Having been a film buff till a couple of years back, if someone asked me who is my all time favorite actor, without second thoughts, my reply would be Ulaganayagan Kamal Hassan. His association with cinema began over fifty years back when he made his debut as a child artist in Kalathur Kannamma. Since then, he has portrayed a variety of roles spanning across multiple genres. K Balachandar’s Apoorva Ragangal, where he played a rebellious young man in love with an older woman was a revolutionary film and was way ahead of its times. Some of the other memorable films during his initial stage were 16 Vayathinile, Sigappu Rojakal, Moondru Mudichu, Varumayin Niram Sivappu, Rajaparvai, Punnagai Mannan among others. He won his first national award with his masterful portrayal as Cheenu in the film Moondram Pirai, which was remade in Hindi as Sadma. During this time, he also ventured into Bollywood with some memorable films like Ek Duje ke Liye and Sagar.
Arguably his most iconic role to date is Nayakan, which was enlisted in the TIME top-100 movies and Kamal Hassan won his second national award for this. This was followed by some powerhouse performances in movies like Apporva Sagotharargal, Mahanadi, Thevar Magan, Kuruthi Punal and Guna. He also excelled at comedy with movies like Sathi Leelavathi, Avvai Shanmukhi, Michael Madan Kamarajan and many others. His portrayal as Senapathy in the movie ‘Indian’ won him his third National Award and this is the one movie that has made a strong mark on me as a person and turned me into an idealist. Post ‘Indian’, there were other critically acclaimed movies like Hey Ram, Anbe Sivam, Virumandi, Dasavatharam, Viswaroopam and Papanasam.
Much as I admire Kamal Hassan for his acting prowess, his immense knowledge on all aspects of filmmaking and for some of his deeds like converting his fan club into a welfare association (Kamal Narpani Mandram), his political views and his ideology are cluttered and biased in my honest opinion. Although he mentioned yesterday that he intends to be at the center of the political spectrum and indicated that his political color is black and black is a combination of all colors including saffron, it is no secret that he leans heavily towards the left. He has time and again claimed to be an atheist or a so-called rationalist like Periyar, but a lot of his movies are blatantly anti-Hindu.
The critically acclaimed movie Anbe Sivam, which he wrote and ghost directed, is a classic example. The good people in the movie are the Marxist Nallasivam and his group of comrades, the capitalist-turned-communist Anbarasu and compassionate Christian nuns performing selfless services to mankind while the villain is the industrialist Kandawamy Padayachi, portrayed as a hardcore Shiv Bhakt consuming liquor on a day he is actually supposed to be fasting. One may argue that this is just a movie but the underlying messages (subtle and otherwise) in the movie have a large smattering of the anti-Hindu sentiment. Anyone who has witnessed the trailer of his unfinished magnum opus Marudhanayagam will confirm that it portrayed Hinduism in very bad light and Islam as the only all-peaceful religion. Likewise, many of his recent movies like Dasavatharam and Viswaroopam have a smattering of anti-Hinduism. In the movie Virumandi, written and directed by him, he conveys the message of abolishment of the death penalty, a view that the left has always advocated.
Despite my love for Tamil language and my passion for Tamil literature, I strongly believe that politics in Tamil Nadu has always been dirty and based on the flawed theory of Aryan invasion. Hero worship to unbelievable crazy and insane levels, close connection between politics and cinema, hatred for anything non-Tamil (especially Hindi), the ire against Brahmins (who are derogatorily referred to as paapans and paapathis), rampant corruption have been some of the key features of Tamil Nadu politics over the years. Leaders of both the DMK and the AIADMK have been guilty of large scale corruption, but that has only made them more popular and the hero worship has only increased over the years. The untimely death of Jayalalitha, age catching up with Karunanidhi, in-fighting in both the DMK and AIADMK have left a huge vaccum in Tamil Nadu politics and this gives a good platform for friends and arch rivals Kamal Hassan and Rajinikanth to take the political plunge.
While there have been talks of Rajinikanth joining active politics for the last twenty years, especially at the eve of his film releases to gain publicity, Kamal Hassan stayed away from politics until recently. While Rajini leans towards the saffron parties, Kamal Hassan leans heavily to the left.
Kamal Hassan recently met Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, giving rise to speculations that he would be joining the CPI-M. He also vehemently made a statement that saffron is not his color, which was not a surprise as he has been a bitter critic of the Hindutva ideology. Yesterday, he had a lunch meeting with Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and mentioned that they have a lot in common including the fight against corruption and communalism. While everyone is free to have an ideology and disagreement is the driving force in a vibrant democracy, Kamal Hassan would do well to remember all the wrong reasons for which Kerala under Pinarayi Vijayan is known for.
RSS workers being killed ruthlessly on a near daily basis, Malayalis flocking to other states and Gulf for employment despite claiming to be a 100% literate state, lack of any industry in Kerala because of the misrule of communists and Congress alike, open cow slaughter and beef parties, hub of Islamist terror activities and ISIS recruitments, high level of alcoholism, lack of safety for women are some of the things Kerala is notoriously famous for. One sincerely hopes that Kamal Hassan will not want Tamil Nadu to go the Kerala way.
Coming to Arvind Kejriwal, he did start out as an anti corruption crusader, but theatrics, abuses at the PM, several defamation charges for shoot and scoot remarks, amateur ads, tiffs with LG, open support to corrupt politicians like Lalu Yadav and Mamata Bannerjee have been the hallmark of the Delhi government. Kamal Hassan would again do well not to emulate him.
To conclude, it would be a refreshing change in Tamil Nadu to move away from alternate DMK and AIADMK governments and it would be really interesting if rivals Kamal Hassan and Rajinikanth take the plunge. A lot of people have the same expectations from Kamal that they had with Arvind Kejriwal when he burst on to the political scene. One only hopes he learns from Kejriwal on all the things that one must not do and does his best to cleanse the rot that is present in Tamil Nadu politics for decades. While it is almost clear that he would start his own political party that would be left-of-center, one hopes he learns all the ills that the left-ruled states in India have undergone and takes a more balanced approach.
