 Kamal to flag off Mumbai Express
 Buoyed by the success of the comedy film,
Vasool Raja MBBS, Kamal Hassan celebrated his birthday the other day in characteristic style -- he announced his next venture,
Mumbai Express, to be produced simultaneously in Tamil and Hindi.
The film will be directed by Singeetam Srinivasa Rao, who has teamed up with
Kamal to provide several comedies including Michael Madan Kamarajan, Iru Nilavugal and the rare gem,
'Pesum Padam'.
Shooting for the movie will commence in a few days and it is expected to be released in April, possibly
Tamil New Year Day.
Kamal described the film as a "hilarious adventure" -- "it will be an enjoyable film."
 Ilayaraja is back as his music director, while the film will have Nasser, Pasupathy and Vyapuri in the cast besides Kamal. The Hindi version will have Mahesh Manjrekar (a director), Om Puri, Sourab Shukla, who will also do the script, in the cast. No news yet about the heroines.
"It will be a happy and different film", was all Kamal would add about the movie for the present.
Kamal had no qualms in using English words for the title of his film. It suits this film, he said adding even otherwise he felt Tamil should take in more foreign words as in the case of English. That is the only way a language will grow, he stressed. At the same time, he said he had a lot of respect for people like Thirumavalavan (I've read his book), and "I think they appreciate my stand. I don't anticipate any problems. They are aware of my love for the Tamil language."
Kamal revealed that he would soon bring out his own book, a collection of his poems. "I don't know how good the poems are, but the book will be out soon."
He also disclosed that he would do a Telugu film too.
Marudanayagam? The plans are there, and it's not been dropped. "I'm waiting for someone to come in and fund it in a big way. It needs lots of dollars."
On whether he would act in Rajni's next film,
Chandramukhi', he said he could do a role if invited by
Sivaji Films (that's my father, read Sivaji Ganesan's unit). "However, the proposal that Rajni and I should do a film together is entirely different. That could come later."
Kamal handed over prizes and cash awards to the winners of various competitions organised by the Narpani Mandram in memory of his mother Rajalakshmi -- Mahesh of Trichy (Rs 5,000), Ramya of Chennai (Rs 2,500) and Ramanathan of
Madurai (Rs 1,000). Santhi and Rajasekhar of Chennai and Raja of Chidambaram received Rs 500 each as consolation prizes. He also made a donation to the Thaay Tamil Kalvipani of poetess Thamarai and her husband
Thyagu.
Among various recipients of financial aid from Kamal were an
AIDS victim, a child, Ganesan of Tirunelveli (to start an industry), medical relief for Selvam of South Chennai and Nithya, a girl from
Coimbatore, Subbiah from Pondicherry, and aid to the families of Pooppandi (Dindugul) and A Ramu, E Sasikumar, N Murugan, (Central Chennai), A D Pyas (Thoothukudi), Pakkirisami (Kurinjipadi), K Ravi and A Narayanan of Kumarapalayam, all of whom died recently. The arrangements for the function were made by Mandram organiser R
Gunaseelan.
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