Kamal Haasan Recorded an Ode for The Odyssey's India Run

Kamal Haasan has seen The Odyssey and liked it enough to make something of his own about it.

He posted his reaction on Wednesday, which happens to be Christopher Nolan’s 56th birthday, and the note itself is short and built to be quoted. “Homer dreamt it. Nolan dared it. I applauded it. Children of cinema, this film belongs to the ages. Must watch!”

Then came the part that is actually news. “As #TheOdyssey continues its epic voyage across the world, my ode will greet audiences in theatres in India. I’ll share it here soon. P.S. The CBFC got the first preview! It approved.”

So Kamal has recorded something, presumably a spoken piece, that will play to Indian audiences alongside Nolan’s film, and it has already cleared the censor board. The card he posted it with reads “The Odyssey. An Experience of Kamal Haasan,” set in the film’s own typeface. That is a presenter credit in everything but name, and it is a canny thing to attach yourself to.

The two have met before. In 2018, at a dinner in Mumbai, Kamal talked to Nolan about Dunkirk and came away surprised to learn that Nolan had watched Paapanaasam. A photograph from that evening resurfaced online in the last few days, which is the kind of timing that rarely happens by accident.

The Odyssey opened worldwide on 17 July, shot on IMAX film, with Matt Damon as Odysseus alongside Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Zendaya and Charlize Theron. Nolan was in Mumbai in July for the film’s premiere with producer Emma Thomas, Damon and Holland.

Kamal, meanwhile, is coming off Thug Life and has a long-discussed reunion with Rajinikanth still ahead of him. His ode drops in Indian theatres with the film. He says he will put it online himself shortly after.