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The year was 1991

Kamal hassan had gone on to give Thamizh film world two gems, “Nayagan” in 1987 and “Apoorva Sagodharargal” in 1989. 80’s were gone and 90’s needed a new look and new performances. With the above mentioned movies, he had effortlessly moved into 1990’s like a skilled driver changing to the 5th gear in a desolate highway. 89 also had witnessed the hugely successful “Indhrudu Chandrudu” where he played dual role with totally different shades as only he could do. In a state like Thamizh Nadu where actors are absolutely adored, his string of brilliant performances raised the curiousity levels to dizzying heights.

Sure of himself that makkal is ready to lap up something different from him, Kamal decided to take the biggest gamble as an actor - playing quadarplets separated at birth looking alike and coming together in hilarious circumstances. For this he has inspirations from his guru and the legendary Shivaji Ganeshan’s memorable Navarathiri(where Sivaji plays 9 roles) and Bale Pandiya in which both Sivaji and MR.Radha play dual roles to dazzle the thamizh makkal. So the team of Singeetham, Kamal and Crazy mohan go about creating the most delightful comedy of the 90’s. They create what we adore today as Michael Madhana Kama Rajan.

The screenplay written by Kamal is the real winner in the movie, for it sets up the right situation in which the best actors of South India, Nagesh, Urvasi, Manorama and Nasser revel , not to mention Kamal who delights with four varied roles, varied in their background and hence in their mannerisms, voice and body language. To sample the beauty of the screenplay, lets take the introduction of Raju(kamal), michael(kamal) and Kameshwaran( Kamal). The whole sequence is seamless and the continuity of comedy is incessant and thereby it works like magic.

Begin with Michael and David, counterfeiters fleeing police and ram into a transformer in a hotel garage parking . Fire begins out of the short circuit and burns a whole floor of artwork display, and the firebrigade comes in. The lead fireman is Raju (kamal). He extinguishes the fire, falls in love(at first sight) with the painter Shalini (kushboo) and sings a duet in dream only to be awakened by a money lendor asking him payback. Raju comically offers dried fish, which the money lendor throws out of the window, that falls into the pocket of Kameshwaran, a palghat brahmin cook. All of this in a screen span of 20 mins (with a delightful Rum bum bum song by SPB and Chitra scored by the brilliant maestro laid neatly in between) culminating in another 20 mins of laugh riot of “fish in sambhar sequence” which introduces us to two more delightful characters of “Thirupu” (Urvashi) and Paatti (S.N.Lakshmi), not to forget Mani Iyer (Delhi Ganesh - who played Iyer in Nayagan).

Kamal once remarked while making Mumbai Express that the difference between a suspense thriller and comedy is superficial. While the suspense thriller shows all characters without letting the audience know what is happening or what each character knows, a comedy lets the audience know everything without letting the characters know the whole truth. It is more like a practical joke played on the characters by the director. This is exactly what he has done to the characters in MMKR and the result is a 2 and a half hours of delightful joy ride where you are not given even a second to contemplate whys and wherefores.

All this screenplay gimmickry still would not have been sufficient if the dialogues weren’t funny or the artistes substandard. The greatest asset for this film is its dialogues and thankfully all of crazy’s comedy team with the exception of Madhu, Cheenu and Mythili are brought in to great effect. Watch out specially for the scene where the henchmen of Ramgopal (nasser) while following Madhan(Kamal) miss him in a traffic signal and end up following Kameshwaran(Kamal). Particularly the reference to AK-47 is bound to make you fall from chair laughing.

The climax mayhem in the desolate and teethering wooden house on the hilltop and the tribute to Charlie Chaplin’s “The Gold Rush” is totally hilarious with crazy’s dialogues and great acting by the entire cast for another non stop fun filled 20 mins. The film shot nicely by B.C.Gowrishankar (where is he now?) and the music is memorable with its tunes still popular all over thamizh nadu. The background music is perfectly suited and watch out for the subtle changes in the BGM for every Kamal (the one of Kameshwaran and a diametrically different piece for Michael take the cake IMO).

Special mention must be made of Urvashi , who incidentally was reintroduced to thamizh films by Kamal(she was busy doing amazing films in Malayalam) . She made “Thirupu” the best female comic role of nineties. Every gesture and dialogue of hers invited hilarious responses from the audience and the comic chemistry she shared with Kamal adequately spills on to the memorable Thamizh-Mallu song “Sundhari -Neeyum” where Raja mixes, carnatic, soft rock and waltz to deliriously addictive results. One song that stays with you forever.

After enjoying the movie, if one goes into the making, one would accept the fact that making comedy movie is the damn’d most serious job on planet earth apart from launching rockets. NASA guys would say rocket launching is pretty easy in cmparison.