A phenomenon

No denying Rajni. This is an excellent article for those who are in contempt of Rajni's fame. Facebook has been sending updates non-stop for the past one week about Chuck-Norris-Jokes-Adapted-To-Rajni, 'Tribute' to Rajni (ironically - half the people who shared it seem to misread the sarcasm!) and one even blaming the supreme court for giving the Ayodya verdict on the eve of a Rajni release - let alone the fact that it is the 'most anticipated' movie.

Why so much hype for Rajni/Endhiran, you ask? Well - Why was there so much hype about 'My name is Khan'? 'Raavan'? Aamir's 'Gajini'? or heck - 'Om Shanti Om' (For those who were fortunate not to see it - remember - the movie with all the faces you know in bollywood crammed into 1 song? Oh - and SRK's six pack?) or even 'Kites'?? 'Endhiran' can never be lesser than any of those movies. And when someone has spent so much cash on it - they'll want to ensure that it is well publicized.

For everyone who learnt the force of Rajni through Facebook or Twitter - you have NO idea. Rajni's true worshippers are not the people who write long posts heralding his greatness or trying to scorn at him while really thinking "WHO THE HELL IS HE?". Rajni's fan base does not need posters or media countdowns to herald his movie. 90% of them won't even have access to the media. They probably won't understand the movie the way Sankar would have wanted to portray it - but I'm sure Shankar realised that the second he chose Rajni.

When you compare the roles that Rajni and Kamal have respectively played - you can clearly see that Rajni's characters were simple. The plots predictable. And the stories relevant to what a lot of people can relate with. Kamal tried out complicated stories and portrayed extra-ordinary roles - as some would say 'way-ahead-of-his-time'. Maybe that's why he is not where Rajni is right now. Rajni kept it simple and straight - and he did it with style. The kind of style Rajni had cannot be described - and if someone else had done it - he would've gone straight to the circus. That's what set him apart.

But that's just me trying to analyse why he is WHO he is. I like Rajni not for the reasons that most people like him. No one in my family is a movie buff - so I had few chances of watching movies when I was a kid. But at that time - the national channel used to play new song releases with background info about the movie just before the evening news. One song was from a movie trying to depict the story of a hero involved in espionage and multiple flashbacks. Another was from a movie which showed the hero taking kids around to an animated forest and meeting cartoon characters. For a 5 yr old - the answer to "Who is better?" is obvious. Quote from another song: "Superstar yaarunu kaetta, chinna kuzhandhayum sollum!" [Translation: Even if you ask a small child who superstar is - he/she will answer promptly]