What Makes Kamal Haasan’s 'Anbe Sivam' A Movie Of All Time

When asked about the movie, director Sundar C expressed that he “could not believe it has been sixteen years since the movie was released”. The veteran director politely refused to answer more questions about Anbe Sivam. He said that he sometimes felt embarrassed to speak about his own movies such as Arunachalam, Rajinikanth or Anbe Sivam.

However, he insisted that it would be better to talk to other people who worked with him in the movie.

So, here goes.

Actress Uma Riyaz Khan

According to Bollywood actress Uma Riyaz Khan, Anbe Sivam was an experience that she would never forget. The actress told that she had been pregnant with her second child so everyone had treated her so well during the film making. Talking about collaborating with Kamal Haasan, the actress stated that it “was the best thing ever” and she had never thought that she would have an opportunity to act with him.

Actor Kiran Rathod

The actor continued that the film was the only one that he was really proud of, and director Sundar C was like his family whom he was thankful for giving him this opportunity.

Talking about Kamal Haasan, Kiran called him a thorough genius and said,

Yugi Sethu

, said by Yugi Sethu, who starred as a conman in the movie.  According to him, Kamal Haasan said that his role should be similar to a character done by Nagesh in Thillana Mohanambal and Kamal sir called him “his alter-ego” in this movie.

Singer Sriram Parthasarathy

According to her, it was rare to get one raga-based song in one mainstream movie; however, Anbe Sivam had provided this platform. She said that apart from an excellent performance, Kamal Haasan had considerably contributed to the music and he had sung 3 songs and all of them were incredible.

Lyricist Pa Vijay

Although his song Mouname Paarvayai was not included in this movie, Pa Vijay really enjoyed the process of writing it. The lyricist said that even today the song was still played in the FM stations and we didn’t know the reason for a failure movie or a successful one. He said,

Art designer Prabhakar

According to Prabhakar, Kamal Haasan was like one scientist who was able to predict things.

The designer said that Kamal had given him absolute freedom to design the set.

Costume designer/ Script assistant Sujatha Narayanan

Sujatha Narayanan said that Anbe Sivam was a milestone movie for all of them, in spite of lacking promotional support or publicity material.

According to Sujatha, this was the first movie in Tamil cinemas to show one beautiful friendship between two males who came from extreme backgrounds and had contrasting personalities.

She also praised Kamal for extraordinary screenwriting since “you have to take a stand while narrating a story at the same time have a balanced approach to achieve it.”

Speaking about Kamal sir's role which was one character with facial scars, thick glasses, and one dislocated jaw, the script assistant said it was one demanding role, but Kamal had played it easily.

She believed that Kamal Haasan should have received a National Award for the movie.