Kabali: The Route back to Thailava's long-forgotten Reel Succes?

Somehow, when it comes to Rajnikanth and his movies, nothing ever feels ostentatious. Maybe it’s the charm of the actor or maybe it’s the inexhaustible stream of fans. Or maybe it’s because of both, with the former inspiring the latter, in a never-ending cycle of continuity.

One will never be able to tell. Rather, there’s no one who wants to extrapolate the unique dynamics of what the 65-year old actor brings to his audiences, not just in India, but also across the world in far-flung regions. For, it’s not something that needs to be delved into, but accepted like an axiom – it is what it is and so shall it be.

It’s why repeated patterns never get old with the actor, regardless of how old he might be getting in age. Starting right with the fact that his movies tend to be mostly about him tending to the plotline, with other actors being reduced to puppets sharing screen space with him. His leading ladies too have not much to do except look decorative – however, with the least possible sexist innuendoes and remarks – and pop up during elaborate song sequences.

To give an example, a movie like Chandramukhi, whose theme had been borrowed from the Malayalam movie Manichitrathazhu, had been majorly about Rajnikanth’s character, Saravanan. A character, whose introduction was a mini-whirlpool created by him twisting the dust around his foot followed by a song-and-dance routine.

Had it been any other actor doing the same things that Rajni did in Chandramukhi, it would have been a riotous comedy of errors, but with him helming the film as an actor, it was as if nothing could go wrong with it.

And that’s the sort of feeling that’s prevailing about his upcoming film Kabali unlike his last two releases that seemed like a case of ‘bitten-more-than-could-be-chewed.’  The anticipatory air that has been building up steadily, along with an infusion of disappointment, when its release was postponed, looks like it will be justified once the movie hits the theatres – as early as 3 AM in a suburban theatre in Mumbai.

There will be scenes with him defying all laws of nature as there will be some predictable clichés that are invariably present in his movies, but this time around it does look like the superstar Thalaiva is back where he belongs. Amidst the wave of success that usually follows his characteristic panache in reels.