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Kamal Haasan

A Cinematic Journey

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Kamal Haasan

Written by: K. Hariharan
Narrated by: Vijayan Menon
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Buy Now for ₹650.61

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In many ways, Kamal Haasan is unique. One of the greatest actors India has ever produced, he has usually gone further than just enacting a role to completely immersing himself in it. Kamal Haasan: A Cinematic Journey explores some 50 films out of the 245 Haasan has been associated with and analyses his cinematic journey from his beginnings as a child star all the way to his latest blockbusters. It traces how, even at a young age, he took on roles other actors would be wary of, positioning himself as an object of female desire in the 1980s; balancing both comedy and tragedy with aplomb; playing formerly caricatured roles such as that of a dwarf in Apoorva Sagodharargal and a woman in Chachi 420 with dignity; and having a resurgence in 2022 with the blockbuster Vikram.

This book is the best introduction possible to Kamal Haasan: his life, his thoughts and his movies.

©2024 Hariharan Krishnan (P)2024 Audible, Inc. Actors Entertainment & Celebrity Entertainment & Performing Arts Film & TV History & Criticism
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the narrator doesn't know tamil and his pronunciation is off putting, for narrating a Tamil actor at least this much could be considered. the narratives about the various movies Kamal has acted, produced, directed, written for, sung in, etc. the linkage to politics of that day and time doesn't connect as much...

a good insight

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it's very hard to put so many years in a book

Early life stories are detailed and great.

Love early life details

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I wish the narrator paid attention to non English and kin Tamil phrases. These unfortunately stood out for me in an otherwise beautiful narration.

Great Journey of a wonderful actor seen through his filmography

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Altogether, there is too much conjecture and theorising by the author about the motivation behind almost all of Kamal's movies that he has mentioned. At least that would have been bearable if the narrator were any good. It is utterly stupid to have a narrator for such a book who cannot pronounce Tamil names and words. His string of mispronunciations put me completely off. I would advise Kamal fans to avoid listening to this. They might tolerate the subject matter if they read it rather than listen.

Too much theorising topped off by bad narration

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While the book gave a wonderful narration of how Kamal always stayed ahead not only in entertainment industry, but also his socio-political thinking, the repetitive references to failure of Dravidian politics sounds dry, boring and too theoretical. Also, the narrator's difficulty in pronouncing names of Tamil films sounds silly considering that the subject is a master entertainer from Tamil film industry.

A peek into the most brainy and risk-taking entertainer of our times

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