BackThe seven stages of Rajinikanth
From a cigarette-flipping degenerate to a green-screen ghost, he has donned many avatars
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Lounge Spotlight | Rajinikanth
In 1975, a man with silken hair and a square face with sharp features and burning-coal eyes first appeared on the screen in Apoorva Ragangal. Since then, Rajinikanth has gone through various stages of evolution—a flesh-and-blood actor, a cut-out, a supernova, a meta-star, museum artefact, and finally, a computer-generated animated object.
Degenerate
In the decade that Amitabh Bachchan made his own, Rajinikanth lurked on the fringes, terrorizing men and women alike. He raped, leched, murdered and harassed—as the long-lost husband who turns up just as his singer wife is all set to move on (his debut Apoorva Ragangal), a rapist (Katha Sangama), a degenerate (16 Vaidhnayile), a strutting killer with an unforgettable cigarette-flipping technique (Moondru Mudichu) and a pornographic film producer who films his wife (Gayathri).
Son of the soil
Alongside crooked so-and-sos, Rajinikanth expanded his repertoire in the late 1970s by playing working-class and rural characters with whom audiences could identify. This Rajinikanth was one of them on the screen—he looked ordinary but had special mannerisms, landed his lines perfectly, grappled with moral conflicts, and always behaved honourably. The rebel now had a cause, but he remained a complex creature, turning against the kind of men he had played only a few years ago, such as a lecherous benefactor (Bhairavi), but being protective of his sister to the point of opposing her wedding (Mullum Malarum).
Bollywood and back
In the mid-1980s, Rajinikanth starred in knock-offs of Bachchan starrers such as Billa, a remake of Don, and Thee, a copy of Deewar. Meanwhile, he also carved out a short but memorable career in Bollywood in movies like Andhaa Kaanoon and Geraftaar, in which he parodied himself, delivered punch dialogue in a Tamil accent, sailed through the air, taught the rest of India to smoke a cigarette (if you don’t have a lighter, a gun will do), and assured working-class audiences that they were being adequately represented on the screen.
The coolest one
1995’s Baasha is loosely inspired by the Bachchan film Hum, but it’s a bigger deal than the original. By now, Rajinikanth’s “superstar" status, usually announced one letter at a time in the opening credits, had moved to supernova levels, blinding audiences across the south and the diaspora. The other big hit, Muthu, even made it to Japan. Among those who were watching closely was one S. Shankar, who has deconstructed Rajinikanth’s image like nobody else. See below.
Meta-star
Shankar was already a few blockbusters old when he made Sivaji in 2007. The film-maker married his abiding interest in vigilante solutions to institutional corruption with a meta-tribute to the meta-star, which spares neither the hair on his head nor his dark complexion. Rajinikanth, original name Shivaji Rao Gaikwad, plays Sivaji, who tries to whiten his dark skin while wooing his love object, nearly dies while taking on a corrupt politician and is resurrected as a bald version of himself (the superstar refuses to wear a wig in public to hide his receding hairline). But Shankar wasn’t finished yet with Rajinikanth.
Museum artefact
In a movie studded with meta-references to the man who had, by now, transcended his flesh-and-blood status and entered the ether, Shankar saves the most startling image for the last. Endhiran’s robot, which is built in the likeness of his creator (played, of course, by Rajinikanth), goes rogue and clones himself. These clones then form various shapes, including a snake and a giant that looks like Rajinikanth. He is god and devil, no doubt, but also the goddess. When Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s medical student is pursued by knife-wielding rowdies, the robot’s magnetic field on his back sucks up all the weapons, which then arrange themselves to make him resemble a multi-armed goddess. It doesn’t end here. After the rogue robot is dismantled, he lives on as a museum exhibit inside a glass case, final proof that Rajinikanth is no mere actor but also an artefact.
Green-screen ghost
Rajinikanth’s health scare massively delayed the performance-captured animation fantasy animation Kochadaiiyaan. Is that the reason the animated figure on the screen is an emaciated version of our beloved superstar? The hairstyle looks similar, and the animators have attempted to capture his trademark cockiness, but everything else looks rather strange. It’s a relief that his next movie, the under-production Lingaa, is a normal live-action drama featuring two younger heroines (Anushka Shetty and Sonakshi Sinha).
Kochadaiiyaan releases in theatres on 23 May.
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