Dream merchants' grip unique phenomenon

Everyone has an opinion on Rajinikanth’s entry into politics. He has stated his reluctance, even an emphatic ‘No thanks’ many times. Nevertheless, it appears to be everyone’s duty to invite him to enter the ‘godha’ as the Tamil expression goes. His friend, co-star in a major landmark film which set both their careers rolling, competitor for fans’ adoration and well wisher, Kamal Haasan, had also stated his opinion, curiously on the last day of filing of nominations for the May 16 polls.

The Rajini effect has not been seen or felt for a clear 20 years now. Nor will it play much of a part in the polls coming up in a fortnight. Mesmerised by the phenomenon of films with Kodambakkam being the pioneering dream factory of Tamil Nadu, the filmy phenomenon will never go away from the state. But, much like autobiographies of some greats which will never see the light of day, Rajini might choose to keep off politics forever more.

This is a state in which there have been five Chief Ministers from filmdom – two scriptwriters in CN Annadurai and M Karunanidhi and three actors in MG Ramachandran, always evergreen in memory as MGR, his wife Janaki MGR, very briefly though, and reigning CM Ms J. Jayalalithaa. And if the people had taken as much of a liking to the thespian Sivaji Ganesan, who too entered politics although his career never took off as the people did not take a shy to him as they did to his film colleagues, the state may have had even more.

We leave it to sociologists to tell us why this fascination exists in Tamils to the dream merchants of Kollywood. MGR was easily the most endearing of them, his public appeal owing everything only to personal charisma and not to the party structure or dedicated cadres to back him as in the case of his parent organisation DMK, which, in fact, was his second party since he was a member of the Congress party first. As he sang “Nalai Namadhe (Tomorrow is ours) or Nadum Namadhe” (The country is ours), you could almost believe him. He had this charming visage which kept hammering the messages, giving the lyrical word a life of their own.

There was always the suspicion that women swooned over his persona even more than the image of the deliverer of justice that was so carefully built for him in his films. In colour-conscious Tamil Nadu, he was the epitome of a fair-skinned hero romancing his women, occasionally spurning them too. Even outside cinema, he was dressed to the ‘role,’ his shirt sleeves buttoned at the wrist, wrist watch peeping out, his trademark ‘thoppi’ always on and a demenaour that was never stern. To his credit, he never became a caricature of himself that ageing politicians tend to. Right up to the day they had to fly him to the US, he was the charming personality who built an unbelievable cult of devotion in his fans and in the people of the state who were his constituency.

The effect of cinema does not seem to have worn off as we see ‘Captain’ Vijayakanth, another strong on-screen personality delivering justice to the downtrodden, in the fray, this time as the possible tipping factor, with his optimistic alliance even believing he is their Chief Ministerial candidate. It is a moot point whether cinematic lore has the same grip today in the political arena as in MGR’s halcyon decade of 1977-87. But the makers of dreams will never believe that their sell-by date may have expired in the political sense. However, with a huge base of young voters coming in, there is no knowing if a blind devotion to cinema stars as leaders will remain for very long in the state.  

For argument’s sake, it can be said that Ronald Reagan was one of the best of the modern Republican Presidents of USA even though his background was as an actor in Hollywood. Right now, the TINA (There is no alternative to the Dravidian duopoly of AIADMK and DMK) factor might make this a contest between two film personalities in the Chief Minister and her predecessor as well as successor in the state’s well defined alternate choices ever since the death of MGR proved there is no immortality even for legendary actor-politicians.

The pull of cinema may not be defining why people will vote one way or the other in 2016 as the personalities of the leaders of the Dravidian majors go way beyond their cinema background. They have a record as administrators. Suffice it to say, 2016 could also be the last of the cinematic battles. The turf has changed, so too the voter dynamic.