Does Rajini mean business?

Actor Rajinikanth’s debut Tamil movie was Apoorva Raagangal or Unique Tunes that hit the screens in 1975. Though the actor has come a long way since then, turning a swashbuckling action hero and earning a legion of fans, he has been periodically raising false alarms on his political entry in the past 24 years even as his screen popularity soared. That was after a political coalition that he campaigned for swept the state Assembly elections in 1996, putting him under an illusion that Tamil Nadu politics was beckoning him like crazy.

In a state where cinema and politics often present themselves as Siamese twins, it is common for politicians to seek help from film personalities in the hustings. But Rajinikanth’s fans and a slew of self-serving politicians believed that every voter in the state was waiting to hear from the actor to pick their candidate. So, they started egging on their icon to be the candidate himself. But the actor was playing to his own unique tune, which is typical of him, to keep himself away from real politics.

Only by late 2017, after J. Jayalalithaa had passed away and M. Karunanidhi had become ill and confined to his house, did Rajini gather the courage to declare that he would really take the plunge with a view to changing the present system. Since then, he had been giving the impression that he was building a robust party, silently and secretly, to field candidates in the 2021 Assembly elections. That was why his Press conference, called on March 12, evoked great expectations among his fans and many others, including those who have been crying from rooftops that the actor’s plunge would clear the murky waters.

But nobody, at the end of it, could make out what the actor is up to. He just played another unique tune and left without answering a single question.