Rajinikanth is worthy of praise of every bit. Survive, let it succeed alone, 50 years in the Tamil film industry are entitled to a celebration. But what is especially? To act in about 170 films in various languages, his screen charisma, his politics, his impact on his fans’ life?
Fifty years seems like tomorrow when Rajni’s first film, Apoorva ragangal (1975), launched him in history – although he was not a hero. He remakes himself according to the needs of others. His name had changed, he learned a new language, and placed it on a new personality, which is the filmmaker. It was decided from the point of view of what Balchander saw in Rajni.
Five decades ago, he began a journey to become a creed figure by legalizing the rebellion, which made it possible to talk about the desires that were taboo, who were speaking to those who were invisible and marginalized the society, and began the first step towards fashioning an image of themselves. His latest film, CoolieWhich was released last week misses these years. A lot has changed, but a lot remains unchanged. What has not changed is that like back, he is still trying to put on a new personality, what he is not trying to be.
A still Coolie
It is said that the biggest fear of the superstar is aging. When we celebrate their longevity, they live in its mortal fear. The real life picture of Rajni with a bald -headed Rajni looks like our beloved uncle. In CoolieHe has a head full of green hair and fights like a young man, although his eyes cheat him. The same powerful eyes that Balchander commented 50 years ago, is now hidden in deep sadness, perhaps shows the pain that he still has to do such films in the name of superstardam.
Gray figure
Rajni was never defined from her body. He was dark and modest, like a Bengaluru bus conductor – which he was before becoming an actor. He was also a Marathi speaker who spoke Tamil with a different lilt. Rajni’s strength and power came to what she spoke and stood. He expressed a simple but powerful truth: that those who are poor and deprived have more moral sensitivity than being an officer of money and power. Vegetable vendors on the pavement, daily wages, cools, as well as autorickshaw driver performing more moral qualities than feudal landlords, rich entrepreneurs or powerful leaders.
He was loved because he embodied that gray figure between socially acceptable behavior and individually retrograde. He can still be attractive when he was going politically wrong. His audience loved him because he knew that he was a morally.
Fans dance during Rajinikanth’s screening Coolie
Photo Credit: AFP
The cool theme that was so abused in his new film was the one who applied deep sentiments in the working class, which he had represented in films Mullam Maleram (1978, a villager in a struggle with an urban engineer), Bash (1995, an auto driver), Muthu (1995, a servant under a feudal landlord), and recently, in Ranjith’s hit film in Pa Black (201 () where he fights for slums. Chhoti Rajni acted like an old man, intelligent, responsible, more socially attached, and who produced hope.
Moral ambiguity
Fifty years later, Rajni’s morality has grown up. He is not able to hide it, even if he is successful in reducing his body aging. When he played a gangster Talapati (1991), there was a sense of moral code in the world of criminals. But in CoolieRajni’s moral meaning disappears when he connects a young woman in a criminal act to earn money to earn money to pay fees for medical education of the woman’s sisters. She is not the Rajni we saw Bhairavi (1978) or like films Eveval appditon (1978), which created a major discussion on the rights and roles of women in a society.
A still Talapati
Rajni was famous for her cigarette tricks for her dialogues as those dialogues were not age. He did not need an old man, who was trying to look young with a mop of hair to give them. Rajni turned these dialogues into films like Arunachalam (1997), Bash And Padayappa (1999), in social slogans.
As long as Rajni speaks for oppressed and marginal rights, her physical age does not matter. Being an old man is not displayed in the way we walk or fight, but the way we think, in energy we have to fight for the benefit of others, and in the hope that we bring.
Rajni, while still on screen, is physically explosive, mentally and morally, at least in the age group in some of its previous films. It seems that he loses the qualities that have made him perennial and relevant. We cannot blame him. Perhaps he is indifferent and tired. just like us.
Bangalore -based writer and philosopher is titled a new novel. Water day,
Published – August 22, 2025 07:17 AM IST
