Biography of K Hariharans Kamal Haasan A Cinematic Journey (HarperCollins India) includes essays on key films by famous actors. This excerpt is from the chapter on For a couple (1981)K Balachanders Hindi remake of its Telugu language Many Charitas (1978). For a starry couple Haasan (who had played the same role in Lots of Charitra) and Rati Agnihotri. The film is a tragedy about lovers who pay with their lives for the linguistic divide between Tamil and Hindi. In this excerpt, Hariharan writes about how For a couple was initially seen by Hindi film distributors before becoming a blockbuster.
A collapse
While Balachander completed the highly tense melodrama in four weeks, Kamal was also in tatters. He had exhausted himself doing everything to make the film worth watching. From pushing trolleys to setting up lights to make the film look like a high-value Hindi film, he had exhausted himself to please both his mentor and the big movie mogul at Prasad Productions who had placed his faith in his abilities.
All the post-production work was done in Madras, but when LV Prasad screened the first copy for some of his distribution friends in Bombay, it was a disaster. They said the movie was a disaster. There was no way for them to publish it or even promote it. The octogenarian Prasad, with his many years of experience, was not going to give up. He called Kamal to Bombay so that he could familiarize himself with Hindi cinema.
In Bombay, Kamal was put up in a small hotel. Later in the evening, he donned a smart blazer and headed to Prasad's office, expecting it to look grand. In fact, it turned out to be a modest apartment on the third floor of a building. It was decorated with the most Spartan furniture: a few chairs and a steel table with a black telephone.
After a cup of tea, Prasad stood up and said: I need your help now!
Kamal wondered what he needed until Prasad showed him a big, ugly, metal-rimmed film box containing the fourteen reels of his magnum opus. He said, Can you help me carry this box into the elevator?
Strangely, this great movie mogul had no employees or servants that day. Kamal immediately said: Of course, sir, I will carry it for you. You're not going to lug around this heavy, slightly rusty box. It could hurt you! Kamal carried the 30 kg box into the elevator and again from the elevator into the trunk of the regular Ambassador car waiting below.
The car took them to a special screening at a preview room for a distributor in Delhi. Prasad introduced Kamal to the gentleman. After the first reel began, Prasad excused himself and left, telling Kamal to bring his guest sandwiches and coffee during the intermission. Kamal sat awkwardly next to this pot-bellied ATM, trying to make small talk. But by the fifth reel even that was no longer necessary, because the distributor had fallen asleep.
After a few more screenings, a disheartened Kamal flew to Madras. How could Romeo and Juliet, the most famous tragedy ever written, fail to attract attention in the cursed city of Bombay? Nevertheless, putting on a brave face, Prasad met his dear friend Gulshan Rai, a leading distributor of Hindi films, and asked him to lend his banner for the first release. The North-South divide would not allow a risky film to be released on a South Indian banner. Gulshan Rai agreed and the film was released in a single theatre, the Roxy, with minimal advertising.
Prasad attended every screening this weekend to study the reactions. He saw the audience leaving with tears in their eyes. Some people would say to him: How can the world be so cruel to such a beautiful couple? It's so unfair!
Prasad realized that everyone had seen a wholesome tragedy after a long time on the Hindi screen and that there was no difference in sentiments between the Tamil audiences he had been close to and their Hindi counterparts. Now confident that he was on the right track, he immediately called his son Ramesh Prasad in Madras to order forty more prints to be published throughout India the following Friday.
The film then celebrated fifty weeks. Kamal once again visited Mumbai for a special reception to celebrate the success of the film at the Novelty Theatre. This time he was a superstar, while his mentors Prasad and K. Balachander were still the same down-to-earth cinema veterans. They arrived early at the theater and, while inspecting the hall, Prasad remarked: The floor is really clean and shiny, isn't it?
Intrigued by this remark, Kamal replied: “Yes, it is clean but what is so special about it?
Prasad replied with a smile: Do you know that when I was twenty-six years old, as old as you are now, I was an usher here and between showings I had to clean this floor every day? I am glad that such traditions are still followed by the workers here.
Kamal was deeply honored, not only by knowing this fact, but even more so by the casual manner in which this great man had mentioned it to him.
The film also won SP Balasubrahmanyam the National Award for Best Playback Singer. This foray of a Southern artist into the heart of Hindi country was very significant, as it soon opened the doors for Yesudas, Chitra and others.
The Hindi region found the southern accent pleasing to their ears. This cross-cultural influx would continue, and youngsters like Chennai-born AR Rahman made huge inroads into Bollywood, while Hindi playback singers like Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle and Udit Narayan entered the recording studios of Chennai and Hyderabad to record Tamil and Telugu songs.
A few years and many films later, Kamal met the legendary LV Prasad at Prasad Studios in Chennai, which now had a brand new massive 70mm recording and mixing studio within its premises, the first of its kind in Asia. Prasad stroked the side of the large building and told Kamal, “This big baby you see is thanks to you and everyone who worked on it.” For a couple. I reinvested all the profits I made to serve the same film industry that had briefly lost confidence in my abilities to make a successful film!
Excerpted with permission from Kamal Haasan A Cinematic JourneyK Hariharan, HarperCollins India.
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