The Eighth Wonder: Rajinikanth

Alice once fell in a Rajnikant film and felt right at home. Because Rajni’s films are several successive wonderlands heaped upon another. With him it is easy to believe six impossible things and one more before breakfast. Only unlike Alice, Rajni actually knows that they are all an alternate reality.

That’s why, when he is off screen, you won’t see him wearing designer togs and fancy accessories. He is happy in his lungi and veshti, he takes off his toupee and lets his scalp breathe. And he is one star who doesn’t assume starry airs despite being the brightest star in the pantheon. At a recently conducted special screening of his super-duper hit Robot, he touched the feet of his elders, Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan. Johnny come lateleys with nary a hit in their kitty can learn a thing or two from the gesture.

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And if that isn’t enough, Rajni knows who the f*$@ Alice is.

Only he can, (others can’t) pull off outrageous stunts like running sideways on a running train and kicking ass like Bruce Lee, romance girls whose mothers grew up revering him, splice a bullet in half using a razor and moonwalk better than M J (may god have mercy on his soul). But during all this he has a direct connect with his audience. Amidst all the mayhem he can break the fourth wall in his tongue-in-cheek way.

In Sivaji The Boss where his sidekick, (played by Vivek) stops him from mouthing a punch dialogue before beating up the baddies ‘because every upstart is saying punch dialogues nowadays.’ And Rajni acknowledges that with a sly nod. People have made career of trying not to be Rajni.

He is the people’s star, shrines dedicated to his name shine real temples in Chennai. His dialogues are populist and cater to the people’s aspirations and when he says, a “lion hunts alone,” every red-blooded Tamil swells his chest in pride. Unlike MGR, Rajni didn’t use his clout to make it into politics, unlike those in Bollywood, he continued to be a superstar.

His popularity has transcended regional and national boundaries. Haryanvi fans went berserk after watching Robot. The film became the highest grossing dubbed film till date in North territories. The Japanese have tears in their eyes every time they see him in Muthu, which has become the most-watched Indian film in Japan. And that’s something they don’t tear up easy - seriously. The Germans are crazy about him and so are the Fijians, not to mention Tamil Diaspora from Sri Lanka to Singapore and beyond.

For someone who started off with a ₹3000 salary and went on to become the second-highest paid movie star in Asia (behind Jackie Chan), he has indeed come a long way. His life story is juicier and more incredible than his films.

It’s a miracle indeed that a Maharashtrian who was a bus conductor in Bangalore become a legend in his own time. One of his famous dialogues (from Uzhaippali) sums up his life: “Yesterday I was a coolie, today I'm an actor, tomorrow...people may say what they want. But what I'll become, only god knows…”

But then, they say God consults Rajni before taking any major decisions…

Rajnikanth aka Shivaji Rao Gaekwad

Born: Bangalore

Age: 61

Movies: Mullum Malarum, Thalapathy, Mannan, Annamalai, Uzhaippali, Chandramukhi, Endhiran