Kamal Haasan recently recorded an English song for his home production, Nala Damayanthi, starring Madhavan and Geetu Mohandas.
Haasan first sang in English 27 years ago for the Malayalam film, Siva Thandavam. It was a duet with Usha Uthup under M B Srinivas' baton.
The Nala Damayanthi song (lyrics: Pradeep Govind; music: Ramesh Vinayakam) has been picturised on Madhavan roaming the streets of Australia after having lost all his belongings, including his passport. Homesick and unhappy, he sings:
I am stranded on the streets
And I got nowhere to go
Don't know what to do
And I don't know what to know
Groping in the dark
I'm searching for the lightÂ…
Madhavan plays Nala, a Brahmin youth from Palghat who goes to Australia to work as a cook; the film is all about his hilarious misadventures there. One of its highlights is the peculiar Malayalam-Tamil Palghat dialect spoken by Madhavan. Haasan himself did this to perfection in Michael Madana Kama Rajan.
Haasan was originally planning to play Nala himself, but decided to cast Madhavan after watching him in Anbe Sivam.
Nala meets his Damayanthi in the form of a Tamilian from Jaffna who was born and brought up in Australia. Geetu Mohandas, who plays Damayanthi, speaks Sri Lankan Tamil in the film. Haasan himself successfully adopted the accent in his hit Tamil comedy, Tenali.
Nala Damayanthi is Haasan's latest production -- after Apoorva Sahodarangal, Thevar Magan and Hey! Ram -- under his banner, Rajkamal International.
