Today’s stars of commercial cinema, at least in Tamil, go the opposite route. Baashha, screened in Bombay in 2011, did not summon the same enthusiasm it usually does among people of Tamil Nadu when Manickam’s younger brother interrogates, ” Who are you? What were you doing in Bombay?” What were we doing in Bombay? Admittedly, a day in the career of Rajinikanth – who received the Dadasaheb Phalke award at the 67 th National Film Awards on Monday – was not enough for an examination of a behemoth career made of natural born talent, style and persona. Murattu Kaalai garnered only tired post-lunch frowns and it was, by then, a dated film though a seminal one in Rajinikanth’s career (ask M Sasikumar who made Subramaniapuram, events of the film set in 1980). 16 Vayathinile was widely appreciated and the people who watched the film saw a Rajinikanth they had never seen before.
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We settled for Bharathiraja’s 16 Vayathinile (1977, Rajini’s third year into acting), SP Muthuraman’s Murattu Kaalai (1980), the year of the birth of a new Rajini and Suresh Krissna’s Baashha (1995), his iconic star turn.
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The second part we did not know at that time. For the line up, we had to choose, one, from a gargantuan filmography and, two, a set of three films (one day fest!) that will show off his range for a non-South, uppity South Bombay audience brought up on NFDC cinema.
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But it was also a naïve era before OTTs, before Chennai Express, Lungi Dance and “Thalaiva”, abominations created by gentrification of the Rajini fandom post 2005.Īt that time, sourcing Tamil films for a quick fest put up by a bunch of fans and amateurs was a challenge. I didn’t do much legwork, happy to play the enthusiastic cheerleader from the sidelines and enjoy the Rajini marathon. Ten years ago, a couple of my friends and I organised a one day Rajinikanth film festival at Alliance Française de Bombay, a half a kilometre walk from the Churchgate station.