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Actor Vijay’s Master fame director Lokesh Kanagaraj is geared up for the release of his next directorial Vikram starring Kamal Haasan. The makers shared a new poster with the actor’s intense look giving away just a glimpse of his grave half-face. The film is expected to be a power packed action drama with Vijay Sethupathi and Fahadh Faasil playing crucial roles alongside Kamal who features as a retired cop. Kalidas Jayaram, Narain, Antony Varghese, and Arjun Das play supporting roles with the soundtrack and background score for the film composed by Anirudh Ravichander.
Red Giant Movies has bagged the Tamil Nadu theatrical distribution rights of the Kamal-starrer. A recent poster that reveals the Vikram's release date as 3 June, also confirms the details that politician and actor Udhainidhi Stalin's Red Giant Movies along with Haasan’s Raaj Kamal Films International will present Vikram in the state.
However, what looks more exciting than the release date of Vikram is that Udhainidhi Stalin, who is the son of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K.Stalin from Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam ( DMK) is distributing a film featuring Kamal Haasan, who also leads the political party Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) in Tamil Nadu. Interestingly, on the political ground the two parties never miss a chance to take jibes against each other.
Earlier, during the TN state assembly elections, DMK even alleged that MNM is the 'B Team of BJP'. Kamal Haasan too has strongly voiced out that both DMK and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) are evil for Tamil Nadu and that his political party MNM is aimed to be the third alternative for the state. Udhayanidhi Stalin had dismissed actor-turned-politician Kamal’s comments that both the parties DMK and AIADMK in Tamil Nadu are not worthy of his support and further said, “I don't want to comment on Kamal Haasan. We don't take him seriously”, according to news agencies. Post the elections last year, one of his closest aides, former MNM Vice-President, R Mahendran, quit the Kamal Haasan-led party blaming lack of internal democracy and joined DMK.
However, when it comes to films, the leaders of their respective parties are collaborating without letting their political differences interrupt their careers in cinema. Does that make them opportunists who make money despite their fights or does that mean they are simply being professionals who are willing to work together to create art, setting aside their difference of opinions?
Before we arrive at a conclusion, here are a few questions that we need to ask. Do we always agree about everything with everyone we work with or in fact live with? Don’t we have our ideological and political differences with our family, friends and colleagues, and yet choose to engage with them respectfully with love and confront them or disengage with them when we do not align with their point of views? Don't we agree to disagree, coexist and collaborate with people in our own lives?
We may not know if Kamal Haasan and Udhainidhi Stalin will find their common ground in politics in future, but we are sure they have found one in cinema. And for now, that's more than enough to keep the Kollywood cinema lovers happy.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)