Kamal has a crisp pen when it comes to writing short and yet powerful film dialogues.
But while speaking ex tempore -- and that has been his style -- he looks every bit a confused man, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The avoidable Kannada language row has come at a wrong time for matinee icon Kamal Haasan.
The Karnataka release of Thug Life, his first joint venture with ace film-maker Mani Ratnam in 37 years after big-hit Nayakan, has suffered a delay or outright denial.
But that is only one side. On the other hand, the ruling DMK alliance has named him as the MNM founder-head for a Rajya Sabha seat, and the six-year term will commence in mid-July.
Ruling BJP back-benchers, particularly from neighbouring Karnataka, could make it difficult for him to make his maiden speech, possibly defying the custom against interference when a member is making his first appearance before the chamber mike.
Back home in Tamil Nadu, they are already infuriated by his constant disowning of god and religion despite his Brahmin birth.
The Kannada row may add only one more dimension for them to paint him as a 'pan-Tamil, Dravidian chauvinist' where they have placed the DMK and parent DK since inception in the forties.
A quick look at the video footage of the Thug Life audio launch function where Kamal made the faux pas clearly indicates that he did not think before talking -- as has been his wont.
A man full of ideas that go beyond his extensive and expansive knowledge of the cinematic world, Kamal has a crisp pen when it comes to writing short and yet powerful film dialogues.
But while speaking ex tempore -- and that has been his style -- he looks every bit a confused man.
The powerful and emotion-emanating eyes look blank and stare at nothing, and the words are halting and unconnected.
The meme industry on Tamil social media is full of them, whether it relates to Kamal's speeches at film functions, in social contexts or from the political platforms of his Makkal Needhi Maiyam.
This habit of his let him down, and it was visible in live video footage, when he announced to the audience that Kannada matinee idol Shivraj Kumar was among them, and recalled how the latter's celebrated father Rajkumar used to call him after viewing every film of his, to offer comments.
He could well have stopped at that -- but that's not Kamal Haasan.
The thespian went a step further and talked about the filial relations of their respective language, and ended up saying that Kannada was born out of Tamil.
Yes, there is a notion in Tamil Nadu that theirs is the mother of all Dravidian languages, apart from being the oldest of Indian languages that's in daily use.
Kamal may have borrowed from it, but it's not sure if he meant it that way.
It is not impossible that Kamal only wanted to recall how the late Rajkumar was born in Tamil Nadu and his became the 'first family' of Kannada cinema -- but ended up saying what he said.
The moment he said it, it was clear to political observers familiar with inter-state equations flowing from the 'Cauvery water dispute' how and how far it could blow instantaneously.
The anticipated thing happened, and that's it.
Those familiar with recent events and developments in Karnataka over the language issue were not surprised when Kannada-lovers there protested loud and clear, forcing the local film fraternity to rise in one voice against Kamal, whom they otherwise love and revere.
For a few weeks now, they have been protesting against some or the other non-Kannadigas' patent refusal to learn and speak the language.
It was not about the guest population's inability to learn the language in a short span, but the impression that they gave that it was infra-dig for them to learn Kannada.
Their known preference was Hindi, though not all of them came from the Hindi belt.
In one such recent episode, a woman bank manager was transferred after she refused to speak to a local customer in Kannada, and declared on social media that she had the right to speak in the language she was comfortable with, or knew.
There is the other side here, when banks, insurance firms and even the public sector Indian Railways post non-locals in sensitive positions, including ticket counters, without knowing the local language.
It's so, whether in Karnataka or Tamil Nadu or any other south Indian state.
As coincidence would have it, those posted in these positions are increasingly from the Hindi-belt or from states where Hindi is among the spoken languages.
In an earlier era, Kannada chauvinists had protested the same way about Tamils who once dominated capital Bangalore's job market, from top to bottom.
Even now, construction labour comes from Tamil Nadu though most of them have since been replaced by 'Hindi-speakers' from the North / North-East.
But there was a time when the corridors of Vidhana Soudha, the state secretariat, reverberated in Tamil -- even as inside, the assembly proceedings were mostly in Kannada.
The situation has changed much since, and today you cannot hire a taxi or hail an auto-rickshaw at the Bangalore railway station without knowing Kannada.
The locals are as proud of their language and expect all guest-employees to converse in it, too.
It is no wonder thus that IT tycoon Mohandas Pai has gone on record that professionals from outside the state working in Bangalore display an 'arrogance not to learn Kannada'.
Pai points out that only a third of the city population comprised Kannadigas.
What he did not say is that increasingly locals from rural Karnataka are taking up low-end jobs like janitors, office assistants and attenders in the corporate sectors, replacing Bangaloreans, who used to be familiar with Tamil and also Hindi.
This has also been an added cause for the current crisis on the language front, though it should not mean that outsiders who are settled there should not learn the local language.
In Kamal Haasan's case, rather than in the case of Tamil Nadu, however, there is the added issue of the Cauvery water dispute between the two states.
The scars from anti-Tamil violence that had caused death and destruction in Bangalore and other Tamil-speaking regions of Karnataka still hang in the air.
This has to be weighed against the longstanding Kannadiga perception that the Tamils had taken their jobs in Bangalore and elsewhere until the 'IT revolution' ushered in other 'outsiders' on the one hand and provided jobs also for out-of-town Kannadigas.
In context, the series of anti-Karnataka protests by the Tamil Nadu polity and the Tamil film industry since the 1990s has to be reckoned with.
In a way, it had all begun with then AIADMK chief minister Jayalalithaa going on a surprise fast-unto-protest on the Cauvery water dispute, mainly to embarrass then prime minister P V Narasimha Rao.
Jayalalithaa also needed to prove to her cadres and the rest of Tamil Nadu that she was more Tamil than Kannadiga, as her family hailed from Mysore -- though a previous generation had trans-located from the temple-town of Srirangam, near Tiruchi.
It is of interest just now that Tamil Nadu politicians, especially from the DMK combine, and the stand-alone NTK leader Seeman, alone have been backing Kamal, at times citing literary references to defend his position.
So has been YouTube channels and Tamil TV talk-show persona.
However, the Tamil film industry has maintained a stoic silence, unlike in the case of the Kannada industry, which declared early on that they would not screen Thug Life in Karnataka unless Kamal apologised.
Included in the list are Kamal's close friend, 'super star' Rajinikanth and actor-politician Vijay, whose infant TVK is contesting the maiden assembly elections in the state next year.
Both of them have new films waiting to be released in the coming months -- Jailer II of the former, and Jana Nayagan or 'People's Hero', the latter's bugle call ahead of the assembly polls.
Rajinikanth, who is a native of Karnataka and has family and interests in that state, has always looked the other way over the Cauvery water dispute.
Instead, at one point, he promised to donate Rs 1 crore for any project aimed at linking Himalayan and peninsular rivers, which would cost millions and billions.
Today, their stoic silence on the Kamal-linked language row has led to social media criticism of their wanting to protect their business interests, instead.
Often times in the past, pan-Tamil sections of the media and social organisations have run down Rajinikanth especially, pointing out how he made all his money from Tamil films and his Tamil fans but did not display any loyalty to both.
Those voices are now being heard in the case of Vijay, too.
Between the two, the former has buried his political ambitions after toying with the idea or misleading his fans for two-plus decades.
The latter has just begun his political career, quitting at the top of his film career, with Jana Nayagan being his swan song.
Kamal has seen them all in his long career. Thug Life is not the first film that has landed in controversy, but not for the story or the title.
Earlier, his film, renamed Virumandi and was a huge hit, ran into trouble over the original title Sandiyar, as politicians like Dalit-centric PT founder Krishnaswamy claimed that the term represented the 'oppressor caste' or a goon from such communities.
Over another of his home-productions, Vishwaroopam, the Jayalalithaa government banned it initially over purported representation of minority Muslims in negative light in a film on international terrorism, based in Afghanistan.
Addressing a news conference at the time, Kamal declared that he would go bankrupt if the film did not see the light of the day, and he too might consider relocating to the US, where there was greater freedom for artistic expression.
It turned out that another film by the name Sandiyar was released later, and no one protested and no one even noticed there was this film, over whose title there was a huge row involving Kamal in the none-too-distant past.
Not only was Vishwaroopam released ultimately, there was also a sequel, Vishwaroopam II, later.
There was no government threat, nor was there any street-protest by Islamic organisations.
Only that this time, unlike on earlier occasions, Kamal himself mouthed the controversial line, that too off-screen, with Shivraj Kumar in attendance.
Early on, the Kannada superstar was seen nodding his head in approval and even later issued a statement in Kamal's favour -- but that was not to be so later on.
N Sathiya Moorthy, veteran journalist and author, is a Chennai-based policy analyst and political commentator.
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
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