Ungal Naan, a celebratory event marking 60 years of Kamal Haasan in indian cinema was held in Chennai on November 17.
As hundreds of eager fans awaited the star’s entry into the stadium, with some flashing torch lights in their hands, the symbol of Kamal’s political party Makkal Needhi Maiam, a short audio-visual flashed on the big screens. Kamal’s entry was preceded by the star thanking 60 important people in his life and the list started with producer AV Meiyappan who introduced him into the world of cinema and ended with his mother Rajalakshmi Srinivasan and finally the people of Tamil Nadu.
Ilaiyaraaja who then came up on stage began the musical evening with his usual inaugural song “Janani Janani”. AR Rahman who made a quick appearance, greeted both Kamal and Ilaiyaraaja on stage with a shawl.
In a state were cinema is closely associated with politics, ‘Ungal Naan’ was peppered with political hints.
Actor Vijay’s father and director SA Chandrashekhar who was invited to come up on stage, after a bit of prolonged introduction, expressed his wish that Rajini and Kamal should enter politics together. “You should establish your party, come to power, weed out corruption and then when you feel like you’ve had your fill, make way for your brothers,” hinting at his desire to see his son Vijay eventually enter politics. The director has expressed that his son can eventually enter politics later in other interviews as well.
Actor Rajinikanth who briefly disrupted the show with his entry, as cheers from fans rang loud, came up on stage towards the very end.
Rajinikanth who is touted to finally announce his political party this year said, “Miracles are happening all around us. For instance, two years ago Edappadi Palaniswami would not have imagined becoming Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister. When he did, many said his rule may not last a couple of weeks. It’s been two years now, he has been in power overcoming all hurdles. Miracles have happened yesterday, they continue to happen today and will happen tomorrow as well,” he said as audience erupted in cheers.
The actor who shares a long friendship with Kamal began by saying that the kind of hardships Kamal has gone through in life, no one might have. “His is from a very reputed family, of well educated, well respected people. Coming from such a family, when Kamal worked in saloons and as dance assistant, one can only imagine the mental stress it may have created for him and in his father’s mind when his family found out,” he said.
Kamal who then came up on stage added to Rajini’s request to fans. “Everyone should reflect our friendship. Love is the only truth and we will remain it’s identity. We don’t know what future holds. Yesterday and today has given us a beautiful friendship. Our acting styles have been different and so our idealogoes too will be different. We have protected our friendship for 44 years we would continue to do so in future as well,” he said.
Kamal also invited Rajini to present a Rs 1 crore cheque set aside from the funds collected for this event to a skill centre inaugurated at Kamal’s hometown Paramakudi on November 7. The skill centre would be the first of its kind, aimed at helping rural youths better equip themselves and find employment. Kamal also announcd that more such skill centres would be inaugurated in future by MNM.
Stars like Vijay Sethupathi, Vadivelu, Prabhu, Karthi, Sivakumar, Nasser, Sarath Kumar, Padupathi, Sathyaraj, Ambika, Radha, Manisha Koirala, Tamannaah, directors KS Ravikumar, SP Muthuraman, Mani Ratnam, PA Ranjith, Shankar, Mari Selvaraj, music director Devi Sri Prasad were among those present for the show. After receiving flak for inviting Vairamuthu for the special screening of Hey Ram that was held on his birthday earlier this month, the lyricist was not among those present for Ungal Naan.
The camaraderie shared by Kamal and Ilaiyaraaja delighted fans while the latter made the former perform a lot of songs begining from his very first “Ammavum Neeye”. Ilaiyaraaja introduced the first song Kamal had sung under his composition while Kamal sang the lines “Panneer Pushpangale” from the 1978 film Aval Appadithan.
Actor Vadivelu who later came up on stage was a laughter riot. Sharing an anecdote from his days in working with Kamal and Shivaji Ganesan in Thevar Magan, Vadivelu had the audience in splits, reminding them once again why he’s the undisputed king of comedy in Tamil. The actor who himself had a brief, unpleasant political stint remarked that Kamal’s political venture was ‘kaalathin kattayam’ (a compulsion of time).
Actor Vijay Sethupathi, when it was his turn to come up on stage made an open request to be a part of Kamal’s next film. “Unfortunately I was not able to be a part of Indian 2,” he said.
Among those who performed on stage were Kamal’s daughters Shruti Haasan and Akshara Haasan, actor Pooja Kumar and actor Andrea.
Source: The News Minute