Monday, October 05, 2009

Celebrating 35 years of Kamal's work in film industry

There are a lot of top stars in the Indian industry who have not made films worth their salt in a decade or more, yes SRK and Rajnikanth would top that list. Though the expectation for them is low given their acting prowess. Someone who has silently crept up that list who surprised me most is Kamal Hassan. He has not made a single good movie in close to a decade and now the film industry celebrates 50 years of Kamal.
He has made some of the best movies in the past like Nayagan, Aboorva Sagodarargal, Salangai Oli etc.
Now lets look at some of his films from the last decade, it is literally a ham fest with films like Dasavatharam, Vasool Raja, Vettaiyadau Vilayadu, Aalavandan, Indian and so on. Its sad that the media has added to the legend without judging him objectively. Instead heaping praise for his "multi-tasking" abilities which lead to a flick like Dasavatharm capable of providing sleep to the worst insomniacs.

14 comments:

Sudhir said...

Just wanted to add Chiranjeevi too in the list of actors who haven't acted in a role worth their salt. The last movie he actually "acted" was way back in 1991!

- Sudhir

Srikumar said...

Wonder why Chindu is discussing films. It would be more appropriate to this blog if we dissect his overt ideological moorings which he flaunts forcefully.

Considering that he made a film like ‘Anbe Sivam’ where he tried to recover the Marxist antique and sell it as the idea for the future and the recent Unnai Pol Pruvan where he the shouted “Modi is a mass murderer” cliché (inferred from the film dialogue: Gujaratlayah Mod(h)i paathalaeh Sethuduvah); he should be our LIC’s favorite actor.

Forget his self indulgent films, let’s discuss about this guys confused ideological leanings and intellectual bankruptcy, to make it appropriate to this blog.

Dirt Digger said...

Sudhir,
I will add him to the list. Yeah Rudra Veena was one of his last movies where he "acted". Not sure which one you are referring to, hopefully not Mrugaraju ;)

Dirt Digger said...

Srikumar,
Great point, there were a couple of routes we wanted to go with this discussion. The one being how our media builds the undeserving reputation of people where they have done nothing significant over a period of time, is the path we chose.
The ideology is another issue for another day.

Gandaragolaka said...

On chiranjeevi, there is a problem:

Whenever he tried to "act", the films didnt do too well-- aapatbaandhavudu, rudraveena and swayamkrushi.

And that begs the question: What actually does the audience want from "stars"?

Aryan Culler said...

Bigoted criticizm has been a forte of this blog and this is a classic example. There is no instance in the article where the newspaper praises the actor - it is merely the hypocritical Indian film industry in self-congratulatory overdrive - faithfully reported. That your personal hatreds are aroused so blindly is indeed hilarious.

Srikumar said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Srikumar said...

//There is no instance in the article where the newspaper praises the actor//

Wonder why Aryan is raising this point, nowhere had Dirt Digger critiqued Chindu or comrade Ram in this topic.

@Dirt Digger
Thought of raising the ideology issue since UPO is a recent film, where he spews venom on Narendra Modi and LK Advani, imagining him to be an intellectual. This is so typical of the Chinese news paper and hence would be very relevant for “The Chindu”.

Yeah agree with you that it has been ages since he made films worth his salt. Sycophancy is the trademark of the industry he works for, it’s better neglected rather than taking them serious.

Sudhir said...

Mrugaraju ...hahahaha!

I meant Apathbandhavudu.

Actually, I think the film critics want to fete Kamal for the precise reason that he did not create a standard image like these actors did. He always wanted to do different roles. Whether they were Box Office hits or not did not matter to them, as long as he attempted to bring in some freshness into the industry. No wonder, even his latest failures are looked by these critics from a successfull angle.

The Media is especially good at this job - otherwise a Rahul Gandhi in any other country would have fled to Columbia by now!

- Sudhir

CodeNameV said...

First and foremost, Kamal Hassan is the biggest bigot, anti-hindu, anti-brahmin and communistic AH in our country's movie world. There is no doubt that whole of Indian Film Industry itself is a self proclaimed secular hero. They always find a way to comfortably ignore kashmiri pundits while they seem to have lost sleep over Gujarat riots and Ram Janma Bhoomi. Kamal Hassan is also one of them.

All the movies he did with Balachander are a testimony to this. The basic idea is whatever the movie you make, you simply shouldnt speak of anything which spells the truth about Muslims in India! So, in latest Magadheera, the Muslim Invader Sher Khan bows before Kala Bhairava keeping the secular credentials of Muslim Invaders high, where as there is not one Muslim Invader who had any mercy toward any Hindu. Hindu Kush is a testimony to this!

Anbe sivam a.k.a Satyame Sivam in telugu happens to be one of Kamal's best performances and is also a favourite movie of many people. It is a movie filled with praises about Communism! I wonder how many more examples have to be given about failure of Communism to these guys!!

On chiru, Rudra Veena is a Balachander flick filled with anti-brahmin voices! The film tries to portray Brahmin community as if they are completely uninterested in sufferings of others. To start with, Kadukuri Veereselingam was a brahmin! In my view, only sensible movie in its complete sense where Chiru really shined was Swayam Krushi. Rest of his movies are worth not even talking about!

Dirt Digger said...

Gandaragolaka said...
That's a great question. Probably one which will not be answered in the near future.

வஜ்ரா said...

The Ultra leftists are blaming Kamal for disturbing "communal harmony" by portraying islamic terrorists as moslems. Where as the Right of centre is bashing him for being a commie AH.

Strangely, he is getting hits from both sides of the political spectrum.

CodeNameV said...

To whoever wrote the above comment (i cant read tamil, so pardon me!)....

Just read your comment."Islamic Terrorists as moslems". Please! You yourself are calling them Islamic terrorists! As I understand Moslems follow Islam.

On Kamal getting bashed from both sides, if you ask a hard core muslim about SRK, he would say SRK is not a muslim. The definition of who is muslim and who is not, is not clear in the islamic community itself. Somebody says Sufism is the most peaceful form of Islam and then some muslim cleric from Dar-Ul-Uloom says Sufism is eqivalent to blasphemy. If there is any mistake happening, its on the side from where this argument is arising.

Ravi said...

I can't understand tamil but I picked up on the anti-hindu, anti-brahmin slant in the film rudraveena. I was watching this film as I have a rudra veena & wondered how this film related to the instrument. which it doesn't.
There r lots of cultural terrorists in India: Christians, communists and moslems come first to mind.
Islam = terrorism read any newspaper then read koran & hadis & life of mohamed to catch my drift.