As a South Indian living in North India, I have faced numerous queries on what explains the adulation that Rajnikant has. Most of them would blame it on some Madrasi madness or craze. Sadly that answer is too simplistic and requires further analysis.
Some of it can be explained by how Rajni started out as an actor doing anti-hero roles. Being the anti-hero gave him ample scope for him to perform his histrionics and inimitable style. In his first movie Apoorva Ragangal itself, his screen presence and style was palpable in the way he opened the gates of a bungalow in his first scene. In 16 Vayinithile, he played a good for nothing villager who passed comments on everything in characteristic style and stole the thunder of a riveting performance by Kamal Haasan as a dumb vagabond. In a way the success of Rajni as an anti-hero also explains the class struggle in Tamil Nadu. The reigning star Kamal Hasan had an upper class image in his acting and persona and also the way he used English with abandon in his dialogues. Hence the lower classes gravitated to this man who seemed more like them.
Then came his movies as a hero. Starting with movies that were carbon copies of Amitabh's hits like Don, Namak Halal and other comedies , it was a classic way of scaling up. The scripts were sure fire winners , and Rajni added his trademark style to it to make them runaway successes. Of course when Mani Ratnam cast him in Dalapathi, and Rajni gave probably a career best performance as Surya a modern day version of Karna, the anointment was complete.
Then came the biggest hit of them all Baasha. This was the movie that signalled that Rajni had reached the heights of popularity that are beyond any hero ever on the Indian screens. In a movie that rehashed the Amitabh starrer Hum imaginatively, Rajni attained demi god status. When he decided to celebrate the 100th day of the movie by taking out an auto rickshaw procession, political parties shuddered at his audacity. As masses clamoured for his entry into politics and started to read between the lines in his movies for messages, there was no looking back for the man. Thereon, he started taking additional interest in the scripts of the movies which followed the patented formula of a dashing entry, comic romance, some villainy that leaves him poor and how he gains everything back in the second half. This patented formula was changed once in Baba to disastrous results. Then in
In some way , Rajnikant has managed to keep an aura of exclusivity around him. Amitabh sometimes is over exposed. And Amitabh lacked directors in crucial years which could have delivered probably the same results. There are only few movies made with Amitabh as a 'superstar'. The first was probably Coolie. The entry scene of that movie where Amitabh stylishly puffs out a bidi and runs to receive the incoming train (made memorable by Mallika Sherawat in an interview) is comparable. It is sad that Manmohan Desai could not sustain it. Mukul Anand reinvented that to some extent in the 90s with Agneepath, Hum and Khuda Gawah. But Amitabh needs to take some blame for messing his superstar status with bad choices like Ajooba, Akayla, Mrityudata, Lal Badshah. Well after that none of the Bollywood stars had such pan Indian appeal as Big B. And all the directors by shooting in London and making NRI centric movies, alienated the mass base to a large extent.
But Rajnikant has sustained his image through a clever choice of movies, exclusivity and social panache. Of course he has great style, screen presence and chutzpah. He chooses movies and scripts with care. I dont think I have still analysed the phenomenon as well as I should. But like home food, such things should appeal to the heart and not the mind.
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