My Role Model Hero

 

My Role Model Hero

I feel a compulsion within myself to express my admiration for this great versatile actor, of whom I have been a great fan since my childhood – Padma Bhushan Kamal Hasssan.

This handsome, dynamic and ever youthful actor, has always deserved a Oscar, but has not even one to his credit, till date. Yet he is not demotivated. He keeps trying. He is innovative. He works on new ideas. He wants to bring the latest in world cinema to the Tamil audience. His movie “Vikram”, was the nearest to James Bond movie in Tamil film industry, those days.  He is a man of bold attempts, who does not get bogged down by criticism and does not fly too high on praise. He knows the balance. He is a man, who is so passionate about his chosen career – Cinema. It would not be high sounding if I say, he eats cinema, sleeps cinema, breathes cinema.

Cinema has been a very powerful medium, for ages, much before television crept in. His movies have influenced people greatly, not only by the different hair styles he keeps or the fashionable dresses he wears, but by the variety of roles he plays.

Kamal has not been just a role model to many, but many roles he has played in his films are worth being modeled. I personally, have been greatly influenced by his films. I would not hesitate to say that my life, has been greatly moulded by this silver screen hero. To start with, I aspired to do a MBA abroad, after seeing his movie “Thoongaathe Thambi Thoongaathae”, wherein he plays the role of a foreign return. His movie “Unnal Mudiyum Thambi” triggered the natural instinct in me to do something good for my society. “Thevar Magan” was yet another film, which reinforced my beliefs in doing some good for my home town. “Anbae Sivam” was a classic portrayal of good human relationship. There are many such films, but these movies in particular have created a real life impact, on me.  Some of the values that are deeply rooted in me, has got to do something with the morals, I imbibed from his films.

In real life too, there are so many qualities I have admired in him. He was the first person in the cinema industry, who had all his fan clubs converted into service clubs. No matter how good these clubs serve, I am sure his intentions were good. He propagates the cause of blood donation and organ donation, by being a living example. He is a full body donor. He practices what he preaches.

He is a perfectionist. You can see perfection, in the role he plays. I have heard that he spends a lot of time, observing people, whose role he is about to play. Like, if he has to play the role of a mentally handicapped person, he spends several days watching mentally ill people, their actions, re-actions, physical movement etc. Many a times, he criticizes himself, for his own flaws, which I think is a great quality, that has taken him so close to be a perfectionist.

In spite of all his greatness, he is so humble. I had the opportunity of meeting him in a cinema shooting, when I was in my college days. He was shooting for the movie, “Sathya”.  I shook hands with him, but I had no words to say. I was just spell bound when I saw the shadow image in reality. It is the awe feeling, anyone of us feel when we meet someone, who we have admired from a far distance.

I  don't know whether it is befitting to call him a "Universal Hero", as he is fondly called by his fans. But undoubtedly, he is a hero Tamil Cinema can be proud of in his century, not just for his acting skills, but also for the technological innovations, by which he has taken Tamil Cinema to global standards.

D. Senthil Kannan,

Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com