Dedications

I hate him; his idiotic crappy gimmickry on screen on how to light a cigarette or wear glasses, etc, etc, and the etc. could stretch never ending, as anything he did was cheap and stupid to me. Then coming to his looks, he looked what he was best at, a conductor where he started his career. To make it worse a pet name called Rajni which sounded feminine to me. With all this and his success in the recent past has only confirmed one thing to me, that I was the jackass whose exposure to movies was a frog in the well called Bollywood and could only differentiate between chocolate faced frogs of the Hindi film Industry like the Khans or the Kapoors or someone really frog faced like Sanjay Dutt or ass faced idiots like the Bacchans, this does not include Ash, as she looks hot, but then she is more a mannequin and least an actress.

I had the good fortune to visit Chennai on a couple of occasions and have made some very good friends down there. It was through them I had my eyes opened to experience the phenomena called Rajni. Ecstasy and wild bouts of hysteria from the audience when he comes on the screen, which I passed off as cheap mannerism of the low class, was completely universal and sometimes I felt the opposite, where my friends the educated with great jobs, whistling away when he did something whacky or delivered a trade mark dialogue associated with the film. The euphoria was so contagious that someone like me could sense my senses automatically revved up and clapping when he would beat the goons, or burst into a dance for a song. Any amount of intellect to dissect this phenomenon would result in a further mystery to be solved. How on earth would one even wildly explain that the awe for Rajni, was as farfetched in Japan? I can understand a country with Indian Diaspora, but this was with the Japanese. So even if the whole of Tamil Nadu could be labeled as insane, does that hold good for Japan?

It was when I got to know of his raw and rough beginnings from a bus conductor to the Super Star Rajni, my respect for the man grew in leaps, and leapt higher than the leaps and bounds he does on screen. A man with a meandering and philandering lifestyle which is not closeted like the Bollywood loonies. A man bald and haggard, but can beat any cine star in charisma on screen and off screen. He does not camouflage his looks with hair weaving, surgery, make up, etc. A man whose movies need no cheap publicity for promotions. A man whose personal life could have its shades of grey but did not be a nuisance to society like killing endangered species, killing innocents with rash driving or linked with the underworld, etc.

A man whose movies I used to shrug off with dismay, now watch it with awe. A man’s simplicity which dwarfs fake humility attempted by anyone in the film fraternity of India, a man who does not endorse a product, to be recognized or for fame, a man who does needs designer clothing to prove he has arrived, because when he comes with his simple and traditional clothing he can have many depart, a man who does not lick up to politicians and government, but on the contrary a two minute speech of his on TV could bring a politician and her government on their knees. When the rest have nothing left in their acting careers, shift to politics, and lie to improve society, here is a man who only improvises with every movie and does not need politics or politicians for his survival.

When the rest can be so robotic in their acting skills, he can make a Robot act.