He was the thickly accented short, mustachioed guy in Ek Duje Ke Liye.
The demi god of South Indian cinema was just another Madrasi for Hindi filmgoers. Very few Hindi filmgoers could identify with the king of creativity, Kamal Haasan at that point in time. Perhaps for that reason, he faded away from Bollywood while continuing to shine in the South. The reason was not his mustachioed self against clean-shaven Punju heroes, or else Anil Kapoor would have been a miserable flop or Jackie Shroff would have been unheard of. The reason was the acting style. Histrionics has never really been appreciated in Hindi heroes, tears, loud dialogues and painted faces stopped being in fashion after K L Sehgal. Even then they looked ridiculous.
Then came the Dimple Kapadia revival in Saagar. The beautiful Goan locales with wholesome fishing and even more wholesome booze parties and colorful Goan weddings started a new chapter in Hindi films. The Maria season had come and Raja, her silent admirer with talkative eyes and a pouty tearful face, became a hit too. Competing against the pink-lipped love of Dimple's life, Chintoo, the rich brat hopelessly in love with the lady, Kamal took many sympathies with him. The dancing atop bar tables clearly put Haasan at an advantage. So did the supreme sacrifice for his love.
Kamal Haasan arrived with fanfare; the Hindi audiences finally sat up and fell for his expressive ways.
Around this time the media had become national, South Indian films were being remade in Hindi and many intelligent cinegoers took pride in the knowledge of the original regional cinema that inspired Hindi blockbusters. Some films were even dubbed.
Films like Sadma with Sridevi playing a retarded twenty-year-old were huge draws. Kamal Haasan's acting in the film won him admirers from Hindi audiences; he was so superbly underplaying the role that could have got a Rajnikant gnashing his teeth or a Sivaji Ganesan playing full drama. Kamal had arrived, but he was still only a South Indian star.
He came into mainstream cinema with films like Sanam Teri Kasam with Reena Roy and gave a few hit songs and dances. Raj Tilak (opposite his wife Sarika) and Giraftar with the Big B and Rajnikant completed his commercial trilogy in Hindi Cinema. All the films did well but Kamal Haasan could not claim the number 1 position. His amazing dancing abilities and versatile body movements, as well as his perfect timing in comedy was reflected in his Appu Raja (Apoorva Sagodarargal in Tamil). It was one of the biggest technical mysteries in Hindi films. To date everyone tries to figure out how he played the dwarf. It was a great film, at the same time hilarious and extremely touching.
Around the beginning of the 90s, he again took the entire industry by storm, his film on Vardaraja Mudalaiar, a Mumbai underworld don with a golden heart, was perfectly portrayed in Tamil, Nayagan and Telugu, Nayakudu, The film was made in Hindi as Dayavan with Vinod Khanna in the lead, but no one ever forgot for a moment that this was Kamal Haasan's role. Vinod Khanna was facing unfair comparison all the time.
Another remake was Eshwar, of the Telugu Swathi Muthayam, a film in which he plays a village idiot who marries a widow. It is a beautiful film, finely crafted and brilliantly executed. However, Anil Kapoor in the Hindi remake's title role came nowhere near the beautiful and sensitive original.
It was time for a break and the next landing was Chachi 420, a remake of Mrs.Doubtfire. He again excelled himself in the guise of an old woman, absolutely enamoring the audience with his humour and charming Amrish Puri (his father-in-law in the film), out of his wits. The film was again wonderful and even inspired some cheap remakes like Aunty No 1., nothing in the world could put Govinda's sleazy act anywhere close to Avvai Shanmughi, though. Next was a hi-tech song-dance with the obese Manisha Koirala atop Australian high rises in Hindustani, in which he played a double role.
Kamal has, by now, become an expert in trans-acting. Having played a corpse and an old man in Mayor Saab, an old freedom fighter and his son in Hindustani, old woman and a young man in Chachi 420, a dwarf in Appu Raja, he plans to play a corpse in his next venture, Ladies Only (based on 9-5).
Chachi 420 was closely followed by Hey Ram which is based on his own novel. It was a perfect film technically but invited a lot of controversy because it had a thinking theme. The unchallenged sainthood of Mahatma Gandhi was being challenged and not too many people took that kindly.
The latest venture is Abhay, the much-awaited double role of army man with a psychotic brother, romancing Raveena promises to be quite a sight.
But Kamal Haasan will go on, there's lots more in store, we hope at least. Hindi cinema, one could say, need fresh breaths like this dynamite of talent, irrespective of his state of origin.
