Karuna taught me Tamil, says Kamal Haasan

Chennai: As outspoken as ever, Tamil film icon Kamal Haasan was at his eloquent best on Sunday when he released a video on Twitter chronicling his experiences with DMK chief M Karunanidhi who turns 94 on Saturday. 

In his trademark Tamil, Kamal spoke deeply about his meetings and conversations with Karunanidhi for the past few decades and reminisced an incident when late M.G. Ramachandran was alive wherein he spoke about three teachers — Kalaignar (as Karunanidhi is known), Sivaji Ganesan and Kannadasan — who taught him Tamil.

“My relationship with Karunanidhi has always been beyond politics, and it is the same even today. While his record (60 years as a legislator) may not be related to my art world, it definitely relates to my world. To celebrate a diamond jubilee in politics, imagine how young he must have been when he entered politics, and how he has held onto it even in his old age,” Kamal said in the video. 

In the six-minute long video, the legendary filmmaker-actor spoke about his first close interaction with Karunanidhi when he had come for the 100th day victory celebrations of Sattam En Kaiyil a film that had him in the lead role. 

“Karunanidhi came for the 100th day celebration of the film, and I got to sit next to him,” Kamal said, adding that he would deliver the DMK chief’s film dialogues when he was three-and-a-half years old and had just entered the tinsel world.

Praising Karunanidhi for his habit of keeping in constant touch with ‘friends’, Kamal spoke of several incidents when he had got calls from the former chief minister praising his movies. “Even if I forget, he himself would call me and remind me to show him the film,” the actor said.