Outlook English - Print Subscribers Copy Outlook English, 18 June 2018 | Page 16
STAR’S DEBUT
“Our bodies are our only weapons. Gather
everyone, we will agitate.”
—Rajnikanth as Kaala in the movie’s
trailer
“Protests after protests will only reduce
Tamil Nadu to a graveyard. Industries
and trade will hesitate to invest here. Our
youth will not have any jobs.”
—Rajnikanth after visiting those injured
in the Thoothukudi police firing.
by G.C. Shekhar in Chennai
A
state awaits its hero’s utteran
ces with bated breath—and rec
eives only conflicting signals.
Rajnikanth the film hero wants
his people to agitate, but his pol
itical avatar warns them not to
protest too much. “Which Rajni do I
follow?” is a real doubt that has racked
the minds of his millions of fans.
Though his larger-than-life personality
and heroism on screen have been shaped
by the ‘punch’ lines he delivers in his films,
Rajnikanth had always advised his fans to
stay grounded. “What I do in movies is all
make-believe. I only follow what the dir
ector tells me. I speak his lines. But real
life is different—do not confuse it with
cinema. Your family comes first, being a
fan or public activist comes next,” he
would frequently counsel.
So Kaala, the first film to release (June 7)
after Rajnikanth announced his political
ambitions, will be a test for his fans, a test
to separate the star from the politician.
Inside the theatre, they can celebrate their
‘thalaivar’ with lit camphor and flowers
thrown at the screen. But outside, they
will have to accept a leader shaped by the
events of the day, surviving political pulls
and the pressures of the public gaze—as
when Santoshraj, an injured victim of the
Thoothukudi police firing, nonchalantly
asked Rajnikanth at the hospital, “So who
are you,” and went on to query why the
star had taken so long to visit them.
Here was the superstar, shorn of his
heroism, confronted by a commoner and
later questioned incessantly by an uns
paring media. Accustomed until now to
convenient questions, Rajnikanth, the
political leader, will be subjected to
greater and more intense scrutiny, espe-
cially by an unfriendly Tamil press that
views him as the BJP’s proxy. “Rajni
would not mind the grilling as he prefers
to speak his mind openly. He only needs
16 OUTLOOK 18 June 2018
A Secret Ballot at the
The success of Rajnikanth’s latest film, Kaala, will be vital
to become adjusted to the media giving its
own twist to what he says. He will learn as
he goes,” says senior Dalit leader S.K.
Thamilarasan, who Rajnikanth consults.
But Rajnikanth has more riding on
Kaala than as a film that dovetails with his
politics. “It would be more apt to state that
Kaala coincided with his political entry.
Not only does it need a strong opening, it
must also sustain itself at the box office for
at least two months. His Kabali (2016)
One Kollywood producer
expects political parties to
work overtime to ensure
that Kaala bombs—this
“would be a serious
reality check for Rajni.”
grabbed attention but was not a huge
commercial success. Kaala needs to
achieve both for Rajnikanth—for he can-
not bid goodbye to cinema as a failed star,”
says industry analyst Sreedhar Pillai.
Pa. Ranjith, the director of Kaala, admits
that although the film is focused on the
travails of the slum dwellers of Dharavi in
Mumbai and their fight to defend their
land, it is also a political film. “It is not
about electoral politics but about a leader
who fights for the right of a people to own
a piece of land. Yes, there are some politi-
cally loaded d
ialogues, but they have
nothing to do with Rajni’s latest role as a
political leader,” he tells Outlook.
Ranjith also emphasises that Kaala was
not made as a vehicle to launch Rajni into
politics. “More than 80 per cent of the film
was complete when Rajnikanth ann
ounced his decision to enter politics in
December 2017. Even then, not once did
he ask for any line to be included as dia-