Superstar-Thalapathy war of words spices up TN polls
Tamil Nadu elections are five weeks away and expectedly, the mother of all battles for capturing Fort St George is accelerating its pace. The war of words is peculiarly characteristic of the brand of politics this Dravidian state has been known for, over these past eight decades. The blend of the reel and the real, the heady combination of fantasy and farce which enables the players to resort to high-pitched, melodramatic political rhetoric during the election campaigns is already in motion for nearly a year now. With the announcement of the election dates, its intensity has increased by quite a few notches and the din raised by the Dravidian netas is already touching stratospheric levels.
While low-intensity debates are part of the game, what has happened with the comment of Aadhav Arjuna, a young leader of Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) on superstar Rajinikanth’s political moves, has turned the campaign scenario into a pitched battle between the two popular matinee idols of Tamil cinema, Rajnikanth and Vijay. As can be expected, with the carping critics panning each other from both sides for a few years now, Arjuna’s statement that Rajinikanth did not enter politics because he succumbed to the pressure applied by DMK has become the topic of the hour.
Vijay’s fans have, of late, been maintaining that the 75-year-old titan of Tamil cinema is past his prime and it is their Thalapathy, who is the reigning superstar. Recent box office figures of the younger hero’s releases justify this claim to a considerable extent. Also, Rajini’s flip flops on his political entry ending up as a tame acceptance of his inability to bite the bullet when it mattered has given enough ammunition to his critics who have freely lambasted him across forums.
Yet, during election time, with politicians covering their bases and known to be averse to antagonizing the probable pockets of support among the electorate, this comment by the TVK leader predictably drew strong criticism, with many questioning the pedigree of the young upstart and how he could make such a disrespectful comment. While DMK has stuck to an ambivalent stand, those from AIADMK and other parties have not let it go without adding their counterpoints. Rajinikanth may not add any visible value visibly to either of the two political formations but his charisma and pull at the box office is still enduring.
He has had younger directors queuing up whenever he calls them for a story discussion and after a slump, he has bounced back to be the ever-reliable guarantee that he has been known for decades in Kodambakkam. His reply to Arjuna’s comment was more of a thanksgiving to his fans and political friends, who have stood by him for obvious reasons. In a state which has believed in rotating the ruling party every five years (the exception being the last government of Jayalalithaa, which retained power in 2016), the political combinations and alliances were always clearly demarcated with hardly any space for outliers or alternate groupings which could challenge the incumbent governments.
This was at least the case till the 2021 elections. This year, with the TVK factor looming large, at least in social media and sections of the electronic and print media, the multi-cornered contest that the state is witnessing this time around may throw up an interesting result. Meanwhile the juggernaut of accusations made by the campaigners against each other keeps rolling all over the state.
