Dear Rajni Sir,
Wish you a belated happy birthday! I hope that you are recovering well from your
recent health issues and that you have a great day and year ahead. I watched a 30-second video clip today on
Twitter. It is the video of you wishing
a girl called Sowmya whom I don’t know. But
your wish was so lovely, so heartwarming that I felt the need to send positive
vibes to someone who seems to be going through a health issue. As always, there was an incredible amount of
genuineness in your voice. The way you
said, “kanna” was, as always, a delight to hear. What was truly
poignant to me was the apologetic way you explained why you couldn’t see her in
person. That you were feeling a little under
the weather yourself. There is a reason
why your fans adore and worship you. All
that adulation is fully deserved, Sir.
So, am I a Rajni fan or a Kamal
fan? I don’t think you will mind at all,
given your admiration for your friend of 46 years. Kamal Haasan was and continues to be my
biggest influence from the world of films.
As an actor, writer and director, he has been a huge reason why I admire
and analyze films more than just enjoying and being entertained by them. How do I see you? I see you Sir, as a splendid actor who chose
to be a shining star. I am that film
buff who was delighted by your performance in the scene in "Kabaali" where you saw Radhika Apte after a long separation.
Your expression of ecstasy in that scene, the way you held her lovingly were all fabulous. In “Kaala”, the way you tried to pacify your wife in the car (just before she got killed) was a lovely moment. I thoroughly enjoyed your villainous act as
Chitti in “Endhiran”, though I didn’t think that you were utilized that well in the
sequel.
The 90s was a decade where the differing
paths that you and Kamal had taken were strikingly obvious. While Kamal acted in films such as “Guna”, “Thevar
Magan”, “Mahanadhi” and “Kuruthi Punal” (while alternating with his comedies),
your superstardom was established in films such as “Annamalai”, “Baasha” and “Padayappa.” I enjoyed your performance in all those films,
especially “Baasha.” That was a ‘commercial’
film in which your acting had the kind of raw power that you had also shown in “Thalapathi.” But in films such as “Muthu” and “Arunachalam”
the star obscured the actor in you. And
I felt this way about your later films too.
I would always enjoy an expression here, a nuanced dialogue delivery
there. But the pitch of your performances
and the filmmaking style in those films meant that we admirers of your acting
had to settle for the occasional glimpse that would make us wistful about the actor
of the past. Did I think that you became a
lazy actor? Not really. You just seemed keener on appealing to your
fanatics’ wishes than the film connoisseur’s tastes. (I shall hasten to add that the two
groups are not mutually exclusive. It’s
more about which part of our film brain do we turn on?)
There are three performances in
two films that I consider to be your finest work. The films were, unsurprisingly, directed by the
man whom you named as your favorite director when your guru K Balachander asked
you. Mahendran. What a magnificent partnership the two of you
had. Without bemoaning the small quantity of films you collaborated on, we are better off celebrating them for their indelible impact. As Kaali in “Mullum Malarum” and
as Johnny and Vidyasagar in “Johnny”, you were astounding. The nuance of your acting was matched by the
sharpness of the writing and the deftness of the filmmaking. In “Mullum
Malarum”, the way you apologized to Shoba is impactful till this day. The way you uttered, “valichutha ma” twice with
different modulations was sublime. Ditto
for the change in your body language in the scene where Sarat Babu (aka “Law
Point!”) visits your house. The erect
posture said all that there was to be said about the pride of the character. I
never tire of waxing eloquent on the proposal scene in “Johnny” either. As you had apparently shared with Mahendran, it
was Sridevi’s scene, yes. But it would just
not have worked as well had you not played such a delightful foil. The “pada padaa-nu pesiteengaLe” line was marvelously
delivered by you. In stark contrast was how
you, as Vidyasagar, proposed to the character played by Deepa. The hurt in your eyes when she uses the word “barber”
in a disparaging manner was understated yet supremely effective. There were films such as “16 Vayathinile” and
“AvargaL” where you had an arresting screen presence as the antagonist. There were other films such as “Aarilirundhu
Arupathu Varai” where you shone brightly as an actor. But these two films with Mahendran are what I
will hold dear to me as I think of your work.
One facet of your onscreen persona
that I have much respect for is the space that you give to your fellow actors. Be it villains like the great Raghuvaran, heroines
like Ramya Krishnan (in that career-changing turn of hers as Neelambari) or
comedians like Janakaraj, Coundamani or Senthil, you have always given your
fellow actors the opportunity to shine.
I once watched an interview with Vadivukkarasi where she mentioned that
you led an applause after the panchayat scene that left her misty-eyed. I am sure that there are many more gestures
such as that that have left your cast and crew overjoyed. I doff my hat off to you Sir, for exhibiting
more and more humility as you achieved more and more success. It is a mix that I am sure that you know is
as rare as it is deserving of approbation.
As I come to the end of this letter,
let me, once again, wish you a blessed year ahead. I hope that in your next few films, you give
us something that will make us sit up and take notice, once again, of the actor
in you. With the increasingly rousing reception
that film goers, your fans included, have been giving to the fresh,
well-executed ideas of the new-age filmmakers, I hope that you derive the
confidence to go beyond some of the comfort zones in which your superstardom
have confined you. The sounds of your stardom-imposed shackles
being broken will be among the sweetest music to your admirers.
Thank you for patiently reading
this, Sir.
With much respect,
Ram
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