Singeetham had earlier directed Kamal's Rajapaarvai and Pesum Padam. He would go on to helm Kadhala Kadhala.
Released in 1990 on Deepavali, MMKR was a beacon of light in what was a forgettable, dry year for the Tamil film industry which included a lukewarm response to Mani Ratnam’s Anjali.According to Singeetham, Michael Madana Kamarajan is a 'modern version of the old folk tale of king, queen and their quadruplets who grow up in different households.'When Kamal pitched the idea to Singeetham, the filmmaker was instantly floored, but he had doubts about the technology available to shoot involving the quadraplets.When PC Sreeram couldn't take up the project because of date issues, Kamal immedialtely thought of cinematographer Gowri Shankar, who had worked with him in Pesum Padam.Kamal's only question to Gowri was, 'Can we show 2, 3 or all 4 characters in a single frame without any obvious glitches?' When Gowri said that it can be done without using patches, he was signed up.As Gowri Shankar had already committed to some Kannada films, Kamal modified the story so that the film starts in Bangalore with Madan, and made all the artists come to Bangalore for the shoot.All the scenes in the film were extensively story-boarded and discussed in pre-production.Gowri Shankar used mostly ingenious techniques to nail the scenes involving more than one Kamal character.Kamal Haasan designed all his four looks in the film all by himself.For portraying the criminal Michael, Kamal grew his hair long and sported an extended French beard. He also opted for a husky voice and an aggressive demeanorFor playing the character of the sophisticared and highly-educated businessman, Madhan, he wore thin-rimmed glasses and was clean shaven. He also used a British accent.For depicting the naive cook Kameshwaran (also clean shaven), Kamal brushed his hair back and went for a vibhuti tilak on his forehead. He also used a slower than usual dialogue delivery.For the character of the fire-fighter Raju, Kamal kept his moustache thick and sported a crew cut.Praveen Kumar Sobti, an athelete, who became famous for portraying 'Bheem' in BR Chopra's television series Mahabharat in the late 80s, was signed up for the role of Madan's security officer.Praveen Kumar was double Gold Medalist (Hammer Throw and Discus Throw) in 1966 and 1970 Asian Games. He represented India in 1968 and 1972 Olympics and an Arjuna Awardee.The title credits, where a bioscope-man gives a prologue about the movie in a song called 'Kathakelu Kathakelu', was performed by the Singeetham Srinivasa Rao himself.The idea was to show as if a story-teller was narrating a story. Kamal wanted a director and film setup, but Singeetham and Ilaiyaraaja insisted on a rustic look with a bioscope.Jayabharathi, who played the mother of the quadraplets, had earlier portrayed the lead in Kamal's Alavuddinum Arputha Vilakkum. She also played Sarath Babu's mom in Muthu.Oorvashi made a comeback to tamil cinema with Michael Madana Kamarajan after a long hiatus.Crazy Mohan’s first film as the sole dialogue writer was Aboorva Sagaotharargal, but he became popular after MMKR. Earlier he had collaborated with K Balachander for Poikkal Kuthirai.Delhi Ganesh revealed in an interview that he and Kamal had used proper Palakkad-Malayalam accent for the film. When while seeing the rushes, the team felt that many couldn't understand the dialogues.Crazy Mohan asked them to tone down the accent, and the scenes were reshot, but it was still not good enough. Finally, they came up with the current version - speaking Tamil with a mild Palakad accentMost of the indoor sequences, especially Madan’s house were shot at Windsor Manor (now ITC Windsor) in Bangalore. This building was also the Pushpak Hotel in Pesum Padam.Crazy Mohan was so fond of the kleptomaniac grandma character that he created a similar character for his play — Chocolate Krishna.SN Lakshmi, who played the grandma, started her career as a group dancer in Chandralekha. Her ability to do acrobatics & stunts served as the inspiration to write the scene where she does somersaults.The song 'Sundari Neeyum' was filmed entirely in slow-motion with 48 frames per second (instead of the usual 24 frames). The lines were also mouthed by Kamal and Oorvasi as in slow motion.Singeetham initially visualised the Sundari track as a slapstick song with 20 widows, led by SN Lakshmi, doing lalala lalala in the background. He, however, chucked the idea after hearing Raja's tune.The climax sequence, featuring a 'cliff-hanging-house', was inspired by a similar scene from the American film The Gold Rush (1925), starring Charlie Chaplin.The original had only a couple of actors in the sequence. But Kamal and Singeetham Sreenivasa Rao managed to make an organised ruckus with 20 actors.The exterior portions for the climax were shot in Coonoor, and the interior of the house was shot in studio, in a specially-designed hydraulic set.KJ Yesudas was supposed to sing Sundari Neeyum, but due to his busy schedule, Ilaiyaraaja insisted on Kamal Hassan singing the rough version. Raja was very impressed with Kamal's take and retained itThe film's soundtrack also had two songs 'Mathapoovu Oru Penna' and 'Aadi Pattam Thedi' which were not picturised at all.The film has some stunning attention to detail like the scene where Madan finds it hard to place the tea glass on the window rail without the spectacles on, and the comic fight in the public bathroom.Khusbu addresses Raju as Raju (although he has switched identity to Madan) during the car ride and conveniently switches to Madan after reaching Bangalore. This was a glitch in writing.Nagesh improvised on many of Avinashi's dialogues on the sets.Kamal took classes in Madras Tamizh for playing the character of Raju.MMKR runs for a total of 167 minutes, though the originally shot footage was for a little more than three and a half hours.The film was dubbed in Telugu and released as Michael Mathana Kama Raju, and was moderately successful.Unlike the Tamil version, SPB and Chitra sung all the songs in the Telugu version.An idea for a Hindi remake was suggested by Kamal after the release, but the project ultimately didn't materialize.The film completed 175-day run in a couple of theatres in Chennai.Here are some rare posters and newspaper ads of the film...