The cook, the klutz and the cupid called Kameswaran
- Veena Suryanarayan
- May 30, 2020
- 4 min read
Updated: Jun 8, 2020
If there is any period in time that I would like to go back to, it would be the 90s in India. My only references to the 90s are the movies that released back then. The times seemed simpler, people more in tune with what was happening around them and most importantly, the discovery of AR Rahman, whose music shaped my childhood.
Michael Madana Kama Rajan (MMKR) is what I would expect the 90s to be like (at least what I hoped the 90s were like). It is a movie that my family absolutely loves. My family quite shamelessly steal iconic dialogues from the movie and use them liberally in everyday conversation to gain extra laughs from people (I have started doing this too. I have officially become my uncle). Having felt entirely lost during these familial interactions, I decided to give this movie a watch. And I understand the hype around it.

Spearheaded by Kamal Haasan, the movie is about the quadruplets – Michael, Madanagopal, Kameswaran and Subramania Raju (hence the title of the movie), who get separated at the time of birth, their stories and how they finally get together. Haasan perhaps tired of playing double action roles, pushed himself to play double action square roles (four characters, for those who don’t want to do the math). This probably formed the training ground for him to play ten characters in Dasavatharam. Anyway, Kamal Haasan being the fine performer that he is nails each character to perfection. He is precise, yet spontaneous. And his comic timing is just perfect.

Released in 1991, this film completes 29 years in 2020. This is a favourite amongst most Tamilians, who continue to re-watch this multiple times. There are many people (including me) who watch this movie purely for one character, i.e. – Kameswaran.
At the time of his birth, Kameswaran is placed at a temple and is then adopted by Mani Iyer (a brilliant Delhi Ganesh). Kameswaran goes into a Palakkad Brahmin home, speaking the Tamil dialect, with a fair amount of Malayalam interlaced in it. Mani Iyer is a cook, making a living by cooking for weddings and other functions. As tradition has it, Kameswaran too joins his father in his cooking business and there are a series of (mis)adventures that follow.
It starts with the iconic scene, where Kameswaran drops a dried fish into the pot of boiling sambar and exclaims, “Enna idhu neenjardhu!” (It’s swimming there!). After which, he suggests bringing an actual fisherman to get the fish out of the boiling sambar. Anyway, the fish does get out, but it goes into someone’s banana leaf for lunch. As Kameswaran and his father hobble over to people’s leaves trying to figure out where the fish has swam over to, we meet two men who quite greedily feast over the sambar and rice in front of them. There comes another classic dialogue, which my grandfather says till today whenever anyone makes sambar at home, “Sambar na Sambar, Mani Iyer Sambar thaan” (Sambar should be just like Mani Iyer’s Sambar – forgive me for the poor translations. These jokes are funnier in Tamil, I promise). And then another iconic fish joke, which is “Chinna meen pottu thaan periya meen pidikkanum” (You need to use a small fish to catch a big fish. Tamil for fish is meen). Kameswaran looks completely rattled after this and is deftly taken away by his father.
However, the intention of this article is not to document all of Kameswaran's antics.. I would rather that you watch the movie on Amazon Prime Video. Or else, you could just watch the Kameswaran bits like me.
I have always found Kameswaran to be a very fascinating character. He is goofy yet charming. Well, he is not really charming in the conventional sense. He is quite the clumsy klutz. For someone like Kamal Hasan playing the character, he didn’t have the qualities of the quintessential Tamil hero.
The Tamil hero can beat ten people to pulp with ease and finesse without announcing that he is a rowdy. Whereas every once in a while Kamu very proudly (and loudly) announces that he is a rowdy, but well he is far from it. He neither possesses the skill set nor the courage to beat anybody up. If anything, he may be the one getting beat up. And he does by a group of angry women at the end of the film.
The Tamil hero doesn’t cry. There are only a handful of Tamil heroes who cry on screen. They are also not the most sensitive people. Our man, Kamu is fairly quick to cry. It needn’t be a serious issue to shed tears for but well, he may need a box of tissues by his side always. His potential wife, Thripura Sundari (a lovely and funny Urvashi) and he fall into love over a joint waterworks session. This eventually leads to marriage. Well, what can I say? Love birds of the same tears flock together.

Speaking of love, there is Kameswaran’s serial armpit scratching, vertically challenged and ultimately sweet sidekick Varada Kutty. Kamu and Varada Kutty share a really interesting chemistry, which involves plenty of bickering and some pieces of advice - enjoy, enjamaai! (You will get this if you have seen the movie). Varada Kutty’s constant plea for ‘pulippu mittai’ (candy) at the time of a provision scam faced by Kameswaran is so hysterical. Also, don’t miss Crazy Mohan’s (dialogue writer) wonderful cameo in this scene.
The credit for the comedic success of this film goes to Crazy Mohan and Kamal Hasan, who jointly translate the humour from paper to screen so seamlessly. There is just enough exaggeration, without it becoming offensive.
What ties together the Kameswaran bits is the delightful background music. It is sweet, charming and innocent, just like him. The tune always puts a smile to my face. ‘Sundari neeyum, sundara nyanum’ set in Kedaram ragam (just in case you were wondering) is a song I can listen to on repeat.
Kameswaran isn’t the bravest, strongest or smartest person to be around. Hypothetically, if I had a chance to spend time with any character from Tamil cinema, he would be one of the strong contenders. I would like to think that an extension of Kameswaran’s character was seen in Ramji’s character in Nala Damayanthi (2003). Just like Kameswaran in MMKR, Ramji is a cook, a Palakkad Brahmin and marries into a household with a Maamiyar Paati (Grandmother-in-law).
For those who haven’t watched Michael Madana Kama Rajan yet, do watch it and enjoy! For those who have, well enjamaai!

I had seen the movie on TV. Quite a comedy. You have brought enough interest for me to see again.