He is considered among the finest actors in Indian cinema, an icon whose fame has spread far and wide.
Kamal Haasan’s versatility and will to experiment has seen him do justice to all kinds of roles. He could play a cold-hearted villain to a romantic lead with equal ease. He always tried to look different in his films and experiemented a lot with his appearance.
Haasan had a fetish for perfection and this led to many of his films overshooting its budget. His knowledge of cinema has also been appreciated by top global stars.
Here are some of his films which prove what a great actor Kamal Haasan is:
Ek Duuje Ke Liye (1981)
Cast: Kamal Haasan, Rati Agnihotri, Madhavi, Rakesh Bedi, Raza Murad
Director: K Balachander
Two families from different parts of the country wage a war after they learn that the son of one is in love with the daughter of the other. Tamil man Vasu (Haasan) is madly in love with North Indian Sapna (Rati) despite the former not knowing Hindi and the latter Tamil.
The warring families separate them for one year but their love remains intact despite misunderstandings. Vasu meets Sandhya, a widow, who helps him despite falling in love with him. But the path of true love is riddled with thorns and sometimes couples get trapped.
Zara Si Zindagi (1983)
Cast: Kamal Haasan, Anita Raj, Nilu Phule, Mazhar Khan, Shreeram Lagoo, Karan Razdan, Arjun Chakraborty
Director: K Balachander
The story revolves around three friends, a baby and an aspiring actress and her jealous boss. Rakesh (Haasan) boasts of a Master’s degree but cannot get a job anywhere. He is idealistic in nature and does not want to compromise.
He meets actress Kusum (Raj) who, after initial frostiness, becomes his friend. Then Kusum has to leave home and comes to stay with Rakesh and his friends. Kusum loses her job due to her closeness to Rakesh and lands another as a babysitter. Then the baby gets kidnapped and is later found in Rakesh’s house. There are more complications.
Pushpak (1987)
Cast: Kamal Haasan, Amala, Tinnu Anand, Faaida Jalal, P L Narayana
Director: Singeetam Srinivasa Rao
This silent film follows the life of a poor youth (Haasan) who has aspirations of becoming a very rich man. One day Lady Luck smiles on him and he kidnaps a millionaire and takes over his identity. He falls in love with a magician’s daughter (Amla).
However, he does not know that he is being followed by an unknown killer (Tinu Anand) who has been contracted by the millionaire’s wife’s lover. The youth has some narrow escapes. Eventually he realises that millionaire came up in life the hard way and sets him free. His whole outlook towards life changes after that.
Chachi 420 (1997)
Cast: Kamal Haasan, Tabu, Amrish Puri, Om Puri, Nassar, Ayesha Jhulka, Johnny Walker
Director: Kamal Haasan
Lifted from the Hollywood hit Mrs Doubtfire, the tale deals with a down and out actor trying to salvage his marriage by becoming a maid in his own house. Jai (Haasan) loses his visitation rights after he tries to kidnap his daughter after his divorce from Janaki (Tabu). But when an opportunity arises for a nanny placement for his daughter he disguises himself as an elderly woman Laxmi and makes an entry in the house.
Janki’s father Durgaprasad Bhardawaj (Amrish Puri) is a staunch Hindu businessman who was against the marriage. But somehow Jai tries his best to convince both his father and his ex-wife that he is repenting. There many stumbling blocks in the way, none more so than Bhardawaj’s secretary Banwarlal (Om Puri). Will the old man and daughter come around?
Abhay (2001)
Cast: Kamal Haasan, Raveena Tandon, Manisha Koirala, Milind Gunaji, Kitu Gidwani, Vikram Gokhale
Director: Suresh Krissna
An Army commando Vijay (Haasan) is set to marry his girlfriend Teju (Raveena Tandon) who works as a TV presenter. He has a mental patient brother Nandu (Haasan in double role) who is about to be released. When the couple go to see him, they find that he has become a dangerous psychopath. Nandu hallucinates that Teju is his hated stepmother and tries to kill her. Nandu then escapes prison after killing other inmates.
He meets a socialite Sharmilee (Koirala) and they like each other. But Nandu kills her and then burns her body as his stepmother again haunts him. He now goes after Teju and Vijay has a big job on his hands. Haasan has a image makeover as Nandu, looking muscular and menacing with use of makeup technique.
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