RAJINI RETURNS, MIND IT!
Director Pa. Ranjith has audiences swooning over Rajinikanth all over again. This time, the superstar returns as an older, wiser and more politically-conscious hero
Director Pa. Ranjith has audiences swooning over Rajinikanth once again in his film Kaala
“Na Vandhutten sollu, thirumbi Vandhutten (I have come, tell them I have come back),” thunders Rajinikanth in the 2016 hit Kabali. He is Kabaleeswaran, a Robin Hood-esque hero who fights for the cause of Tamil labourers in Malaysia, speaking with panache of sociopolitical issues against the backdrop of gang rivalries. Political movements are referred to, including the Dalit uprising. The film’s success came at an opportune time for the actor known as Thalaivar, Tamil for ‘leader’. The last time audiences went wild over his swaggering antics was in 2010 with director S. Shankar’s sci-fi drama Enthiran. The box office failure of his daughter Soundarya Rajinikanth’s animated film Kochadaiiyan (2016) and Lingaa (2016), by confidant K.S. Ravikumar, saw the superstar apologise to his fans and compensate Lingaa distributors for the losses incurred. Speculation was rife that the superstar would hang up his boots after a career that lasted over three decades. The Tamil audience was changing and Thalaivar had to sit up and take notice too.
In dire need of a comeback, the superstar needed a makeover. He invited scripts from filmmakers, young and old. Enter Pa. Ranjith, director of the critically-acclaimed political action drama Madras (2014). Once assistant to director Venkat Prabhu, he debuted with romantic comedy Attakathi. In the landscape of Kollywood,
“I’LL CONTINUE TO MAKE POLITICAL FILMS, ONES THAT ADDRESS PEOPLE’S SOCIAL PROBLEMS” PA. RANJITH Director, Kaala
the 36-year-old filmmaker stood out for being unapologetically political. He wore his Dalit identity on his sleeve, proclaimed his atheist status and spoke of issues that plagued Tamil Nadu and Indian society at large.
That Kaala, his second film with Rajinikanth, was to be an unabashedly political film was established early on. The 67-year-old superstar plays Karikaalan, a Tamil don in Dharavi who fights for the rights of the poor, sports a black lungi and struts about in style. His signature colour is black, a hue that is rife with symbolism and associated with the working class, while the villainous Hari Dhadha (played by Nana Patekar) is clad in pristine white. “Karikaalan speaks less, one or two lines at a time, but with conviction,” says Ranjith. “There were times when Rajinikanth refused a few dialogue-heavy sequences that he felt didn’t fit in with the character. He said, ‘Karikaalan wouldn’t do that’. And people blame me for not having punchlines by Rajinikanth.”
THE BEGINNING
Ranjith’s association with the superstar happened courtesy Soundarya, who he met on the sets of Venkat Prabhu’s comedy, Goa. Before he knew it, he was scripting a film for the legendary actor. “He had watched and loved Madras and seemed to trust my work,” says Ranjith.
Kabali saw many firsts. Rajinikanth, who thus far had shied away from playing his age, embraced an older character. He traded his working class uniform for a three-piece suit. “Kabali in essence was not a Rajini film,” says Ranjith. “There weren’t many Rajini-isms, he had a grown-up daughter and it [the film] was steeped in politics. His fans were more shocked at this than him. They would come and ask me, ‘What have you done to Rajini?’” Kabali opened to mixed reviews but large-box office collections. Rajinikanth was back and this time with a new image and energy. Ranjith had found an effective vehicle for his views in the mass brand of Rajinikanth.
THE SECOND INNINGS
In his second outing with the superstar, Ranjith returns wiser and raises a lot more issues. “This time I was conscious of the criticism I had received from fans and wanted to do something different,” he says. “I wanted to bring to the fore issues like land rights and slum eviction while showing the audience a different Rajini at the same time.”
Inspiration came from all quarters, including Anand Patwardhan’s Bombay Our City, the 1985 documentary on slum dwellers. “Mumbai is a city of the horizontal and the vertical. As the vertical grows, the horizontal disappears,” says Ranjith. “The same people who were brought to the city
to help beautify it are no longer welcome there. Slum evictions are rampant everywhere. These evictions are a reality not just in Mumbai. To create a singara (beautiful) Chennai too, several such settlements were displaced. They have been associated with dirt and crime.”
Ranjith spent six months walking around the slum, talking to people. “I wanted to set the film there [in Mumbai] because of the cultural diversity. I didn’t want it to be a Tamil film only,” says the filmmaker who met Gujaratis, Maharashtrians and members of other communities on location. It explains the presence of Bollywood actors in the cast—Nana Patekar, Huma Qureshi and Pankaj Tripathi among others. These aren’t the only things that make the film a game-changer for Tamil cinema and the Rajini brand. Easwari Rao, noted film and television actor, plays Rajini’s lady love at 44, in an industry where leading ladies often have shortlived careers. This ties in well with Rajinikanth’s discomfort with romancing women his daughters’ age on screen.
THE POLITICAL TWIST
On December 31, 2017, Rajinikanth announced his entry into active politics. Kaala was in production at the time. The Tamil audience eagerly awaits a film that would offer clues into his political ideology. So far, Rajini has said his political journey would be a ‘spiritual’ one. How did Ranjith react to the announcement? “We have had a lot of political discussion. Rajini sir knows my Ambedkarite ideology,” says Ranjith. A political film, two different ideologies and a politician in the making, did it tip the balance? Ranjith replies, “The film didn’t change. It was always my politics, but not the electoral kind. It’s my need to address the people’s problems and Rajini sir did not interfere in the content of the film.”
With Rajinikanth occupying a new role of a political leader, Kaala is inviting more scrutiny. In his recent visit to Thoothukudi following the police shootings in the anti-Sterlite protests, the actor attributed the violence to anti-social elements. , “If there are going to be protests for every issue, Tamil Nadu will turn into a graveyard,” he said. On June 2, pro-Kannada activists staged a protest seeking a ban on the film owing to Rajinikanth’s support for setting up a Cauvery Management Board. It remains to be seen if Kaala will see the light of day in Karnataka and what Rajinikanth the politician has in store for Tamil Nadu but Ranjith isn’t about to change course.
“I will continue to make political films, ones that address people’s social problems,” he says.