Guest Article :
It was 1.30 pm. I kept starring at this thin guy as i walked into the lecture hall..
I have seen him on numerous occasions, never have i initiated a conversation despite my inner desire to talk to him. This time i sat next to him and i was waiting before i could actually start off a conversation.
Suddenly out of the blue his phone rang " Oruvan Oruvan Mudhalali.." and he started talking in Japanese!
I was just stunned for a moment but to my disbelief this paved the way for a wonderful friendship. Its been almost a year since that day and we are still good friends. The one thing common between the Japanese guy and this Indian beyond wildest dreams is "Rajinism".
Superstar Rajinikanth. The name resonates a sense of style, a sense of awe-inspiring persona & a sense of hope. Style is often something that always fascinates me as it is not something that you can attribute to anyone and everyone. It has to be intrinsic as well as extrinsic. It has to come within yet reflect a sense of grandeur and class on the outside.
Style is not just mannerism, Style is not just rambling about some useless dialogue. Style is about evoking a sense of aura around one self, Style is about exhibiting class around; Style is about evoking a sense of adrenaline pumping through you so much so that you see yourself doing exactly what the actor does.
When he pulls the oonjal down using his cloth with such dashing power in Padayappa, the adrenaline pumps! When he says in Baasha that "Nallavangala aandavan sodippa, kaivida mattan..", class is exhibited! When the mottai boss comes out in Shivaji as MGR, the word presence & aura are redefined! The cumulative effect of all these qualities makes Rajni the style icon that he is today.
To me, Rajini the persona in real life is as appealing, if not more, than reel life. If such style can be exhibited & mass appeal earned on the outside, intrinsically one has to be pure. To be intrinsically pure, one has to be simple, innately harmless & humble and to achieve this he has to surrender to the almighty; that is the bedrock of Rajini's super stardom.
The irony is that Rajini's mass image skyrocketed to its peak in the 1990's but thats when he started becoming bald, thats when he left the inhibitions of a star, thats when he lost the looks that so called "defines" stars. One thing that propelled during that time is his spiritual growth, his intrinsic purity got more enhanced, his extrinsic stardom propelled like a rocket.
Tell me one actor in World Cinema, leave Indian Cinema, who has the balls to come outside with a bald head, grey beard in every single public outing? And yet demand such popularity? Never ever do you see such humility in any actor or any other public figure in modern India. His ability to be humble ensures that he is always not making castles in stratosphere but is firmly rooted to earth.
Critics might argue that he had a nervous breakdown during the beginning of his career but who doesnt fall in life? He is no saint is he? Failing is not a big deal but rising like a horse to superstardom despite the fall defines the greatness of thalaivar. The ability to shut the rut out and come back pure and pristine is great; to sustain it is legendary.
Complete surrender to the almighty in all aspects of his life make's him immune to the artificiality that cinema industry offers, it makes him pure, humble & simple; it makes his persona a bigger blockbuster hit than a Padayappa or a Baasha! Rajini is not a cinematic genius like Kamal; he has the guts to tell the world he is not.
Rajini is not from a big family like Amitabh Bachchan; yet he has risen to be the highest paid actor in Indian cinema. Rajini does not have the marketing acumen of an Aamir Khan yet his movies are blockbusters that the Khans envy of. Rajini does not have a pan Indian appeal; he has a global appeal that transcends language barriers in countries like Japan, Korea & France. All his contempories above are in awe of Rajini, yet Thalaivar would be in awe of all of them not himself.
Rajini has the ability to create a sense of hope within the common man that one can reach the pinnacle of stardom with his hardwork & values irrespective of their background; that is the epitome of greatness. Rajinikanth's superstardom on the extrinsic level is derived from the intrinsic qualities within; thats what makes him a legend!
My Japanese friend called me up yesterday and said " Dude, Thalaivar's movie first day first show in LA?". I said "Hell yeah". And he says "Not in Tamil but the Japanese version in a Japanese theatre in LA!!".
So essentially I am going to watch Robot in Japanese & Tamil in a foreign land called America. Now thats what you call a global phenomenon..
Pera Kettonae Chumma Adhurudulla! Thalaiva nee vazhga!!
-Sriram Balasubramanian, Los Angeles, USA.
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