Kamal sir and Remakes

"There is nothing wrong in remaking a good idea. In fact Kamban's Tamil Ramayanam itself was nothing but a very intelligent remake of the original Ramayana." - KAMAL HAASAN.

In an era where people, in an attempt to recreate magic, tend to completely miss the point made by the films they try to remake, one man gets the soul right more often than not. His screenwriting career has had several bouts of both legal and illegal plagiarisms but one thing common about everything he remakes is the intelligence factor. He has an uncanny knack of always coming up with smart adaptations of already tried and tested stories.

With his latest film being the remake of last year's bollywood hit ' A Wednesday', here is a look back at the various movies kamal has remade/copied and the various ideas he's intelligently adapted.

1) Kurudhi Punal/Drohkal - as they say, we should always start from the best. This is one rare remake, where the maker of the original came out in public and said the remake and performances in it are better than in mine. Not just Govind Nihlani but also the association which sends Indian movies to the oscars was completely awed at the way this film was shot.

2) Vasool Raja MBBS/ Munnabhai MBBS - "This movie did not take me anywhere. I did it for friendship's sake" is what kamal had to say about vasool raja. I agree. The original was definitely ahead but the remake wasn't a bad one either. It did have its own moments of magic coupled with some very witty humour thanks to the great language that Tamil is.

3) Virumandi/Roshomon-life of david gale - Though brilliantly conceived and executed, this film at its release recieved some criticism from a few quarters which pointed out that the film misses out on its main aim - talking about the journalist interviewing a capital punishment accused. This aspect and only this aspect of the film is actually taken from the Kevin Spacey starrer - Life of David Gale. The screenplay is taken from the Akira Kurosawa classic - roshomon. This can't even be called a copy because the roshomon screenplay is so famous that it is now called "The Roshomon Effect", which is "employed" as a screenwriting technique.

4) Anbe sivam/ Trains planes and automobiles - Well this not even an inspiration. Anbe sivam just takes the 'two people with opposing views travelling together' concept and beautifully mixes it with its own emphasis on love,god, communism, humor,charity, art and what not...

5) Thenali/ What About Bob - The entire plot is lifted in from the Bill Murray starrer but is credited to Crazy mohan. A few scenes especially the interview sequence is completely taken. But here again, kamal improvises with some spectacular original acting like in the long "ellam siva bayam" dialogue where he makes us laugh first and then makes us weep. Only a few actors can do that through a single dialogue. Kamal is one of them.

6) Avvai Shanmukhi/ Mrs Doubtfire-Toutsie - Though the plot is a straight lift from the Robbin Williams comedy- Mrs. Doubtfire, the original inspiration for this role is from one of Kamal's favourite actors' movies - Dustin Hoffman's Toutsie. Kamal delivers an unforgettable performance as the super maami in this complete rib tickler. Crazy is at his best too.

7) Sathi Leelavathi / She Devil - Not exactly a copy or even an inspiration but both films deal with a very common issue. The stress in sathi leelavathi however is intelligent humor unlike the completely slapstick she devil. And the coimbatore accent from Kamal completely steals the show.

8) Devar Magan / The Godfather - Intelligent script writing is at its peak. To take the "son rises" soul of the Godfather and effortlessly insert it into a magnificent rural setting is no mean task and kamal the writer breezes through it. Trivia - It was a bet between two friends on who will remake the godfather first. Mani won the bet, but Kamal made the better remake.

9) Sathya/ Arjun - Suresh Krishna's brutal potrayal of the angry young unemployed is actually a scene by scene take from a sunny deol starrer. The romance track in sathya however was much more watchable thanks to some exceptional performances from Kamal and the super cute Amla.

10) Enakul Oruvan / Karz - The mutual admiration between Kamal and Rishi Kapoor is obvious. Both being masters of romance in their own right. Kamal liked Rishi's karz and decided to star in its tamil remake yeilding some decent results at the box office.

11) RaajaParvai / Butterflies are free-Graduate - The Hoffman fan in kamal rises to the fore again. This time dedicating an entire climax to him through his first screenplay- Raajaparvai. But the rest of the story is taken from this classic called "Butterflies are free" - A neat attempt at remaking.

12) Magalir Mattum / Nine to Five - An unfortunate brutal rip off credit to Kamal's Pen. I am not really sure about what was in his mind at this point of time. Though he tried his best to make the movie as Indian as possible

Some other mild inspirations - Nammavar (To sir, with love), Panchathantiram (Things gone wrong), Naladamayanti (Dont remember the movie's name) have mild tinges of inspirations.

Movies remade from kamal's - Well there are plenty of them. A very high number. Many of Anil Kapoor's works are taken from Kamal movies like Virasat (Devar Magan) , Eshwar (swathi muthyam), Etc. Etc. An article on this is coming up soon.

So lets hope film makers like Jeyam Raja take the cue from Kamal Haasan and make some intelligent adaptations instead of indulging in costume remaking.

Happy filmmaking. Happy remaking.

Illayaraja and kamal combination

Ask any ilayaraja die hard fan what he/she considers, ilayarajas 10 best background scores, and dont be surprised when u find out that atleast 8 out these 10 films star kamal haasan and/or are wriiten/produced by him.

The reason for kamal + ilayaraja being the best ever combination indian cinema has ever seen is simple. Kamal himself is a student of music. HE learnt carnatic music under Balamuralikrishna, the legendary carnatic musician. So kamal has a very keen sense of music and hence is able to pour his inputs to ilayaraja and is alsoable to judge which piece suits which scene because of his unparalled knowledge of both cinema and music.

HERE is A LIST OF SOME UNFORGETTABLE ILAYARAJA BGMS IN A KAMAL FILM

1. DEVAR MAGAN - vaanam thottu ponal (this is my personal favourite. it blends so well with the calm-after-the-storm-climax of the movie and kamals mindblowing performance... truly i dont think any other musician can compose such a piece of music

2.Mahanadi- the violin bit when kamal kisses suganya... this and ilayarajas guitar in ilayanila are the two major instances when u realise why he far far better than AR RAHMAN in the use of individual intstruments.

3.GUNA- partha vizhi partha padi... by far yesudas's best rendition till date... the song has a huge effect on the mind of the listener and the scene is equally stunningly shot.

4.Hey ram:- isayil tongudhu amma... just listening to song, we realise that its an alcohol fest thats being potrayed. IT is an extremely addictive song sung by hindustani singer Ajoy chakrabarthy. It is very difficult to compose and involves very complex ragam and talams

5.punnagai mannan - the violin running in the background when kamal and revathi dance.. believe me, 85% of my classmates still have it as their ringtone,,

6. mmkr:- the theme for kameshwaran... utterly impossible for anyone else to compose.. it is truly a masterpiece, the instruments used and the effect they create, the image they draw- beyond explanation- really

7.Rajaparvai- the finale- violin concert- in two simple words, its an AURAL TREAT

8.Vikram - the video u are watching now has the best of the best action BGMs and would rate higher than most BOND background scores.

9.saagara sangamam... relevant/point-making bgm at its best, raja brings out classical songs which literally reflect the situation in progress a real CLASS ACT

10.moondram pirai.. ilayarajas score is often not considered the highlight of this movie because there was a bigger technical brilliance of balu mahendras photography on display, but ilayaraja does steal the scene on some occations, especially the poongatru song,,,its like eating "DEATH BY CHOCOLATES" when u listen to this song , eyes closed, and its like eating "3 DEATHS BY CHOCOLATES" when u also look at its picturisation..

Special Entry: Aboorva Sahodrargal - Raaja proves he is THE man for commercial pot boilers and its evident in the climax sequence. But is that all? Who can forget the out of the world 'love failure theme' of appu that has since then become the standard for such instances..