Chevalier Dr. Kamal Haasanin Mayyam - Part 9

[hattori_hanzo]

how could I leave kurudhipunal out ???!! Not sure if Soora Samhaaram and Sattam were BB's or SHs ...

Soora Samharam and Sattam were both flops. They were both really bad movies. SS at least had a nice first half. Till the scene were Kamal gets drugged and sent back home, the movie was quite different. From there, it turned worse. Especially "Vedhaalam Vandhu nikkudhu" song.
Sattam was Mattam(Comment in Ananda Vikadan review) from beginning to end.


Kurudhippunal was/is/will be a classic forever. Yet another example of "Kombinil paal konjam surandhaal Adhu dhaan saadhanai"

Drohkaal directed by Govind Nihalani was Ashish Vidyarthi's first movie. Om Puri played Kamal's role, Naseeruddin Shah played Arjun's and Ashish did the villain's role which was done by Nazar in Tamil. It was critically acclaimed but did very poor business. With a star cast like this it was dissed an art movie. Kamal apparently was interested in the script and bought the rights from Govind Nihalani to make it in Tamil. He was sure of making a successful movie without any songs, comedy track or duets, debut MD, many unknown faces, Telugu lip-sync(It was made in Telugu and Tamil). It was released along with Muthu on Diwali 2006. Muthu directed by K.S.Ravikumar(fresh after the success of Naattaamai) had Rajinikanth in two roles, Meena who was the top heroine of those days, A.R.Rahman whose songs were already chartbusters, several supporting actors including Raghuvaran, Radharavi, Ponnambalam, Vadivelu, Senthil and others - a complete masala movie.

Still Kuruthippunal gave a tough fight & managed to open very well in all centers. It ran for more than 100 days in many theatres. I watched it on the 3rd day in AVM by paying Rs.150 for a Rs.25 ticket. In a suburban theatre like Tambaram (not sure if it was Vetri or Rakesh; Muthu ran in Vidhya), KP ran for 80 days. For the first three weeks, it shared the No.1 spot with Muthu in Sun TV's Top 10. In the fourth week, it went to No.2 and slowly came down. Muthu was in No.1 for few more weeks & obviously had a better run. But KP which probably was made in less than 1/2 of Muthu's budget was a Super-hit. KP's Telugu version Drohi was an even bigger hit.

[Adox]

Soora Samharam and Sattam were both flops. They were both really bad movies. SS at least had a nice first half. Till the scene were Kamal gets drugged and sent back home, the movie was quite different. From there, it turned worse. Especially "Vedhaalam Vandhu nikkudhu" song.
Sattam was Mattam(Comment in Ananda Vikadan review) from beginning to end.


Kurudhippunal was/is/will be a classic forever. Yet another example of "Kombinil paal konjam surandhaal Adhu dhaan saadhanai"

Drohkaal directed by Govind Nihalani was Ashish Vidyarthi's first movie. Om Puri played Kamal's role, Naseeruddin Shah played Arjun's and Ashish did the villain's role which was done by Nazar in Tamil. It was critically acclaimed but did very poor business. With a star cast like this it was dissed an art movie. Kamal apparently was interested in the script and bought the rights from Govind Nihalani to make it in Tamil. He was sure of making a successful movie without any songs, comedy track or duets, debut MD, many unknown faces, Telugu lip-sync(It was made in Telugu and Tamil). It was released along with Muthu on Diwali 2006. Muthu directed by K.S.Ravikumar(fresh after the success of Naattaamai) had Rajinikanth in two roles, Meena who was the top heroine of those days, A.R.Rahman whose songs were already chartbusters, several supporting actors including Raghuvaran, Radharavi, Ponnambalam, Vadivelu, Senthil and others - a complete masala movie.

Still Kuruthippunal gave a tough fight & managed to open very well in all centers. It ran for more than 100 days in many theatres. I watched it on the 3rd day in AVM by paying Rs.150 for a Rs.25 ticket. In a suburban theatre like Tambaram (not sure if it was Vetri or Rakesh; Muthu ran in Vidhya), KP ran for 80 days. For the first three weeks, it shared the No.1 spot with Muthu in Sun TV's Top 10. In the fourth week, it went to No.2 and slowly came down. Muthu was in No.1 for few more weeks & obviously had a better run. But KP which probably was made in less than 1/2 of Muthu's budget was a Super-hit. KP's Telugu version Drohi was an even bigger hit.

Its good to know Kurudhipunal ran well .... I was not sure how much of a hit it was considering that it did not have the ingredients of regular hit movie (songs/romance/action etc.). As we know, Kamal fans applauding or appreciating a movie whole hardheartedly vs. box office success are two different things .. Many such movies have fallen on the wayside. Ofcourse a few years later, public will say 'pa adhu arumaiyana padam' like what they talk about Anbe Sivam today .. but the movie flopped then! For Kurudhipunal to achieve a decent run is pretty impressive considering the challenges it had esp. from SS.

[hattori_hanzo]

Exactly. For the younger generation, if a movie's songs are not too popular then its a flop. Since KP was without songs, people don't see it often in TV and many even wouldn't have heard of it.

Between '94 and '96 Raj Kamal International had three consecutive hits - Sathi Leelavathi(released with Baasha), Magalir Mattum and Kuruthippunal. Kamal held a function to celebrate the hat-trick hits. Indhian and Avvai Shanmughi released during the same period but they weren't produced by Kamal.

[hattori_hanzo]

Soora Samharam

- Directed by Journalist-turned-PRO-turned-Director-turned-Supporting Actor. Now known as Mongoose Mandaiyan - Chithra Lakshmanan
- Kamal is called Pandian in some scenes, AdhiVeeraPandian in some scenes, AdhiVeeraRamaPandian in one scene.
- In some scenes he appears with orginal murukku meesai. Ottumeesai in most of the 2nd half. The scene where his face is shown on the TV, he looks awesome.
- Two excellent songs - Naan Enbadhu and Neela Kuyile both sung by Arun Mozhi and one by Mano - Vedhaalam.
- Nirosha, the heroine is introduced as Mythili in the titles. Not sure if this was before or after Agni Natchathiram.
- Somehow KH's chemistry isn't all that good with Nirosha, though there are some romantic scenes, steamy enough to keep family audiences away.
- Kitty(aka Raja Krishnamurthy, Ex-Vice President, Polaris Software) who did remarkably well as a smooth-talking corrupt minister in Sathya plays a hardcore villain. Not too impressive. 10 minutes into the movie, the villain's identity is revealed.
- Madhuri as his sister doesn't suit the role and Janakaraj is wasted.
- There are some really good stunt scenes. In one such scene, KH uses the 'T' word for the 2nd time(First time was in Vikram). I think the one in the receiving end was Ponnambalam.
- The first 15-20 mins & the scene where KH is drugged, beaten and the consequences are good. Till then the movie moves quite fast with an engaging screenplay but slips badly post-interval.

[kumarsr]

Soora Samharam

- Directed by Journalist-turned-PRO-turned-Director-turned-Supporting Actor. Now known as Mongoose Mandaiyan - <B>Chithra Lakshmanan</B>

He is there in the cast of UV

- In some scenes he appears with orginal murukku meesai. Ottumeesai in most of the 2nd half.

We might be treated to the same experience in Papanasam

- Nirosha, the heroine is introduced as Mythili in the titles. Not sure if this was before or after Agni Natchathiram.

After Agni.

- Somehow KH's chemistry isn't all that good with Nirosha

Radhika's sister, can't imagine looking at her now.


Another wasted effort like Kalaignan.

[irir123]

soorsamharam is the kind of self-abuse Kamal ought to have avoided.

btw, even vetri vizha et al were mediocre.

- post Nayagan, the creative bubble featuring pesum padam, chanakyan, aboorva sago, mmkr, indiran chandiran, should all have been persisted with and Hey Ram should have happened right after Indian

[hattori_hanzo]

soorsamharam is the kind of self-abuse Kamal ought to have avoided.

btw, even vetri vizha et al were mediocre.

- post Nayagan, the creative bubble featuring pesum padam, chanakyan, aboorva sago, mmkr, indiran chandiran, should all have been persisted with and Hey Ram should have happened right after Indian

Prathap Pothen's biggest hit as a director. In terms of quality it can't come close to the other movies in your list. The movie still had many interesting elements like well choreographed stunts, songs. Kamal's costumes were too good.

[hattori_hanzo]

He is there in the cast of UV
We might be treated to the same experience in Papanasam

Hmm yeah. He did that quite often in 80s when the movie going public didn't care about it much. I hope it isn't too obvious in Papanaasam.

And about KH's cop roles, he has a pretty good success rate - OKD, Ab.Sago, VV1, VV2, Khakhi Chattai,KP, Vikram(good business in B&C). One more average grosser which comes to my mind is Andha Oru Nimidam. I thought it did not do well till I saw the director/producer/villain Major Sundarrajan's interview in Jaya TV about ten years back.

Mottai Bosskey : Andha Oru Nimidam'nu oru padam pannineengale, adhu Andha Oru Nimidam aavadhu odicha?
Major: 100 days odhichu. Sumaarana laabam vandhudhu.

OTOH for Rajini, except Moondru Mugam and Anbukku Naan Adimai(not sure about its success) none of the movies ran well.
Kodi Parakkudhu, Naattukku Oru Nallavan, Pandian and some movies in Bollywood failed. Pandian was the last movie in which he played a cop.

[Arvind Srinivasan]

And about KH's cop roles, he has a pretty good success rate - OKD, Ab.Sago, VV1, VV2, Khakhi Chattai,KP, Vikram(good business in B&C). One more average grosser which comes to my mind is Andha Oru Nimidam.

In Andha Oru Nimidam, Kamal's a lawyer not a cop.

[Cinemarasigan]

According to me Kurudhi Punal stands out as a cop movie.. - Very intense as well

Vettaiyadu Vilaiyadu comes next - neat and suited Kamal very much.