Michael Madana Kama Rajan is a 1990 Indian Tamil-language comedy film directed by Singeetam Srinivasa Rao and written by Kamal Haasan, with Crazy Mohan penning the dialogues.
The film stars Haasan in four roles alongside Khushbu, Urvasi and Rupini while Manorama, Delhi Ganesh, Nassar, Vennira Aadai Moorthy, S. N. Lakshmi, Jayabharathi, R. N. Jayagopal, Nagesh, Praveen Kumar, Santhana Bharathi and R. S. Shivaji play supporting roles.
Panchu Arunachalam obtained the rights to adapt a Pakistani film written by Kader Kashmiri.
[2] The film was produced by Arunachalam's wife Meena, photographed primarily by B. C. Gowrishankar and edited by D. Vasu.
Venugopal is seemingly killed by Nandagopal and his nephew, Ramu for his inheritance; unknown to them, the will has already named Madan as the beneficiary.
An anonymous caller tells Madan that his father's death was no accident, but planned, and asks him to meet her in Madras.
Avinashi chances upon Kameshwaran on his wedding day, and hires him to impersonate Madan to retrieve the confiscated money.
Avinashi sees the unconscious Raju, assumes it was the effect of his drugged soup, and brings Kameshwaran in.
The producer/writer Panchu Arunachalam saw a Pakistani film written by Kader Kashmiri featuring quadruplets being separated at birth and reuniting in the climax.
He obtained the rights to adapt that film in Tamil, with Singeetam Srinivasa Rao hired to direct, the screenplay written by Kamal Haasan and the dialogues by Crazy Mohan.
[12][13] Haasan said he wrote the script of Michael Madana Kama Rajan "like a kolam that you teach a child.
[1] Haasan played four distinct characters who are quadruplets: the criminal Michael, the businessman Madanagopal, the cook Kameshwaran and the firefighter Subramaniam Raju.
[22] According to Haasan, all three actresses would be "squeamish about what would be their part and we couldn't take any more of it", hence a love interest for Michael was not created.
[2] Delhi Ganesh, who played Kameshwaran's foster father Mani Iyer, also used a Palakkad accent for his character.
[27][28] Rao initially wanted the picturisation with 20 widows in background, but changed the idea after hearing the tune of the song.
[2][29] In a scene set in Madan's house where many characters confront each other, they cunningly try to evade Michael when held by him at gunpoint; it was not written in the script that they should do so, but improvised during filming at Haasan's suggestion.
[14] The climax sequence, featuring a "cliff-hanging-house", was based on a similar scene from the American film The Gold Rush (1925).
[2][27] Kabir Lal was selected as cinematographer for the climax sequence due to the complexities involved with shooting multiple lookalikes.
[9] Due to his rapport with Panchu Arunachalam, Santhana Bharathi was allowed to aid post-production works such as dubbing and re-recording.
[25] Haasan has acknowledged various films as influences on Michael Madana Kama Rajan, namely Nadodi Mannan, Deiva Magan and Yaadon Ki Baaraat.
[12] Rao described it as a "modern version of the old folk tale of a king, queen and their quadruplets who grow up in different households".
[31][32] "Sundhari Neeyum Sundharan Njanum" was conceived out of Haasan's desire for a song like "Margazhi Thingal" (a verse from the devotional poem Tiruppavai) to feature in the film.
[1] Julie of Kalki lauded the comedy dialogues, felt Urvashi surpassed Khushbu and Rupini in terms of acting and liked Haasan's performance as Kameshwaran the most among the quadruplets, but criticised the climax for being unnecessarily prolonged.