5 reasons why we love Kamal Haasan

Kamal Haasan is easily one of the most legendary and yet underrated actors in Tamil and Indian cinema. However, he has been receiving the love and respect that he deserves in the recent years. Moreover, today is a very special day for this legendary actor as he celebrates his 62nd birthday. As the whole nation cheers the Ulaganayagan on his special day, here are 5 reasons why he so loved and adored by his fans...

Acted in more than 230 films

With a career spanning a whopping 57 years, Kamal Haasan has acted in more than 230 films, a tremendous number which only very few actors have surpassed. This is of course not counting his invaluable contributions as a director where he has helmed more than 10 films, as a writer where he has written the story for more than 30 films, as a producer, distributor and choreographer. They don’t call him the Ulaganayagan for no reason; this man can do anything he puts his mind to.

Maximum representation at the Academy Awards for India

Till date, India has sent over 40 films in the Best Foreign Language category to the Academy Awards. Out of which, seven films were those of Kamal Haasan which are ‘Nayakan’, ‘Indian’, ‘Saagar’, ‘Thevar Magan’, ‘Kurudhi Punal’, ‘Swati Mutyam’ and ‘Hey Ram’, which he himself directed. No other Indian actor has represented the country so consistently at the Oscars, thanks to his captivating performances in each and every film.

Only actor to do 10 roles in a film

There are actors who do double roles, maximum of triple roles, or maybe even four roles in the same film, which was funnily enough, also done by Kamal Haasan in ‘Michael Madana Kama Rajan’. But he shattered all records when he played ten roles in a single movie. The movie was ‘Dasavatharam’ where he played a 12th century priest, a virologist, a CIA assassin, a CBI officer, a social activist, an old senile woman, a Japanese man, a gentle giant, a Punjabi rockstar and the president of the United States of America. The mind spins even thinking about it, this man went ahead and made an entire film! The only other actor who came close to Kamal was Sanjeev Kumar who flawlessly essayed nine roles in Naya Din Nayi Raat that released in 1974.

Introduced new concepts to Tamil cinema

Kamal Haasan is an underrated superstar for a reason; he likes to experiment and sometimes, he pushes the envelope too far for Indian audience to digest. Many of his films bombed at the box office but went on to become widely appreciated later on. Best examples are ‘Anbe Sivam’, which dealt with the concept of atheism and promoting the feeling of humanity and brotherhood. Then comes ‘Aalavandhan’ where Kamal played a dual role, in which one is a bald schizophrenic called Nandakumar, who has hallucinations after suffering child abuse. ‘Hey Ram’ was a commentary on religious extremism of a man set in the period of Bengal partition and more recently, there was ‘Uttama Villain’, which introduced the concept of metafilm to Kollywood. Sadly, the Indian audience could not understand these works of art and they flopped initially.

First Tamil actor to turn fan clubs into welfare organizations

While actors like Rajinikanth and Ajith saw their fan clubs as a nuisance and tried to disband them, Kamal turned it to his advantage. He was the first Tamil actor to turn his fan clubs into welfare organizations. This lead to the formation of several clubs under the common banner of ‘Kamal Narpani Iyakkam’ or Kamal Welfare Association. These clubs are actively involved in conducting eye and blood donation camps as well as distributing educational materials to children. Isn't that absolutely commendable?