Kamal Haasan reveals how Balu Mahendra mounted his character for gut-wrenching climax of Sadma

Veteran actor Kamal Haasan’s performance in the cult-classic Sadma is for the ages. Who could forget the climax when his character is abandoned by Sridevi’s character once she regains her memory?

Sridevi dominated the film for the majority of its length. However, Kamal Haasan comes in with his fully loaded armada of a stellar performance, and leaves a deep impact. While Kamal is often lauded for his performance towards the end of the film, he refuses to claim sole credit for the film.

The actor spoke with IANS, and said that he equally shares the credit with Sridevi and the director of the film, Balu Mahendra.

Kamal told IANS, “You can’t take away a film from a filmmaker like Mani Ratnam or Balu Mahendra. So what he was trying to do is give me a formidable character, and was actually elevating the protagonist. The audience experiences the angst, pain and love of the protagonist. For which you'll have to build throughout. I think all three of us performed in that film. It's a compact thing. And Mr. Balu Mahendra did editing, cinematography, writing, all of it. So the crew was very small”.

He further mentioned, “Balu was one of the earliest guys from FTII, Pune who came to Chennai, and made cinema simple. What you learn from a fellow student is much more than what you can perceive from a great master teacher. Because we were both struggling for what. He was a little older. So it was like walking with an elder brother”.

Earlier, Kamal had said that despite such a monumental body of work, he still likes to be a student of cinema. He belongs to a rare breed of actors, who have the privilege of growing up on celluloid. He made his debut at the age of 6 as a child artist, and has grown up in front of the audience.

He shared that given the rapid growth and expansion of cinema, the safest place is to be a student.

He told IANS, “Cinema is improving so fast and so many tools are coming in, the only safest place is to be a student and not start teaching. What we believe, our ideas might be trampled upon but still we have to believe in those ideas because we are keepers of this time and these ideas. We reflect it”.

Produced by Kamal Haasan’s Raaj Kamal Films International, Mani Ratnam’s Madras Talkies, R Mahendran, and Siva Ananth, Thug Life is all set for a worldwide theatrical release on June 5, 2025.