Rajini Can!

Stars come in all shapes and sizes. Some are tall, some are short. Some have 6-pack abs and some have acting muscles even in their nostrils. But Rajinikanth can balance all of them on his left eyebrow even as he raises his right eyebrow so high that the sun calls it a day and hides behind the moon! There’s no better way to define a movie star whose films – which are in a language spoken only in one southern state of the subcontinent – inspire bizarre box-office predictions and collections.

I don’t smoke but there was a time when I’d tried to flick a cigarette into the air and catch it between my lips. It’s not that hard actually. For every 10 cigarettes that I’ve tossed into the air, I managed to catch at least 1 between my lips. But what I could never manage was the seeming effortlessness and style of Rajinikanth. Which explains why nobody else has been able to replicate his success. I mean, half of Chennai’s acting population has tried to ape him without the same results.

Many years ago, I had asked Kamal Haasan whether he ever found it frustrating that he had to work so hard, like changing his physical appearance, body language or dialogue delivery in each film, while here’s a guy who can flick a cigarette in the air and lure the audience into the theatres. I asked out of curiosity. Kamal Haasan answered it calmly, with absolute dignity, that he had no frustration because it was the path he chose – whether it’s being the dwarf in Appu Raja or the vigilante septuagenarian in Indian or the desi Mrs Doubtfire in Chachi 420.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed many of Rajinikanth’s movies – from Muthu and Padayappa to Sivaji and Enthiran. If you’ve ever watched a Rajinikanth movie in a cinema hall in Chennai, chances are that you will soon become part of the repeat audience – largely because the first time you could hardly hear any dialogues as every time Rajinikanth opened his mouth, the entire auditorium erupted into applause, whistles and screams. So you’ve absolutely no idea what the film was all about – unless you see it all over again a few weeks later maybe!

But what fascinates me about Rajinikanth is no longer his undiminishing and mesmerizing spell over his audience. We’ve to accept that he’s a force of nature that beats all conventional logic. But it’s the way he appears in real life that speaks volumes about him. Dressed in a simple kurta and devoid of any make-up, with no wig or hair-weaving to hide his balding pate or the white beard, Rajinikanth’s appearance in public is in sharp contrast to his screen image. No other movie star in India has displayed such courage – to be able to step out into the world without the trappings of stardom and public expectations. It’s almost as if telling his fans – “What you see on the big screen is make-believe and in reality I’m no different from anyone who’s aging”. Amazingly, his fans have not only understood the difference but embraced it wholeheartedly to make him an even bigger star whose box-office clout is growing each year.

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I’ve never met Rajinikanth. But I would love to meet him someday just to understand his philosophy of life. Here’s a star who has got a spiritual side to himself, unaffected by his own success and absolutely real off screen. A few years ago, an ambitious filmmaker from South asked me to consider writing a script for a Hindi film starring Rajinikanth and Amitabh Bachchan. How he would have managed that casting coup was beyond me but he seemed confident. However, I chickened out. I could probably write a fantastic role for Amitabh Bachchan that he will perform astoundingly – like he did in Te3n. But I was too scared that I’d fail to live up to the expectations of Rajinikanth’s fans. I’ve no idea what is it that drives them crazy when he appears on the screen. Is it his swagger, style or dialogue delivery? Or all of that and more?

The closest I came to writing something involving Rajinikanth was a scene in London Dreams, where Salman Khan comes to meet Asin’s parents dressed as a South Indian and spouting Rajinikanth’s famous one-liners in an effort to impress them with his Tamil. Vipul Shah, the director, was not too sure about how the scene will appear on screen though it sounded hilarious on paper. “I keep thinking of not shooting the scene,” he confessed. “But Asin bursts out laughing each time she reads it – so I guess there’s something in the scene.” Eventually, he shot the scene. But when we watched the first edit of the film, Vipul’s fears were justified as we realized that the scene just wasn’t working. So we wisely deleted it from the film. But, I must confess, just writing “njan oru dhadavai sonna, nooru dhadavai sonna mathiri” (If I say it once, it’s as good as having said 100 times) was such good fun!

Wonder what he thinks of some of the really funny Rajinikanth jokes. Whether it’s how Rajinikanth can kill a living room or Alexander Graham Bell inventing the telephone, only to find he’s already got two missed calls from Rajinikanth!

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of SpotboyE.com.

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