It is common to find people with a view that playing a mentally disturbed person on screen is too easy an ask. All that one has to do is go berserk at anything and everything. However, The truth is that portraying autism is not as easy as it looks like. The difference between a third grade actor playing the mad man and a seasoned performer depicting a neurotic is the consistency in expressions. Why should a nut be consistent with expressions ? U might ask. It is only then that the depth in the character is established in the minds of the audience. A psychologically disintegrated character on screen could be designed to generate fear, disgust, pity or love from the viewer. To pull off the required effect needs skill.
The face that comes first to our mind when we think of such roles is that of Jack Nicholson - a proven master in the field. So much so that an ordinary American can not accept any other genre coming from Nicholson's stable. He yearns for the psycho. Among others, Dustin Hoffman played the autistic to perfection in Rainman. Antony Hopkins playing Hannibal Lecter depicting the completely other end of the human brain is equally brilliant too.
In Indian Cinema there is one legendary performer who in just four to five attempts, has tried as many variations at presenting the anti social personality disorder to a crowd not very familiar with the disease. Kamal Haasan in swathi muthyam, guna, aalavandaan, and to some extent in sivappu rojakkal has done the art proud with phenomenal portrayals. This is a commentary on the various dimensions of kamal playing the mentally challenged.
In Guna, Kamal plays a mentally affected youth who is promised by an inmate in his mental asylum that a beautiful girl called Abirami will marry him on a full moon day. Apart from decolourising himself and looking toxicated through out the film, Kamal comes up with a very well researched performance. His dialogue delivery and expressions in general are probably the closest one can get to a lunatic. His acting in the scene with Girish Karnad where he endlessly walks around a cot repeatedly uttering 'abirami' after expressing thorough disgust with his mother's profession is a complete stunner. Kamal, through guna, gives us a wide view of not only the tragedies of the delusional world but also the cute things about it. The love which Guna has for abirami, for example, is of the purest kinds which does not expect anything in return. Kamal tries to tell us that no sane man could love any lady like that and he does tell it well with his histrionics in the famous 'kanmani anbodu kadhalan' song which is a tribute to true, unadulterated romance.
In Swathi Muthyam, Kamal's Portrayal of an autistic man won him the best actor award in the Asian Film Festival in 1985. An intersting trivia about this film is that while a song was being pictured, kamal was required to dance out of rhythm as his role is that of a man not in sync with the times. But given the brilliant dancer that Kamal is, the actor found it very tough to perform the required steps and only after rigorously 'unlearning' all his dance basics did kamal eventually sizzle in the final take. Though K.Vishwanath's story and handling of the film is very special, its Kamal's gestures and innocence in expressions that takes the cake.
In Aalavandhaan Kamal plays nandu - a schizophrenic accused of the childhood murder of his stepmother and confined to an asylum for the criminally insane. This is an unfortunate case of a brilliant performance gone unnoticed due to below par characterisation. Fortunately, if kamal is to blame for the latter, it is the same kamal who should be praised for the former. Right from the introduction of nandu, where there is a clear tribute to Hopkins, Kamal is maverick as the heavily built, bald psychopath brother who finds himself in the position that he is in, thanks to the toss of a coin. Reports from members of the shooting units suggest that Kamal lived the character through out the filming of his role. Among the other films where kamal has played the mentally disturbed, his mannerisms are most profound in this film. Nandu flexes his neck bones every now and then, rattles off poem after poem, doublet after doublet, makes weird animal like noises and is very dangerously violent. Nandu for students of method acting, is an unforgettable lesson.
There are other instances where kamal has had to enact the characters of men in their own world. In Sigappu Rojakkal kamal is a deranged women killer. In kalyanaraman and padinaaru vayadhinile , kamal is a simpleton who is averse to logic of any kind. All in all if there is one actor in India who does sincere justice to such roles, then it has to be Kamal Haasan. Through such jaw dropping performances, Kamal brings to life the most complex side of the human brain. The maniac, the unstable, the upset, the psycho neurotic - You name it and he's done it. Kudos to these - some of the most marvellous attempts in the profession of acting will get to see.
The face that comes first to our mind when we think of such roles is that of Jack Nicholson - a proven master in the field. So much so that an ordinary American can not accept any other genre coming from Nicholson's stable. He yearns for the psycho. Among others, Dustin Hoffman played the autistic to perfection in Rainman. Antony Hopkins playing Hannibal Lecter depicting the completely other end of the human brain is equally brilliant too.
In Indian Cinema there is one legendary performer who in just four to five attempts, has tried as many variations at presenting the anti social personality disorder to a crowd not very familiar with the disease. Kamal Haasan in swathi muthyam, guna, aalavandaan, and to some extent in sivappu rojakkal has done the art proud with phenomenal portrayals. This is a commentary on the various dimensions of kamal playing the mentally challenged.
In Guna, Kamal plays a mentally affected youth who is promised by an inmate in his mental asylum that a beautiful girl called Abirami will marry him on a full moon day. Apart from decolourising himself and looking toxicated through out the film, Kamal comes up with a very well researched performance. His dialogue delivery and expressions in general are probably the closest one can get to a lunatic. His acting in the scene with Girish Karnad where he endlessly walks around a cot repeatedly uttering 'abirami' after expressing thorough disgust with his mother's profession is a complete stunner. Kamal, through guna, gives us a wide view of not only the tragedies of the delusional world but also the cute things about it. The love which Guna has for abirami, for example, is of the purest kinds which does not expect anything in return. Kamal tries to tell us that no sane man could love any lady like that and he does tell it well with his histrionics in the famous 'kanmani anbodu kadhalan' song which is a tribute to true, unadulterated romance.
In Swathi Muthyam, Kamal's Portrayal of an autistic man won him the best actor award in the Asian Film Festival in 1985. An intersting trivia about this film is that while a song was being pictured, kamal was required to dance out of rhythm as his role is that of a man not in sync with the times. But given the brilliant dancer that Kamal is, the actor found it very tough to perform the required steps and only after rigorously 'unlearning' all his dance basics did kamal eventually sizzle in the final take. Though K.Vishwanath's story and handling of the film is very special, its Kamal's gestures and innocence in expressions that takes the cake.
In Aalavandhaan Kamal plays nandu - a schizophrenic accused of the childhood murder of his stepmother and confined to an asylum for the criminally insane. This is an unfortunate case of a brilliant performance gone unnoticed due to below par characterisation. Fortunately, if kamal is to blame for the latter, it is the same kamal who should be praised for the former. Right from the introduction of nandu, where there is a clear tribute to Hopkins, Kamal is maverick as the heavily built, bald psychopath brother who finds himself in the position that he is in, thanks to the toss of a coin. Reports from members of the shooting units suggest that Kamal lived the character through out the filming of his role. Among the other films where kamal has played the mentally disturbed, his mannerisms are most profound in this film. Nandu flexes his neck bones every now and then, rattles off poem after poem, doublet after doublet, makes weird animal like noises and is very dangerously violent. Nandu for students of method acting, is an unforgettable lesson.
There are other instances where kamal has had to enact the characters of men in their own world. In Sigappu Rojakkal kamal is a deranged women killer. In kalyanaraman and padinaaru vayadhinile , kamal is a simpleton who is averse to logic of any kind. All in all if there is one actor in India who does sincere justice to such roles, then it has to be Kamal Haasan. Through such jaw dropping performances, Kamal brings to life the most complex side of the human brain. The maniac, the unstable, the upset, the psycho neurotic - You name it and he's done it. Kudos to these - some of the most marvellous attempts in the profession of acting will get to see.
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