Even as parts of his body are discussed and public prayer meetings organised for his recovery, Rajnikanth now in the ICU of a Singapore hospital has to leave a voice message for his fans.
He is seen even now as someone who will scale walls and rescue others. Rumours about his health are part of this narrative and prompted his wife Latha to state, “…please do understand that he is a normal human being and like normal human beings he has a normal body that is prone to infection.”
I discovered the power of Rajnikanth when he was in another down phase. The superstar had a few flops, he was not yet into meditation and was attempting politics. While the rest of the film community got together to fight for the Cauvery water crisis, Rajnikanth decided to have a separate tryst with destiny. Offering one crore rupees with a flourish, he had said, “The people and I will take care of the money.”
Recognised for his philanthropy, it may have seemed like a hands-on approach but why did he choose the solitary star route and not join his colleagues on the same issue? It was the wrong question to ask.
Today, at 61, Rajnikanth is the biggest star in India. Unlike Amitabh Bachchan who began to play roles suited to his age, Rajnikanth refuses to be anything but a superhero. Curiously, unlike the Bollywood seniors who cultivate their personal appearance, the South star does not do so. He attends public functions as he is – balding, ageing, wearing clothes he is comfortable in.
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| At L.K.Advani's book release in 2008 |
No one parallels him in Indian cinema for while the Hindi film industry may have many rags-to-riches stories the stars ‘sanskritised’ themselves to become upwardly mobile. If like Govinda they wore gaudy clothes it was to register an identity of one merely mimicking stardom. Rajnikant’s films project him as being in charge even in situations where he is poor and homeless.
In reality, too, he is not an immigrant from Maharashtra anymore whose last job was of a bus conductor. There is not much to dissect in his story for many meet their windfall without dreaming about it.
However, there are two clear demarcations in his fan following. One has to do with his persona. Success happened to him suddenly. He was unable to fully handle it and was uncomfortable with the elite clique. He created specific mannerisms, the gunfire accent and speech, to get over the block of being different in certain areas and those appealed initially to the hick-town crowd.
Men like him have an earthiness that reaches out to the hordes. During the time he was striving for political space, there was a danger when it was assumed that nothing less than the chief ministership would do. Film stars in the South have indeed acquitted themselves well in politics, but the field requires team effort. Had Rajnikanth become Clark Kent the people would not accept it. He would go into oblivion for brief periods and get back on ‘public demand’. This may be a great strategy for the celluloid world, but would it have worked in dealing with the lives of real people? Demagoguery combined with special effects heroism seeks to legitimise make-believe.
It took years for him to be accepted on a national scale and by the swish set. Today no show goes without an imitation of his style. There is the consumerist aspect of being his sponsors by default. He will be invited at high table because he is the alien who commands money. His attraction lies in his brazen rejection of conventional attractiveness and making it into a lucrative USP.
Is it a matter of choice? Many talk about his simplicity, his sleeping on the floor instead of in an airconditioned make-up room, his accessibility. Could these not be part of the mannerisms he has acquired? Or could this be the only way he knows to live by standing out to get noticed?
His flamboyant manner of lighting a cigarette reveals that he has mastered a craft. He realised that no one looks at the ash on the carpet.
(c) Farzana Versey
Published in Khaleej Times, June 2, 2011)
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Some years ago I had written a slightly questioning piece on Rajnikanth. His is the last word and as one of his characters said, “If I say it once, it is equal to saying it a hundred times.” My inbox bore the brunt of the anger. There were no plausible arguments, merely a barrage about my ignorance. “Don’t you know this is Rajni Sir?”
The worst possible indictment was that my views revealed I had a problem with dark skin. It was disturbing yet it opened up a whole can of regionalism, the Indian colour rating system and what makes fan clubs so potent.
2 comments:
I think you are overestimating his reach. He is big in Tamil Nadu but not that huge in Andhra or Kerala or Karnataka. Each of these states have their own set of stars. In the other states every one knows about him and may watch his movies if they are entertaining.
As for his appeal its been changing over the years. He rose up along with Kamalhasan playing both character roles and action roles but became a superstar by acting in a certain type of movie that taps into the fantasies as well as anger and resentment felt by the working class.
Dark Skin may also a factor. For better or worse dark skin is looked down upon by most people I have met and I suspect it may be the case for most Indians. So most older actors in Andhra (NTR, ANR, Krishna, SobhanBabu) Tamil(MGR, Gemini Ganesan ...) were lighter than the average male of that particular state. So in a way Rajanikanth and to certain extent Vijaykanth (poor man's Rajanikanth), and Chiranjeevi in Telugu were very plain looking but made it big and made it possible for the average male to find some one to identify with.
Bombay industry is mostly about really light skinned actors and actresses having a good time and being the virtuous ones going through life and winning everything that matters.
Currently in south we have a strange situation, the actresses are lighter skinned even more so in the recent Telugu and Tamil movies where most of them are imported from North India. The actors are the sons of former actors and may be big shot producers or directors, very few who would be conventionally considered attractive. To put it bluntly a lot of them are dark skinned men busily romancing the light skinned beauties of North India. You are free to draw whatever conclusions you want from it but in brief that is the situation.
As for Rajanikanth phenomenon it is like a stock market bubble which may never burst since it is merely a bubble of the average plain looking dark skinned male fantasy. When it bursts it will happen at an individual level and he will finally have to face the reality of his own existence.
Rajnikanth is a phenomenon and it does not depend on whether people watch his movies nor his talent. Example being Justin Bieber.
What you are saying is pretty much what I have stated. Thank you, though, for mentioning the older actors. Is it not amazing then that the "plain-looking" guys have made it? (I do not think Chiranjeevi is plain at all, although he isn't what he once was.) The colour aspect is there in Indian society and that is the reason my critique at the time got the angry response even though his colour was not even mentioned AND he was out of sync with the rest. If this isn't the charismatic pull of a phenomenon, then what could it be?
Indeed, many fair-skinned actresses from the North move down South, but that is because they do not make it in Bollywood or some are given great scripts. Aishwariya Rai too did a film with Mani Ratnam and Rajnikanth (Robot). Now a girl much younger, Deepika, is cast opposite him in 'Rana'. Interestingly, some of these dusky women from the South made it big in Bollywood - Rekha to Deepika.
I doubt if Rajnikanth would do a film with Shaji or Ratnam...it would burst that bubble you talk about.
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