Rajinikanth

Rajinikanth. The word doesn't evoke much emotions in me. But I'm a North Indian - unaware of the demigod of the other India. And still.. when i read this essay, i just felt.. what? why? how? and I got no explanations.. nothing. I just simply don't get it.

Read it for yourself to pehaps, perhaps.. understand this phenomenon - Rajinikanth:

My classmate Somyajulu did not even know how to play Volleyball. When the Kamala Subramaniam School Volley Ball team from Thanjavur set out towards a Mayavaram based volley ball knock-out tournament, we told our parents that we'd return late at night because we expected to go a fair distance into the knock out. At 9:35 AM we were knocked out in the first round by some unknown team from Sirkazhi. We had the entire day at our disposal. A 'matter' movie was out of the window; our 'newly married' P.D was not that close to us. So we decided to go for the morning show of the latest Rajinikanth movie - 'Annamalai'. We got tickets (Rs. 1.50) thirty minutes after the movie had started and walked in. During the interval, Sowmyajulu, who had tagged along with us, stood there talking to me with a cup of coffee in his hand. I whispered in his ear "this movie is a copy of a Rakesh Roshan hindi movie". I needn't have. But then I am not Narada for a joke. To which, Somyajulu replied in proper Thanjai Thamizh, "dei.... all this Rajinikanth is humbug. There is no story in this movie. Complete fluff. People are making a big fuss....". The sentence was not completed. Somebody behind Somyajulu had hit him so hard in the Spock region between his neck and shoulders. This was 70 days after the movie had been released. After the Rajini fan had burnt his heart out watching the movie 100 times. This was the time in the Rajini movie phase - where the 'family crowd' people would be given a chance to see the movie. Somyajulu hadn't whispered the shit that he spoke back to me. He had yelled it aloud, as if to prove a point. He probably thought that he was in the Sith land, and that the force of the Rajini did not flow in the people around him. Now, I had coffee stains in my pant, and he had blood on his shirt; more importantly, our parents would want to know why

Rajinikanth.

Imagine someone punching you right on the nose. There is a painfully nauseating feeling that you get when your nose getting jammed into your face. This is immediately followed by an un-namable rage. You don’t reason. You don't think. You react. It’s instinctive. Reflex action. An un-identifiable primitive instinct to hit back, lash out. Veri. Rage. A pure unbridled passion. Rajinikanth. The Rajini fan - an aching heart beating hard to see Rajini arrive on screen. A longing for that one un-subtle dialog he speaks for his fans. A thousand electric pulses emanating from neurons all over the body to be consumed by the sound of whistles that scream like a dragon unleashed during the introduction song. That is the essence of the Rajinikanth fan. The shout 'thalaivaa' is not a 'hello'. It is a war cry. It is reflex. An overwhelming emotion, affection, passion, and veri - that funnels itself through the larynx of the Rajini fan and manifests itself as this word. Rajini - It is not a mere name. It is a feeling. It is sensation. It is the sound that is heard when every house in Madras bursts a 1,000,000 wala on the morning of Deepavali. It’s the mother of all show biz. With due respect and no insult to Chiranjeevi, Mohanlal, Mamooty and Kamalhassan fans - there is no phenomena like the Rajini fan

A Bihari doctor, living in the U.S, once narrated a story where he was on a rowing boat that had originated from fisherman's cove near Madras, and was headed for a 2-3 km point into the sea, where rich people snorkeled. The doctor mentioned to the boat rower (for lack of a better term) "may be rajinikanth is fluff. Kamal hasan is better". The intense look on the boat rower's face, the mumbled curses emanating from his mouth as he rowed hard in fury convinced the doctor that there would be no boat waiting for him after he emerged from the snorkel dip. He quickly said "thalaivaa" and peace was restored. The same boat rower would bitch about his wife, mother, and probably even god. But never Rajini. Even if Rajini was in the Himalayas and couldn’t hear him.