Rajinikanth is truly a phenomenon in Tamilnadu. His journey
from humble beginnings to be the superstar in the mind of
the audience is not a mere rags to riches story. This journey
has been a steady rise in which at every stage he has moulded
himself to suit the audience preferences. Today every word
he utters is mantra to his fans. Without doubt, Tamil film
history would be incomplete without a chronicle of the influence
of thalaivar. He came in when the industry was in a state
of churning. MGR was veering towards politics and there
was a slow rise of directors who wanted a contemporary flavor
to storytelling.
Shivaji
Rao was disillusioned with life and came to Chennai with
hopes of entering films. He enrolled for an acting course
and completed it well. Just when it seemed that he was stuck
again, he received a call from a mercurial director, KB,
to play the role of a man repentant of his past misdeeds.
KB had a reputation of handling hard-hitting issues. In
Apoorva ragangal, he questioned the Victorian notions of
love but brought in Rajini’s character to provide the reality
check. Rajini’s negative character gave that touch of irony.
This trend continued in Avargal and Moonru mudichu. In Avargal,
it was a similar role while in Moonru mudichu it was an
intensely lustful character. MM is considered one of the
best performances by Rajini. Much of his early films were
under KB’s baton. His fantastic performance as parattai
in Bharathiraja’s 16 vayadhinile is memorable. In his next
phase, Rajini portrayed the strong, silent and intense hero
as in Dharma yuddham, Ilamai oonjaludugirathu, Pudhukkavidhai
and Naan adimai illai. The last film was a remake of the
Hindi classic, Kora kagaz. In all these films, he showed
the undercurrent of simmering emotions without overacting
or gesticulations.Then
came a phase of delightful films like Nettrikkann, Bhuvana
oru kelvikkuri, Sadurangam, Mullum malarum, Engeyo ketta
kural, Aarilirundhu aruvadhu varai and so on. His role of
the affectionate brother unable to come to terms with his
sister’s(Pasi Shoba) romance brought in a new delineation
for brother characters in films. The scene where he agrees
to his sister’s marriage and gives her hand to Sarathbabu
welled tears in our eyes. In Aarilirundhu and Engeyo ketta
also, his roles were quite wrenching and he virtually made
the audience identify themselves fully with the character.
Until
now Rajini had earned the reputation of being a good actor
and his films had a good run at the box office. It was however,
director SP Muthuraman who gave him a new screen persona
with Murattukkaalai. His penchant for action was nurtured
further in films like Billa, Jallikkattu, Thanikkattu raja,
Nallavanukku nallavan, Thee and Paayum puli. Bashing up
villains and helping good prevail over evil came easily
to him. His films also began to have the standard punch
dialogues and messages. These took his popularity to the
summit.
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