The celluloid classic was a part of the T20 of Indian films at a contest arranged by the IFFI. Sources confirmed that ‘Nayagan’ was the only Tamil film to get placed among the top 20 ranks. And guess what? There were about 1.9 million entries and it’s a real pleasure for us to know that Mani Ratnam’s classic made it. Six persons from different parts of the country were announced winners of the first ever “T20 of Indian Cinema” competition launched by the Entertainment Society of Goa.

Mother India, Anand, Meghe Dhaka Tara, Charulata, Sholay, Do Bhiga Zamin, Guide, Mughal-e-Azam, Pyasa, Bhuvan Shome, Garam Hawa, Ghatashraddha, Elipathayam, Kagaz Ke Phool, Pather Panchali, Sant Tukaram, Madhumati, Jane Bhi Do Yaro, and Nayagan were the final 20 contestants of this mega contest. It’s worthy to mention here that ‘Nayagan’ also holds the glory for being told as one of the best Indian movies of the century by the ‘Time’ magazine.

Kamal Hassan Birthday Greetings

He is a man who does never-thought-never-dreamt-before kinda roles. Starting from his first National award as a child artist in his debut venture, the fire of ambition that burns inside his eyes has not subsided till date and how do you wanna call him? Actor-cum-singer-cum-director cum-everything…

And today, Kamal fans have four reasons to celebrate the day. Their matinee idol’s birthday. This is his 50th year in cinema. This year he has achieved hat trick victory with ‘Unnaipol Oruvan’. And last but not least – his daughter Shruthi made her debut in films, both as an actress and a music composer.

Though the ‘Ulaga Nayagan’ says it is just like a dream and he feels as if he had just started journey, his fans are apparently not ready to listen to his words. They have planned grand celebrations, say sources, adding that the day will be marked by various welfare activities by Kamal Mandrams.

Tracing back the journey of ‘Kalaignani’, it all started in 1959 when a six-year-old boy going by the name Kamal Haasan stepped into AVM Studio and stood in front of camera for ‘Kalathur Kannamma’.

Having acted in over 150 films in various Indian languages, Kamal managed to win rare distinctions including the coveted Padmashri besides 4 National awards and 18 Filmfare awards.

On his journey which was filled with roses and thorns, the versatile actor says, “I am happy with the fact that people have been kind to me, including my teachers, my technicians and even my critics. I consider myself as being fortunate and lucky.”

Kamal, who holds the distinction of being the actor with most number of films submitted by India for the Oscars in Best Foreign Language Film category, remains a down-to-earth person, it can be said.

Describing him as a ’scientist’ in Tamil cinema, veteran director Muthuraman, who directed 10 Kamal starrers says, “I am happy that he started his journey from the illustrious AVM Studios with whom I am associated with for decades.” Actor-director Ramesh Arvind, who has worked with Kamal in films like ‘Sathi Leelavathi’, ‘Panchathanthiram’, says, “If there is one multilingual talent in the Indian film industry, it is only Kamal”.

Kollywoodtiger salutes the ‘Ulaga Nayagan’ and greets his fans on the great day.

Gouthami, Revathi, Radhika Sarathkumar, Rohini, Jaya Chitra, Lissy, Tabu, Urvasi, Meena, Shobana, Vivek, Parthiban, Jayaram, Illayaraja, A.R. Rahman, producer A.V.M. Saravanan, veteran actress Saroja Devi, directors Balachandar, Balu Mahendra, S.P. Muthuraman, Dharani, Mysskin, A.R. Murugadoss, Hariharan and S.P. Balasubramaniam and others were present for the gala event.

Praising his esteemed colleague Kamal Haasan, Mohanlal said: The industry is proud to have an actor who could be looked upon as a fitting role model for upcoming heroes. Choreographer-actor-turned-director Prabhu Deva, his father Sundaram, Bharatanatyam dancer-actress Shobana and students of John Britto dance school presented dance items during the occasion, while Vivek, Parthiban and Jayaram took their turns to compere the show along with Gopinath. Radikaa Sarathkumar organized an interactive session where Kamal chatted with yesteryears actresses Gautami, Revathi, Rohini, Jaya Chitra, Lissy, Tabu, Urvasi and Meena. ‘Kamal unplugged’, a music performance by Hariharan and S.P. Balasubramaniam, was also presented at the occasion.

It was followed by Kamal’s daughter Shruti Haasan’s performance. Oscar winner A.R. Rahman, producer A.V.M. Saravanan, veteran actress Saroja Devi, directors Balachandar, Balu Mahendra, S.P. Muthuraman, Dharani, Mysskin, A.R. Murugadoss were present among others.

Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan would get State awards soon, the Tamil Nadu government on Monday announced that the two top stars of Tamil cinema had been adjudged the best actors of 2007 and 2008, respectively.

The awards also saw Chief Minister M Karunanidhi win a prize for the dialogues for ‘Uliyin Osai’ (2008). While Rajini was adjudged the best actor for ‘Sivaji’, Kamal was selected for ‘Dasavatharam’.

There are 31 awards announced for 2007 and 34 for 2008. Technicians, singers, comedians and character actors have also been nominated. Awards have also been announced for students of the Film and Television Institute. ‘Sivaji’ bagged five awards in 2007- best film, best villain – Suman, best comedian – Vivek, best female playback singer – Chinmayee, and best art director – Thotta Tharani.

Vidyasagar was named the best music director for ‘Mozhi’. Jyothika won the best actress award for her role in the same film, which also won the second best film award for 2007. The award for the third best film for that year was given to ‘Pallikoodam’ and Thankar Bachchan, who directed the film, was adjudged the best director. In 2007, the special prize went to ‘Periyar’.

Vairamuthu won the best lyricist award for ‘Periyar’ and other films, and the best cinematographer was Nirav Shah for his work in ‘Billa’.

Besides being selected as the best film of 2008, ‘Dasavatharam’ bagged two more awards, with Vaali getting the best lyricist award and Michael Westmore and Kothandapani jointly taking the best make-up artist award.

Sneha got the best actress award for the year 2008 for her performance in ‘Pirivom Santhippom’. Special awards were also given to male and female actors for each year. For 2007, the special prize went to Sathyaraj for his role as ‘Periyar’ and Padmapriya for her role in ‘Mirugam.’ For 2008, the awards went to Suriya for ‘Varanam Aayiram’ and Trisha for ‘Abhiyum Naanum’.

Nee Indri Naan Illai movie screenplay will be written by Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Kalaignar Karunanidhi. It is well known that writing is the passion for Kalaigner Karunanidhi, C.M. Tamil Nadu. His numbers of stories were made as pictures in Tamil. The title of this flick was given by the C.M as “Nee Indri Naan Illai”. The film is going to be produced by Nandini Arts. Kannan will be the cinematographer. Nee Indri Naan Illai cast include Thalaivasal Vijay, Manorama, Ganja Karuppu and Kovai Sarala. ‘Thenisai Thendral’ Deva scores the music for this movie. Lyrics penned by Vairamuthu, Mu. Metha, Na. Muthukumar and Pazhanibharathi.

Kamal Haasan’s was originally slated to be an extended guest appearance, and he was expected to begin work on it after shooting for ‘Unnaipol Oruvan’. It, however, is learnt that Kamal Haasan had wanted a few changes to be effected in the script, which did not work well with the producers. Due to this, the actor has now backed out of the project.

There were talks earlier that the production house, Walt Disney, had planned on producing an Rs 120 crore mega flick with Kamal in the lead, but the actor later denied it himself. There were also initial suggestions that ‘Marmayogi’ would be produced by them.

I’m not sure how many of you thought on these lines, but the below post makes a lot of sense about the film Dasavatharam. There are many discussions on the film happening here – about Chaos Theory, Butterfly Effect, God, Religion etc. I’m watching the film again sometime.One thing we had noticed is why people didnt get the real subtext and reason for the various roles and hence the title.
If you knew the real dasavatharams of Lord Vishnu and their characters you can appreciate the script more. Let me explain, starting with the best adapted role:

1. Krishna avatar – Vincent Poovaraghavan
Lord krishna is actually a dalit, he is dark-skinned [shyamalam]. He saved draupadi when she was being violated and he was the actual diplomat in mahabharatham. Lord krishna dies of an arrow striking his lower leg. Now look at how vincent was introduced.. he appears when asin is about to be molested and he saves her like draupadi. Vincent is the dalit diplomat, fights for land issue [soil issue to be exact] and dies from the metal rod striking his leg. Oh even five of vincent’s men are drugged at P. Vasu’s.. sounds familiar???

2. Balarama avatar – Balarama naidu
This is an easy given. as the name suggests and the role personifies you can easily get it.

3. Mathsya avatar – Ranagaraja nambi
nambi is thrown into water in an act of trying to save lord from being thrown into sea, though vainly. what more clue do you want?

4. Varaha avatar – Krishnaveni paatti
During the mukunda song, krishnaveni paatti does varaha avatar in the shadow puppetry. The frame freezes on it for a second. there is the clue. Moreover, in varaha avatar lord actually hides earth so as to protect life forms. Here too krishnaveni hides the germs – life form inside the statue so as to protect.

5. Vamana avatar – Kalifulla khan
remember in vamana avatar, lord vishnu takes the vishvaroopa, that is the giant form! Hence the giant kalifulla here symbolises vamana avatar.

6. Parasurama avatar – Christian Fletcher
Parasurama is actually on an angry killing spree and killed 21 generations of the particular kshatriya vamsa. Hence the real KILLER… Guess what thats what our Fletcher is! He comes around with the gun [modern upgrade for axe] and kills everyone around. I have to check if he kills 21 people though.

7. Narasimha avatar – Shingen Narahashi
first of all the name itself is a play on the words singam [means lion in tamil] and narasimha [the avatar being symbolised]. Lord Narasimha manifests himelf to kill the bad guy and he also teaches prahaladha. In the movie, he shows up to kill the killer fletcher! and is also a teacher.. Lord Narasimha had to kill the asura with bare hands and hence the martial arts exponent here.. get it?

8. Rama avatar – Avatar Singh
Lord Rama stands for the one man one woman maxim, kind of symbolising true love.. Here Avatar portrays that spirit by saying that he loves his woman more than anything and wants to live for her.

9. Kalki avatar – Govindaraj Ramasamy
As you know, the hero in kaliyug can be none other than the Kalki avatar!!!

10. Koorma avatar – Bush
This is the most loose adaptation I couldn’t clearly comprehend. But if you look at the real koorma avatar, the lord is the turtle/tortoise that helps in stirring the ksheera sagara and bringing out the amruth. This essentially creates war among the devas and asuras. Similarly today Bush facilitates war between you know whom… May be Kamal also indicates that this avatar is a bit dumb like the tortoise…

Courtesy : A Kamal Blog

Bonus: Dasavatharam Photo Gallery