Back here, in Tamil cinema, films where prominent actors play the cop role are looked at as an 'occasion'. - A celebration of sorts. These are also used as a benchmark to judge performances and for many actors, cop movies have gone on to become memorable check points in their career. Kamal has done a fair share of police based cinema and has come up triumphs more often than not. In this article we zoom in on a couple of his very special portrayals and run through the rest of his "police career"

Adhi narayanan is a class act. Kamal's body language through out the film adapts itself to the changing character sketch. The strict and confident police officer who later finds himself in a desperate losing situation couldn't have found a better face on silver screen. Kamal's uses subdued facial expressions to great effect in the interrogative scenes. The tension builds up because the audience is not sure of what the calm interrogating officer may do the next moment. The effect would have flown off had Kamal been just another cop shouting like a mad man at Nasser. Kamal's unique coarse voice is a huge plus too. Some of the most unforgettable moments from the film include the scene where Kamal utters the famous "Everyone has a breaking Point" line dialogue ; The scene where Kamal tells his son that he was only kissing his mother ( If this is not natural acting, then what is?) ; The sequence where Kamal declares to Gauthami that he is losing the war and of course the extremely goose bumpy climax sequence. The climax in particular deserves one separate article on it. This is what I had written about that scene in one of my past write ups :- " that coarse yet high pitched voice, that blood painted face, that broken tooth, those eyes and he goes SHOOT ME MY MAN, SHOOT ME, MY MAN - MY BOY , SHOOT ME - AND THATS A BLOODY ORDER - as a viewer u feel, yes, this is the ultimatum, any actor can't thrill u more than this, and u surrender completely to adinarayanan,."

When I first met Raghavan, He came across as a poor shadow of Adi Narayanan. I wasn't satisfied with what saw till his wife got kidnapped. Then the real scenes of the movie started to flow and there he was, Playing his age, Body language intact, Expressions in place. Raghavan had arrived. The one-hand push up cum tape recorder scene is probably as authentic as it can get. The fact that a cop speaks more with the body and less with the mouth is re established with Kamal's portrayal in this pic. Looking at him perform is such a relief when compared to other policemen - heroes of Tamil Cinema who dance, crack jokes and deliver punch dialogues at the drop of an eyelid. It takes the consistency out of the character and that is something Kamal has tried his best to maintain in the film even though the screenplay subjects Raghavan to an unnecessary duet in the middle of the second half.

Adi and Raghavan made a major mark, but each took at least two and half hours to do it. One police officer required only ten minutes. In those ten minutes, he played the feared cop and the lovable husband and came up with a gamut of brilliant expressions when being killed. His name is Sethupathy - The father of a couple of 'aboorva sahodrargal'. This stunning cop-cameo apart, Kamal perfectly cast himself as Indian James Bond in Vikram,. He also played the best looking cop in the history of Tamil Cinema in Soora Samharam and looked equally great in Oru Kaidhiyin Dairy. Balram Naidu is also from RAW but his role was more humour and less police. So we will talk about that portrayal some other time.

In Dasavatharam's Audio Launch, Hero Vijay made a note of the saying that 'Even real life cops look at kamal'spolice films to see what kind of body language is to be used' . Though this line was meant more as a symbolic reference, I sometimes think there is nothing wrong if such a situation were to crop up. The law will find itself in safer hands. Because in Kamal, Tamil Cinema finds its quintessential cop. The one whose very posture is symbolic with strength, intelligence, chivalry and passion.