A Few Good Men. Review on Kamal Haasan

One good thing about being a Malayalee is that you grow up watching movies of at least four languages on a regular basis, namely Malayalam, English, Hindi and Tamil, if you are a die hard film buff that is. I was one for sure. And I didn’t stop there too. I went exploring Bengali, Italian, Japanese, Iranian, Polish, Swedish and etc. (now you know what kind of a film freak I am)

Being exposed to such a wide spectrum, it makes sense if you ask me if I have strong points of views regarding films, film makers, directors, or any other aspects of cinema. I would say, yes for sure. I do have lots for that matter.

And this one is about some of the finest Indian actors I watched (closely).

Kamal Hasan.

Kamal Hasan to me is almost perfect. It is hard find any flaws with this actor. No doubt he is a truck full of talent and he mostly goes beyond that too. He is a die hard professional and a passionate individual w.r.t. how he is seen to the public like me. It seems he has worked hard on many of his roles and that surely should be one of the reasons behind those superior levels of perfection in his performances.

Kamal Hasan is more than what an Indian viewer could’ve asked for. May it be drama or realism, may it be pain or humor Kamal Hasan has some exceptional authority over what he is doing. Everything is correct and nothing goes wrong. Year after year, roles after roles true experiences of powerful expressions are what you are offered. And no one has any complaints, at least not me.

This article isn’t about listing each actor’s greatest films and performances, but one scene I would quickly suggest if you are yet to watch Kamal Hasan is the scene of Thenaliwhere he explains his problems to the doctor, it summarizes Kamal Hasan’s genius.

Naseeruddin Shah

When it comes to contemporary Hindi films Naseeruddin Shahmostly looks like the final word. His performances are sharp, and they suggest great realism. Since I am picking the topmost cream of the Indian acting, it is pointless to repeat words like talented again and again, and statements like ‘Naseeruddin Shahis very talented’ could only make him look smaller. What I observe about Naseeruddin Shah is that he is a very sharp actor, he has an extraordinary eye for details and he is also a well trained methodist. I am not sure if he had worked a lot to prepare for roles like that of Iqbal, but I find them as very well worked and very well developed performances. Nobody succeeds with talent alone, even Vincent Van Gogh with all his artistic genius was very keen on developing his technical skills as I could read from his writings. Naseeruddin Shah belongs to the same school. Beyond talent, his skills are sharpened to the superlative extend, much to be compared to some Hollywood legends.

So why should you agree that Naseeruddin Shah a great talent with extraordinary skills? Watch Iqbal. I hope he is winning a national award for that.

Mohan Lal

Mohan Lal is spontaneous in one word. His ability to respond to fictional human situations from the bottom of his heart is amazing. His way of acting is very effortless and his responses are free flowing.

I always see something intelligent about the way Mohan Lal presents his characters. I used to wonder if he is understanding his roles very psychologically that I usually assume that he might be a man with great psychological grasp.

His ability to get into the finest psychological detail of his character might be helping him achieve that great ability to respond, that’s what I think. I guess it will be important for him to get some level of connectability between his own artistic identity and his role, for this very unique approach. I believe he would do a great Hamlet and an ordinary Caesar that way.

His role in Kireedam isn’t but a psychologically complex character then that is what I would recommend for the one who’s curious about Mohan Lal.

For the mere fun of comparison, Mohan Lal’s approach to acting is in a way different from that of Kamal’s or Naseeruddin Shah’s. Kamal’s style is more classical and majestic, Shah’s is more sharp and calculated and Mohan Lal is fluent and original. The variations in their styles may have more to do with the finer aspects of the cultures of the films they belong to as well as their own artistic identities.

In fact I have skipped a lot of aspects of acting the three extra ordinary men share in common along with any other acting legend for the reason that I expect them to be assumed.

Looking at the sharper details I would rate Naseeruddin Shah to be the best when it is about the technical accuracy (you know why Hollywood comes back to him), for sheer genuine talent I find Mohan Lal to be the best and Kamal Hasan is my choice when we are talking about true perfection.

I also notice that Kamal has gone a few miles ahead of the other two in exploring the big trade of acting, in experimentation, in innovation like Pushpaka Vimanam or the upcoming Dasavatharam. I see that is the area where the other two masters do not catch up with the towering screen persona of Kamal Hasan.

So who’s better? Forget it, I am not answering that one for sure. That is a silly question after all. I guess it is like choosing between Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell or Charles Darwin for intellectual qualities.