Naman Ramachandran
The definitive biography of perhaps the biggest star that India has seen – THE superstar Rajinikanth – is quite a big thing to bite off. At 255 pages, I’m not too sure it does complete justice. This is not to say that the author hasn’t tried, but to me, the contents just didn’t seem enough. In fact, it was in the second half that I felt he was warming up to the task at hand.
The first half includes the early years of Rajinikanth, his entry into movies, and the first decade and a half of his movies. The author does try hard to remain objective and not be in awe of the object of his attention, but that’s obviously not an easy task. What results is a mix of two things – a kind of retrofit applied to his formative years which tries to show that he was always meant to be the Superstar, and an almost bare factual filmography. It’s probably not the author’s fault because he might have found it difficult to find anecdotal material from that era, or people might have altered their memory to fit the image of the superstar who exists now. Either way, the first half swings between these two, and does not really make a great read in terms of narrative. You’ll love it if you’re a Rajini facts junkie and it also shows the amount of research the author has done, as he tries to explain the milieu and the context of life, culture, movies and politics of the era, mostly in Tamil Nadu, but sometimes even beyond that. (this was really done well, I thought) We do get glimpses of Rajini the person, and his life outside cinema, but never really enough. It almost seems as though the author was in a hurry to start with the contemporary era. [To be noted that this part also manages to show how big a star and talented an actor Kamal Hassan was in that era]
The second half – from the 90s – is where the author really gets going, much like Rajini’s own evolution from superstar to legend! Probably helped by the reduction in the number of movies he’s done and availability of documented material, for example, Rajini’s overt and covert political statements, in movies and real life. Beginning with Annamalai and ending with the making of “Kochadaiyaan – The Legend”, the second half not only analyses the star’s movies, but also traces Rajini’s personal evolution very well. It has much better anecdotal perspectives from his co-stars, friends and gives us excellent insights into his personality. [To be noted that Kamal and Rajini are effusive in their praise and affection for each other, and the author manages to bring it out beautifully, and I thought Mani Ratnam was very grudging in his praise] This entire half feels much more like a biography and is a pleasure to read. In the last few pages, the author tries to get perspectives from an assortment of people – directors, co-actors, fans, Rajini’s friends and mentors, journalists etc – on why the Superstar is the phenomenon he is. I specially liked Anurag Kashyap’s take “..The same reason that Amitabh Bachchan became a phenomenon was the reason why Rajinikanth became a phenomenon. He’s a man of the people… Amitabh Bachchan became synthetic afterwards, but Rajinikanth never became synthetic. He stayed what he was. The whole humility of Rajinikanth somehow translates not just on screen but off it too….” While no amount of analysis can answer the question completely, I think this comes close, and the book does manage to bring out Rajini’s work ethic and ethics, especially the second half.
What I’d really like is for Naman Ramachandran to go back and release a second edition where the first half is not a hurried job, but meanwhile, do go ahead and read this one! Signing off with http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view3/2275760/rajini-02-o.gif 😉
