When the Building Came Alive

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Kasturi Dhama Apartments — the play area where many evenings came alive. The lights would go out without warning. For a brief second, the entire building would fall silent. Then, from somewhere in Kasturi Dhama Apartments, a chorus would erupt. “Yayyy!” It is difficult to imagine children celebrating a power failure today. But in the Bangalore of the nineties and early 2000s, a power cut did not always feel like an inconvenience. Especially in the late evenings, it felt like permission. Permission to stop whatever we were doing, leave the darkness inside our homes, and step into the building outside. Before Kasturi Dhama became home, we had moved through a few different parts of Bangalore. My family had begun in Srirampuram and Vyalikaval before gradually cementing ourselves in Malleswaram for the next few decades. My earliest memory is of living in a vatara —a Kannada word loosely used for a building or a cluster of homes—on 15th Cross, near Karur Vy...
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A laugh riot

Seeing Michael Madana Kamarajan for the nth time does not give the viewer the chance to change his opinion on the movie. One Kamal Hassan is more than enough in a movie, but what do you do when you are put up with four Kamal Hassans for three hours. You just put up with him in glee!! There are some movies where you just hope the movie ends within the first ten minutes of the start, but MMK is totally different. At the end of the movie, the reaction is Oh! The movie has got over! This movie was released in the year 1990, but almost 15 years later, the movie can still be glorified for its comedy.

I will not be delving into the details of the movie. Obviously, everyone should have seen the movie more than once. It is about four sons Michael, Madan, Kameswaran and Raju who get separated at birth due to a conspiracy hatched by their father's brother. The movie basically deals with the tryst of the four brothers in various situations and how they come out unscathed to get together in the end. Kamal Hassan, as Kameswaran is a delight with his Malayali accent. His encounters with Urvashi and her paati(grandma) is a treat to watch. That particular sequence where a fish falls into a sambar in an Iyer aam(house) keeps the viewers in splits. The dialogues etched for that scene is unforgettable. I mean It is too good! Urvashi's oodles of talent is well captured, and no wonder Kamal Hassan speaks highly of her in any interview. Delhi Ganesh, as Kamal's father has done a little cameo. He is such a gifted actor that he fits in a role to sublime ease.

Kamal, as Michael plays a local goon and Madan is a multi-millionaire Kamal. Madan's personal secretary as well as friend is the Bheema of Mahabharata fame. Bhim boy is characterised in a peculiarly funny way, totally different from the angry young man we see in Mahabharata. Nagesh, as the corrupt secretary dons his role to perfection. The final Kamal is Raju, who is a part of the fire brigade. Roopini, Kushboo and Manorama have done a good job as supporting actresses, but it is Uravashi who steals the show with her dynamic prowess.

Kamal of course as expected steals the show. The supporting cast is excellent too. Every actor enacts his role to a nicety. Coming to the dialogues of the movie, Crazy Mohan has come up with unbeatable dialogues. There is not an iota of doubt when he is acknowledged to be the best dialogue writer in Tamil cinema. Ilayaraja's music is highly commendable. Isaignani's music fits perfectly in the movie. The sundari neeyum.. song and its picturisation is the highlight of the movie. Singeetham Srinivasa Rao has crafted a lot of movies with Kamal and the duo share a special rapport that has seen them come up with a number of hits - Apoorva Sahodarargal, Pushpaka Vimana, and Mumbai Express to an extent.

If merry making is the mantra, watch this movie to beat any time blues!!

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