Open Letter
Dear Rajni
What ails thee O Super Star?! Here we are, millions of fans, dying in anticipation for every release of yours, albeit rarer than the blooming of the saugandhika, and you seem to find immense pleasure in hurting us time and time again. Ok, I am getting carried away and being a bit unfair. It’s only your last two films that have let us down…and how! Aren’t you clever enough to realize the folly from that one misfire and rectify it? You mention a note of thanks to your close friend Kamal Haasan right at the start of the movie, but didn’t he warn you about the precipice you seem intent on taking a dive off.
I can see that you have your own grouse against us. “The public is at fault..” is probably your line of defence. During the late 70s and the early 80s, there wasn’t a doubt in anyone’s mind as to who was doing the better roles, who donned the various roles and enacted with sheer ease, and who was the much-needed breath of fresh air from the then mediocrity of Kamal’s performances. It was you – Rajnikanth! But soon after that, Kamal decided to show us his true self and I do concede that it was hard for you to compete against an actor who should go down as the best actor in not just India, but the world as well.
So you changed tracks, and decided to concentrate on tapping your charisma, style, and incredible screen presence. And did the people love it or what!!!! They lapped it up readily. And why not? Here was the emergence of the one and only Super Star of Indian tinsel-town. This, fortunately or unfortunately, led to you being typecast, and thus evolved a certain formula for your movies.
Baasha, Padayappa will go down the annals of cinema as movies that just rode on your style, and style alone. Things were looking so good and …bham!…came Baba. Even a die-hard fan of yours like me could see the movie just twice. And that was surely NOT to see those theological and philosophical anecdotes.
And just when I was hoping that Chandramukhi would put Baba as just a bad dream…tsk tsk! I do not come to your movies looking for a story. I do not come to your movies looking for realism. I watch them for that “something special” that you seem to exude. When you went “Naan orudharavai sonna, adhu noorudharavai sonnamaadhri”, the theatre would just erupt! The same was the case with “En vazhi thani vazhi…”, and now what do I take away from Chandramukhi? The “Don’t worry! Saravanan will appear” or some such. No!
I am sure the Malayalam original Manichitrathaazha was a great movie with National award winning performances by the artistes. But it is not a movie with which I would associate your name. Why did you have to go and get your movie a story! And a story which is actually very good and confusing!
Agreed that Jyothika did a great job and a scary one as well! You just waltzed through the movie with utter ease. But so was I. I was just eased through the movie, sadly. There wasn’t anything to get my adrenaline on a high (apart from Jyothika’s final transformation into the dancer – hats off to her!). What was the need for all the double entendres with Vadivelu and co! For crying out loud, this is a Rajni movie. Were you hypnotized during those shots? :(
The only reason I can think of is that you have taken the public criticism of your style and gimmicks to heart, and decided to reform. But who the heck cares about those jerks! The ones who ridicule your stunts such as the “shoe-flying-out-hitting-bad-guy-and-coming-back-to-the-feet” are the same people who will begin slavering and bend over their backs in order to lap up a “man-in-black-coat-evading-bullets” stunt from an English movie and then right after that will make a 50-50 biscuit ad ridiculing you. Maybe for such people, it is not the stunt that matters, but the colour of the skin that is performing the stunt that matters.
Whatever the case, I hope you don’t give a damn as to what the supposed “classes” think and please please give us another Padayappa!
Still hoping earnestly,
Die-hard Rajni Fan
What ails thee O Super Star?! Here we are, millions of fans, dying in anticipation for every release of yours, albeit rarer than the blooming of the saugandhika, and you seem to find immense pleasure in hurting us time and time again. Ok, I am getting carried away and being a bit unfair. It’s only your last two films that have let us down…and how! Aren’t you clever enough to realize the folly from that one misfire and rectify it? You mention a note of thanks to your close friend Kamal Haasan right at the start of the movie, but didn’t he warn you about the precipice you seem intent on taking a dive off.
I can see that you have your own grouse against us. “The public is at fault..” is probably your line of defence. During the late 70s and the early 80s, there wasn’t a doubt in anyone’s mind as to who was doing the better roles, who donned the various roles and enacted with sheer ease, and who was the much-needed breath of fresh air from the then mediocrity of Kamal’s performances. It was you – Rajnikanth! But soon after that, Kamal decided to show us his true self and I do concede that it was hard for you to compete against an actor who should go down as the best actor in not just India, but the world as well.
So you changed tracks, and decided to concentrate on tapping your charisma, style, and incredible screen presence. And did the people love it or what!!!! They lapped it up readily. And why not? Here was the emergence of the one and only Super Star of Indian tinsel-town. This, fortunately or unfortunately, led to you being typecast, and thus evolved a certain formula for your movies.
Baasha, Padayappa will go down the annals of cinema as movies that just rode on your style, and style alone. Things were looking so good and …bham!…came Baba. Even a die-hard fan of yours like me could see the movie just twice. And that was surely NOT to see those theological and philosophical anecdotes.
And just when I was hoping that Chandramukhi would put Baba as just a bad dream…tsk tsk! I do not come to your movies looking for a story. I do not come to your movies looking for realism. I watch them for that “something special” that you seem to exude. When you went “Naan orudharavai sonna, adhu noorudharavai sonnamaadhri”, the theatre would just erupt! The same was the case with “En vazhi thani vazhi…”, and now what do I take away from Chandramukhi? The “Don’t worry! Saravanan will appear” or some such. No!
I am sure the Malayalam original Manichitrathaazha was a great movie with National award winning performances by the artistes. But it is not a movie with which I would associate your name. Why did you have to go and get your movie a story! And a story which is actually very good and confusing!
Agreed that Jyothika did a great job and a scary one as well! You just waltzed through the movie with utter ease. But so was I. I was just eased through the movie, sadly. There wasn’t anything to get my adrenaline on a high (apart from Jyothika’s final transformation into the dancer – hats off to her!). What was the need for all the double entendres with Vadivelu and co! For crying out loud, this is a Rajni movie. Were you hypnotized during those shots? :(
The only reason I can think of is that you have taken the public criticism of your style and gimmicks to heart, and decided to reform. But who the heck cares about those jerks! The ones who ridicule your stunts such as the “shoe-flying-out-hitting-bad-guy-and-coming-back-to-the-feet” are the same people who will begin slavering and bend over their backs in order to lap up a “man-in-black-coat-evading-bullets” stunt from an English movie and then right after that will make a 50-50 biscuit ad ridiculing you. Maybe for such people, it is not the stunt that matters, but the colour of the skin that is performing the stunt that matters.
Whatever the case, I hope you don’t give a damn as to what the supposed “classes” think and please please give us another Padayappa!
Still hoping earnestly,
Die-hard Rajni Fan
1 Comments:
Havent seen chandramukhi...
Padyappa and Muthu were good....
Arunchal (or Arunachalam?) was pathetic
The earliest Rajni flick i have seen is Thalapathi.....Which is a classy movie.....
ANother one was "Guru Shishyan" *-ing rajani and prabhu...that was a laugh riot....I dunno whether it did well at the b.o.
Kamal is a better actor...
Post a Comment
<< Home