National Award winning actor Kamal Hassan turns 56

Chennai: National Award winning actor and Tamil film icon Kamal Hassan, who celebrated his 50th year in cinema last year, turned 56 today. The actor, who secured his first National Film Award in 1982 for his role in `Moondram Pirai`, will spend big day doing his bit for charity. According to sources close to the actor`s family, as part of the birth day celebration the Padmashree awardee would present various articles to people, including a laptop to students, uniforms to autorickshaw drivers and tailoring machines to the poor. The actor will also give an award to the best district wing of his fan club on the occasion, they said. The four time National award winner, who has acted in about 150 films in various languages, including Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi has played a myriad of roles in his five decade long career, including `Dasavataram`, in which he played 10 characters. Whether it be the role of Palakkad-based Brahmin in ‘Michael Madana Kamarajan’ or the sickle-wielding `Virumaandi`, the rustic villager, he is known to give life to the character right from body language to pronunciation. Kamal and controversies, more often than not, go together. Kamal`s `Dasavatharam` also had to pass legal tangle before hitting the screen as some religious groups raised objections against the title as well as some scenes. In addition to acting and directing, Kamal is also a screenwriter, songwriter, playback singer, and choreographer. His film production company, Rajkamal International, has produced several of his films. According to reports, Kamal is currently engaged in a film titled ‘Manmadhan Ambu’, which was directed by K S Ravikumar. He is turning a lyricist and singer in this film, which also features Trisha, Madhavan, Ramesh Arvind in the key roles. PTI