movies because of his acting talents. He does have a flair for comedy away from the talent of crazy mohan. Even with the crazy mohan witty dialogue, Kamal did an outstanding job in Sathi Leelavathi that I doubt anyone else would have pulled off. But I do agree that there are comedy movies where he just falls flat or would have been just as good with any other actor. Panchathanthiram could have been done by anyone I think. Hence my caveat that he isn’t consistently good at picking his comedy roles and shining at them. Hits and misses.
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theeversriram
May 30, 2022
Lot of interesting comments on Hey Ram.
@BR, if you have the old review then please share. If not consider old a review of old Tamil movies – Hey Ram, Devar Magan, etc. Would be really interested to know your perspective.
IMO, Hey Ram I had tried watching several times but everytime I gave up after a point because the movie seemed too long, seemed to be without focus & simply wasn’t engaging enough.
No doubt it was an ambitious and admirable effort but alas the final result doesn’t match that hard work that is being put on the screen.
The politics of the movie – Hindutva or Gandhian values etc also didn’t come as very sincere. Pa Ranjith or Maari Sevlaraj movies seem to care more on the politics they talk about than HR. The change of heart that Saketh has towards the end doesn’t seem convincing at all & the movie which questions Gandhi’s policies & views doesn’t give any clear answers or counter viewpoints.
As others mentioned dubbing & language also put off lot of viewers.
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Filistine
May 31, 2022
Regarding Hey Ram, I wish there was a multi-lingual version of the film with characters speaking in their natural language – English, Urdu, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Bengali etc. including the songs. It could have been THE pan-Indian movie
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Jayram
May 31, 2022
Edwardssammy, if you’re reading this, the majority of us want that multilingual cut you created!
https://baradwajrangan.wordpress.com/2018/08/05/readers-write-in-44-hey-ram-a-look-back/#comment-91285
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H. Prasanna
June 2, 2022
No post for 10 questions with Loki?
That was a good one. I was astonished you remembered the exact scene he was talking about in Maanagaram.
Typo: The title card says “10 Question.”
Looking forward to you sitting down with Kamal Hassan. He is everywhere but the news to promote Vikram. Hopefully he gets one with you.
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