Kaala will pit Rajinikanth against Kamal Haasan - both in box office and political stage
Call it coincidence or by design, the makers of kaala had decided to unveil the teaser of the movie on the day Shivaji Rao Gaikwad became Rajinikanth. It was on Holi day in 1975, that his mentor, the late K Balachander, rechristened him, just days before the shooting of Apoorva Raagangal, Rajinikanth's debut film, began. The day was so special that for many years, Rajini would make it a point to meet Balachander on Holi.
At an event in 2010 organised by the Tamil Nadu Directors Association, Balachander complained to Rajinikanth that he no longer meets or calls him on Holi. "You used to meet me in person or call me if you were out of town on Holi festival. But you don't do that any more,'' teased Balachander. The student apologised and promised to make amends.
Although the much-awaited teaser was supposed to be released on Thursday (March 1), it has been pushed to Friday due to the demise of Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi, the 69th pontiff of the Kanchi Mutt.
Anyhow, thanks to the buzz around his political entry, Kaala has become one of the most important movies in Rajinikanth's 43-year-long career. The PR machinery in order to create a hype around the release of the teaser, has put out stills from Kaala in the public domain. The effort is being put in for a movie, but the fact that Rajini's political success is intertwined with the success of the film, is not lost on anyone. Hence, the big ticket marketing event for a teaser, making #KaalaTeaser trend on social media.
The story is about an ageing don, a Tamilian originally from Tirunelveli who rules over Mumbai from the slums of Dharavi. This is the second successive movie in which Rajini will play his age, complete with a beard and Kabali captain Pa Ranjith directs him once again.
While Rajini will draw in the crowds when the movie releases on April 27, it is the supporting cast that is the icing on the cake. Nana Patekar plays the antagonist in Kaala. Other actors include Pankaj Tripathi, Tamil actor Samuthirakani, Huma Qureshi and Sayaji Shinde.
While the release of a Rajinikanth film is cause for celebration in Tamil Nadu and the rest of south India, this time comparisons will be drawn with Kamal Haasan for more reasons than one. This summer, Kaala will be pitted against Vishwaroopam 2 which will be Kamal's big release after the launch of his political outfit, Makkal Needhi Maiam. The box office collections and the performances of the two tallest actors of Tamil cinema will be dissected like never before, for bragging rights. This will be done more so by their respective fan clubs whose members are now the cadre of the political parties of the two actors-turned-politicians.
But even at a cinematic level, Rajini venturing into Dharavi is significant. Because when it comes to playing a don, that too set in Mumbai, no one has done it better in Tamil cinema than Kamal Haasan in the 1987 critically acclaimed superhit Nayakan in which he played Tamilian don Varadarajan Mudaliar. Kamal won the National award for best actor for the Mani Ratnam-directed movie. It is interesting that the two Dharavi films are separated by three decades.
Ranjith is a director known for realistic cinema and he gave glimpses of that in Kabali even while providing space for Rajinikanth swag. The only other movie where Rajini has played a don is his 1995 superhit Baasha, that was based on Amitabh Bachchan's Hum. Keeping in mind Rajinikanth's performance range, style and image, it is more than likely that Kaala will be a cross between Kabali and Baasha.
How Rajinikanth uses Kaala as a political vehicle will be interesting to watch. There was talk that the release of Kaala will coincide with Rajini embarking on a tour of Tamil Nadu. But with Rajini signing a new movie to be produced by Sun Pictures, the actor looks content to spend more time on sets rather than getting his hands dirty on the field in the state.
This is perhaps because he seems influenced by the MGR template. With no elections between 1972, when he launched the AIADMK after his ouster from the DMK, and 1977, MGR focused on doing as many 16 films during the period and used the big screen as his campaign vehicle to ensure he stayed connected with the masses. MGR stopped acting in films only after he became chief minister of Tamil Nadu in 1977.
Rajini, whose films in the past have shown an obsession with politically-loaded punchlines, is likely to go down the same path. Kaala in that sense will be the perfect film to start his political innings with - a Robin hood like character, who protects the poor.