KAMAL HASSAN
Brothers In Arms

He is a man of many facets. If at one point he was the father and son in Hindustani, today he is playing contrasting brothers in Abhay. And whether the audience accepts it or not, Kamal Haasan is sure he has succeeded.

For, right from the lettering of the titling that he wrote with the mouse on the computer to portray the writing of a little child to the entire film frame by frame, the actor sees his efforts at work. Along with director Suresh Krissna of course.

A tete-a-tete with the actor…

Army man Vijay and the schizophrenic Abhay… how did you evolve such conflicting characters?
Well, it goes back more than one and half decades when my friend pushed me into writing for this magazine. I conceived the plot of Abhay as a novel Daayam. It was no easy task though. Took me 36 weeks of hard work…. Daayam is about an intellectual within the confines of paranoid schizophrenia, who is also a psychopath, and is left in an asylum and how when something triggers him, he gets back to his destructive self. He becomes self-destructive in the end.

Why did it take you so long to convert this novel into a film?
The idea of transforming the novel Daayam into a film was always there at the back of my head. In fact, I wanted it to be my second weapon after Ek Duje Ke Liye, but my mentor Balachander had set an anti-violence image in my head. And it took a while to move on to Daayam.

Were there other reasons why you did not choose to make the film earlier? Or was nonviolence the only reasons… Even Hey Ram had violence?
Well, yes. There was definitely another reason too. When I thought of Daayam, it was always merely as a fine read but as something with no great cinematic substance. So, when I wrote the screenplay of Abhay, I added in what was essential to make a film – the elements of schizophrenic demons, the ingenuity of the man, the psychopath, the modus operandi of the criminal and a parallel tracking with a detective story going on the side. Great ideas never turn into reality in a day!

How did the movie finally happen?
Well, honestly the credit goes to my director Suresh Krissna. He believed in a novel that I did not. And knew that it would make a good film. It took me an eventful translation to realise the potential of the film myself.

Do we understand that you transformed a novel that was a good read into a masala movie with Abhay?
Absolutely. It is a thriller for the audience with the emotion and romance. It is about a heartbreaking child abuse first and then a thriller. We do see some influences here… Ann Frank’s diary may be… Comparisons are bound to be there everywhere. Yes, you can compare Abhay to Ann Frank's Diary in a way. It is this diary that makes one brother understand then human side of his other sibling. And the story moves on to how this discovery leads to the other brother understanding and accepting the schizophrenic Abhay. But Abhay has a life of its own, apart from the comparisons…

Now that Abhay has hit the theatres, what next?
My life is in a word, films. I eat, I talk and I sleep films – it is the right attitude. And now that Abhay is hitting the marquee, I am moving on to my next film. This time out, it is an out-and-out comedy with Crazy Mohan and Mouli. It’s a story of a bachelor who doesn’t want to get married, but late in life he decides to do so. And the comic turn of events that follow. As of now, I await the verdict of my performance in Abhay.