favourite five comedy movies of Kamal Hassan

In Tamil the film industry was dominated by Sivaji Ganesan and M G Ramachandran (MGR) when I started watching movies. I favourite then was Sivaji Ganesan. After this successful duo, it was Rajnikant and Kamalhasan who dominated the South Indian film industry. They still are actors to reckon with despite lot of other talented and popular stars like Vijay, Suriya, Ajit etc...

My favourite is of course both Rajnikant and Kamal Haasan. In the newer lot it is Vijay and Suriya.

Kamal Haasan has won several awards from almost all sources including National Awards four times – a kind of a record. Kamal Haasan has acted in movies in several languages – Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, Hindi and Bengali. Besides he has acted in one silent feature film too. Apart from acting he has scripted, directed and produced films. And also he has sung over 70 songs in different languages. He is in the film industry for the past 50 plus years!

I wanted to choose my favourite five movies of Kamal Haasan. But the task was very difficult, as there are several movies which are very excellent and best. Selecting five from them is indeed a very difficult and impossible task. Therefore I decided to choose my favourite comedy movies of Kamal Haasan. I have seen these five movies several times and would not hesitate to watch them again, and again!

Here is the list of my favourite five comedy movies of Kamal Haasan.

1. Apoorva Sagodharargal 1989
2. Thenali (Tamil, 2000)
3. Michael Madana Kama Rajan (1990)
4. Panchathantiram (2002)
5. Pammal K. Sambandam (2002)

The hype the movie made before its release made to watch the movie on the first day first show. To watch the movie Apoorva Sagodharargal I travelled 40 Kilometres. I still remember the crowd and how jam packed the cinema hall was.

I have seen the movie several times. It is a kind of cult movie from South India. After huge success down south in Tamil, the movie was dubbed in Hindi and released one year later for another successful box office outing as “Appu Raja”.

Kamal Hassan was at its best in this movie. He did a triple role in the movie. One as a father and his twin sons! Both the sons get separated due to circumstances. One became a mechanic and the other son Appu is dwarf and works in a circus along with his mother.

The three different roles were done exceedingly well by Kamal. Specially the dwarf role! I still enjoy watching this movie over and over again. I like the scenes where Appu kills his father’s killer one by one using his circus skills.

The dialogues by Crazy Mohan were superb. I still remember several of the dialogues from the movie.

Thenali is my second most watched movie of Kamal Hassan. Here again, Crazy Mohan created another master piece script which is laugh riot.

Kamal Hassan played the character of a Sri Lanka who fears everything and seeks medical help. The major portion of the movie takes place in Ooty where Kamal Hassan fell in love with Jyothika, sister of Kamal Hassan’s doctor played by Jayaram. Jayaram’s comic timing and his mimicry were well utilized by director K. S. Ravikumar.

The songs and dances were all enjoyable – and the highlight was the fight sequence by Vikram Dharma.

I didn’t see the movie when it was first released. I got to see couple of years later. And the moment I saw the movie, I fell in love with the movie.

Kamal Hassan did four different roles in this movie – that of Michael, Madana, Kama and Rajan. Each one was uniquely different than the other. It was seer talent which clearly showed in this movie. Kamal Hassan later did 10-roles in magnum opus “Dasavathaaram”.

Once again, it was movie written jointly by Kamal Hassan and Crazy Mohan. Out of the four roles, most riotous one was the character of Kameshwaran (or Kama) and Thiripurasundari. Urvashi done justice to the role as Thiripurasundari matching antics with Kamal Hassan. The song “Sundhari Neeyum Sundhara” still echoing in my thoughts!

Another comedy directed by K. S. Ravikumar after Thenali. Like the other four movies mentioned above this movie was super hit at the box office. I saw this movie only on the Television as I was in Jeddah when the movie was released.

The movie revolve around five friends Kamal Hassan, Jayaram (actor from Malayalam film industry), Ramesh Aravind (from Kannada), Sriman, Yugi Sethu.

The movie is complete entertainment. But the most humorous part of the movie is the small role did by Devayani.

You can watch "Panchatantiram" - full movie on YouTube

Though the film was not a commercial blockbuster at the box office, still it was all round entertainment film. Kamal Hassan has eased different roles in his 50-years filmi career. In this movie, he does a role of stunt master. The movie was remade in Hindi in 2009 with big budget, but it flop.

The dialogues by Crazy Mohan in the original Tamil version could not be translated well in Hindi version of the movie. Besides the funny dialogues, the lead pair Kamal Hassan and Simran gave the complete comic treat.