Odoru Maharaja
The countdown begins. 14 days to go till Rajinikanth strikes back with Sivaji – The Boss. What on earth is it that makes him so popular? I remember when I lived in Kobe, Japan. It had been a couple of years since Muthu had released in India. I opened the Japan Times one Sunday morning on the breakfast table, and as I flipped the pages, I froze seeing huge picture of Rajinikanth dancing to “Thillana” in the midst of a full page movie review of Muthu. As the story goes, a Japanese film critic stepped into an Indian movie store on a trip to Singapore. The owner supposedly gave him a bunch of tapes that he recommended. Critic returns home, ends up watching Muthu, falls in love with the movie, and writes a review recommending that everyone watch Muthu “atleast three times”. In a matter of a couple of months, a distribution deal is struck, and Rajini’s film opens in a few small screens rechristened as Odoru Maharaja. Muthu, Rajinikanth, and anything and everything that is Indian becomes a rage in Japan. Muthu spreads to theaters all over the country. The Japanese put together a team of Indian and Japanese crew to make their own Muthu-like musical called Nathu. Look-alikes of Rajinikanth and Meena are flown in and the “Thillana” set and dance are recreated for a beer commercial. Japanese TV channels flock to India to make “A Day In the Life Of…” documentaries on Rajinikanth. Older Rajinikanth movies are released in succession as Odoru Maharaja Part 2, Part 3…and so on.
Rajinikanth’s power in Tamil Nadu is no mystery. His on-screen antics coupled with the immense social work his wife and him do for the poor of Tamil Nadu have made him a deity to many. What is it about this man who seems ridiculous to some, crass to others, illogical to many, that makes him such a rage among so many people? Why the Japanese of all one would wonder?
From having lived in Japan and having been immersed in that culture, I can say that it is a very strange one, and very paradoxical. Thousands of years old traditions coexist with a futuristic vision in everyday life. The country has had a very dark past that translates into the mentality of the people. There is always a sense of impermanance that runs their life. Ironically, that impermanence tends to make people in that society curl into their own corners. But there is a very strong group ethic in the country and very little importance is given to the individual. The individual is suppressed to say the least and is pressurized to belong to a group. There is anger. That anger is expressed by the Gen X Japanese man or woman through rebellion. To destroy the status quo. To fuck the system and whatever is considered normal.
Call it venting of frustration, call it insanity, it shows in contemporary Japanese cinema. Be it in the splendid psychopathic horror films of Kiyoshi Kurosawa, the anime of Satoshi Kon and Katsuhiro Ôtomo, or even the mass produced B-grade violent, soft-pornographic, gory shit that that plagues the TV channels, there is darkness and depression. Japan has some of the best movie theaters one will ever see in the world, but the audiences are not participatory. Hollywood films enjoy great attendance and almost always, its the mushy chick flicks and animated features that tend to work best at the BO because the Japanese crave a happy movie-world that they very rarely get to experience in their own cinema.
In that environment arrived a film like Muthu – something the Japanese had never seen before. Some local friends told me they felt like it was a Disney movie for adults. They identified with Rajinikanth because he looked like a common man off the street, and was doing extraordinary things. That took me back to the kind of mentality that tends to exist in Tamil Nadu as well. The most popular heroes in the Tamil film industry are those who look and feel like a commoner as opposed to the supermodel image that finds popularity in Hindi cinema. Of course the heroes project a larger than life image on screen, and that is what pulls audiences in, where in a common man lives out his fantasies in a make-believe world. That was the case in Japan. Muthu was fresh, it was fun, it had drama, emotion, action that defied all laws of physics, and everyone went home with a smile on their face. These people were truly having fun.
Cine-snobs” dismiss Rajinikanth as crass and idiotic. Many people I meet who call themselves international representatives of Indian cinema don’t even want to acknowledge his films, branding them as “terrible” and an embarrasment. These are people who do not see beyond the exterior packaging of the films. Look at the core. Rajini’s films tell real down-to-earth stories in an unreal way. That is the magic he creates on screen. His stories are universal, the characters intriguing. That’s why the rickshaw-wallah, the businessman, the IIT graduated computer engineer, and the doctor all enjoy his movies equally. That’s why his films cross over. There is so much talk across various film circles in India to cross over internationally to the non-diaspora audience. Some say, only Bollywood can cross over, others argue only the indie flicks will find a way. The fact remains that since Raj Kapoor made his mark in the former Soviet Union, Rajinikanth is the only Indian to wholesomely cross over to a non-diaspora, mainstream audience outside India. The Chinese made their mark in the world through their Kung Fu films. Similarly, Indians can find their markets through what they do best. That is not to say that Rajinikanth is the answer to India’s global aspirations. Certainly not. But his example goes to show that we cannot underestimate the movies we make. As long as we tell universal stories, we will find an audience beyond our own people as well. Indian cinema has the unique capability to export its culture on various levels, languages, and forms. Filmmaking is all about communicating with your audience. Each kind of film made in India knows who it is talking to. Now we just need to go out and find those outside our country who we can also talk to.
Now that I am done with my absolutely random, incohesive, unstructured rant, here is some stuff to check out for fun:
http://www.rajini.jp/ – Rajinikanth’s Japanese fan club
Japanese trailer for Chandramukhi
http://munmun.moo.jp/archives/artist/rajnikanth/
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Adi padiyyappa…. Awesome article man. Saala you think too deep man…..Why does japan loves Rajni = Japanese are angry ppl, need release…..hehe..i couldn’t have thought that way…but, i can buy your argument….
So funny man..never saw the Japanese fan site and the “moorthi’s” of Thalaivar….
Vijay will def. go with you for Sivaji
Vijay boss u Da MAAAAn….
ever since i read about the muthu phenomenon in japan, i was wondering how it all came about.
since u were there, been there and seen it all, my heartfelt thanks mate.
“naaan oru thadaivai sonnaaan…… buahhahaahahhaha
14 days to go IT SURE isssssss
and u need to elaborate.. mebe even another post on the japanese ‘gore’ phoenomenon.
(u have touched on it a bit here)
the amount of blood, horror and ripped flesh that come out of that place is mind boggling.
Interesting tidbit. Sivaji the movie is releasing simultaneously in Japan and India. There have been reports of Japanese fans of Rajini making travel arrangements to fly down to Chennai to see the First Day First Show with Thamizh audience. There have been reports of how Japanese young men marrying very simple thamizh girls and vice versa. It is not a wise thing to dismiss this as just a craze. It is taking the shape of a “Phenomenon”. That is where Sivaji comes in. Rajini at his retirement age is under tremendous pressure to make this movie a success for his nascent Japanese fans sake atleast. Offcourse there are Kamal fans and objectivistic film watchers in thamizh film industry who are not clearly amused by such an adoration of cinematically inferior style of film making.
As long as people like it, I guess we can’t complain as cinema is not smoking you see.
Rajnikanth had acted in a Hollywood film also. The movie is “Bloodstone. The director is Dwight Little who had also director “Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid” said that he was very impressed whith Rajnikanth who had a great screen presence. And for him India means Rajnikanth.
The trailer of “Bloodstone” is the link given below.
http://www.videodetective.com/movies/BLOODSTONE/trailer/M00011112.htm
Muthu was the remake of Priyadarshan’s Malayalam film “Thenmavin Kombathu” which Priyadarshan made in Hindi as “Saat Rang Ke Sapne”. But Muthu was more entertaining than all the other versions.
Justin, you are right on Muthu. There are a few others as well. One of the first films that established his signature style was Billa which was a remake of Don. Every shot of Billa is composed, lit, and set identical to Don. The difference is the Rajini style. I think Ejamaan was a remake of Namak Halal. Baasha had shades of the plotline of Mukul Anand’s Hum, though you can’t really call it an adaptation. Chandramukhi was a remake of the Kannada film Aptamitra, which itself was a remake of the Malayalam film Manichitratazhu.
rajni is comic hero. he is great fun. can watch his films without subtitles.
very informative post Vijay… i remember having seen a Rajni film with an audience in a Chennai theatre a few years ago… and spending a considerable time watching the people watching the film … i’ve never felt that energy in a hall since… perhaps with the exception of a Lagaan…
Rajnikanth is a superstar. all said and done
but the joy, the cheers in the eyes of ppl of Tamil nadu and south is remarkable.
Hi guys,
Rajini, the actor is no pushover either. Just that he has sold himself in exchange for the Rajini the crowdpuller. In fact his early movies were mostly avant garde and nothing commercial about them. I would recommend anyone to watch “Thappu thaalangal”, “Moondru Mudichu” and “Thillu Mullu” all directed by K.Balachander, “Mullum Malarum”, “Johnny” directed by Mahendran (I must write in detail about this guy) “Unn Kannil neer vazindhaal” by Balu Mahendra (offcourse most of you must be knowing abt this genius)”Aarilirundhu arubadhu varai”, “Bhuvana Oru Kelvikkuri”,”Engeyo ketta kural”,”Guru Sishyan” by S.P.Muthuraman, “Thalapathi” by ManiRatnam, “padhinaaru vayadhinile” by Bharathi raaja to mention a few. Any good actor would be proud to have done these movies by such esteemed directors at the peak of their prowess.
You are correct Mr. Jaiganesh, the films you have mentioned is a landmark in Rajni’s film career and the tamil film industry owes a lot to Director K. Balachander in this regard, as he is the one who “found” “Rajni” on Sivaji Rao Gaikwad at the Adyar film institute, in 1972. I read, that, KB is very much inspired the “Barristor Rajnikanth” role played by Late Thespian Shivaji Ganesan in “Gauravam”, that he decided to keep that character’s name to his new comer when he introduced to tamil film industry. Hence, he gave Shivaji Rao this Rajnikanth name, which rule tamil film movie goers heart by now all over the world. So it is KBs’ vision, one day this boy will come to the top and Rajni proved it. Still he respect KB as his father figure. There are a lot to learn from him for the Hindi Heros. As on today, he is the highest paid actor in India. He deserves all this. Not only Japan, his films will be inspired even in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonasia, Srilanka, Canada, London and even in NY.
At the beginning of his career he played as “Parattai” in “16 Vayathiniley”, now his son-in-law Danush plays “Parattai”. what a coincidence. Director K>Balaji used to remake most of Amithab’s movies and released on his birthday on 26th January, every year. Most of his movies always carry Rajnikanth as in a Lead role.
vijay, brilliant post. the remake of namak halaal was velakkaran however, not ejamaan. whenever i decide on a trip to japan, i’m going to make sure i coincide it with a rajini release.. i’d like to watch a rajini movie in a theater there and witness the hysteria first hand.
last film watched: the apartment
tonight: silsila
tomorrow: bug
day after: the shining
That’s right. I remember watching Velakkaran a very long time ago.
Rajini movie in a Japanese theater? Fans trash the theater. here are some more pics. There is a theater shot in there.
http://rajinifans.com/japanese/cm_city.asp
hi vijay, nice article, i m a die hard fan of rajini and really proud to be when i read your article. i need a favour is there any chance for release of shivaji in seoul south korea. pls send me a reply if you have any information regarding this.
Well, Being lived in Tamil Nadu, specifically Chennai for a long time, I truly understand the magic of Thalivar Rajnikanth. One advise I can give you is don’t watch a Rajni movie in the first week of it’s release (It’s anyway highly impossible to get a ticket) as you won’t understand a single dialogue amidst the crowd shouting and cheering. But it’s a totally different experience! Forget Swami’s and Sadhu’s…Become a Rajni fan to attain moksha and watch his films. The collective energy is much more higher than in holy meetings.
There are many folklores surrounding Rajnikanth. This one story has travelled all over the country and is talked about by many bollywood stars.
During the heydays of J.Jayalalitha as a CM, when she had unparalled power in the state, she was provided a security cover not even seen by POTUS. She was paranoid about attacks by LTTE and if she was leaving her house for the secretariat or any other place, the whole roads used to be closed 2-3 hours prior to that. All the roads were barricaded. I lived in Chennai during that time and have seen first hand how common people suffered. People used to leave 3-4 hours earlier to avoid being stuck in traffic for hours waiting for Puratchi Thalavi (Revolutionary Leader) to pass.
By the way, Rajnikanth and Jayalalitha are neighbors. They both live in Poes Gardens opposite to each other. One of my friend stays opposite to Rajni’s house and whenever I go there, I have to cross three levels of security. (Now it’s much lesser)
The story goes that one day Rajni was on the way back home from a shoot and as he was just 10 minutes away from his house, the whole traffic was stopped as they were expecting the CM to come anytime. Poor Rajni waited for 30 minutes but still there was no sign of Jayalalitha. His driver requested the Traffic inspector to let Rajni’s car pass but he refused that one is allowed to go unless the CM crosses.
Extremely tired after the shoot, he wanted to reach home quickly. He got out of the car, lit a beedi and started walking. The news spread like wild fire that Rajni was walking on the roads. People abandoned their cars and went rushing towards Rajni. Rajni managed to rush back into his car. But somehow the news spread around surrounding areas. The irony was, the CM’s cavalcade was stuck in the traffic because of the crowd going crazy.
Finally they realized all this was happening because of stopping Rajni. A senior police official arrived and requested Rajni to leave immediately and apologized for stopping his car! Rajni told him that he will wait till “Amma” passes but the official pleaded that till he goes, Amma will not be able to pass and it was a security nightmare for them! Rajni agreed and left! haha!
During the next elections, fed up of Jayalalitha’s rule Rajni supported DMK, Kalaingar Karunanidhi’s party. All he did was come on Sun TV and appeal to the people of Tamil Nadu that if Jayalalitha returns to power, “Even god cannot save you”! His 15 minutes appeal caused destruction for AIADMK. Jayalalitha’s party was routed and was able to win ONLY 1 seat in the assembly.
During the next elections after 5 years, Rajni decided to keep away from both the sides and escaped to Himalayas. DMK lost and Jayalalitha came back to power, but this time, she realized her past mistakes and proved to be one of the best administrators ever in Tamil Nadu history.
That’s is Rajni’s power. Unlike our bollywood superstars, Rajni’s contribution to the society is beyond words.
Very recently, In Mount Road, a police patrol was on rounds after mid night. They saw a man sleeping on the pavement besides a shop and the police woke that man to drive him away. The man was none other than Rajnikanth. He smiled at the police and told them that he wanted to experience the same feeling when he slept on the pavement when he was a struggler, requested them not to tell anyone and left.
That’s Rajnikanth for you.
By the way, Sivaji might release in Fame on 15th. The management said they will call me and let me know once the show timings are fixed. If anyone wants to see “Sivaji”, let me know, I will keep the tickets for you guys. I don’t have to say that I will be watching the first show first day!
MK – Some wonderful stories you have. Really entertaining read. Rajinikanth has been known to do some pretty strange things like disguising himself and traveling on buses and trains so he can roam freely.
Senthil – I don’t know if the film is releasing in Seoul. I doubt it because I don’t think the market there is very significant. You may have to fly down to Japan for the weekend to watch it, though i’ll doubt you’ll get tickets…movie tickets that is.
By the way I am watching Sivaji first day-first show (in LA) tomorrow night at 9! Tickets were fucking $21 each! Usually they are 8. And theyre all sold out.
@ MK bhai…that was a very interesting story…more so the fluidity with which you wrote. I remember Rajni trying to stay away from Politics for a long time…but he gave in….
I sometimes wonder how similar Rajni’s and Chiranjeevi’s stories are….but off late Chiru had joined the bandwagon of mud-slinging….
btw…i too had heard about the story where Rajni slept on the road….
Rajini’s Bangalore friends have released a book on Rajini of the old days, his struggle and his special charecteristics that have made the man, the myth – Rajini. The book has been published by Vijay Karnataka, a leading newspaper publisher. The book recounts the memoirs of Rajini’s friends and has introductory note written by Rajini’s close friend and Kannada Superstar Vishnuvardhan.
Sivaji Mania is gripping the entire Thamizh Nadu filmdom and the negative side effect is the long list of movies that have delayed their release fearing rout in BO. The significant movies delayed include Vikram’s Bheema and Ajith’s Kireedom. The double jeopardy for these movies is the fact that Kamal’s Dasavathaaram is hitting theatres in two months gap!!
Chiranjeevi will NEVER be able to achieve what Rajni achieved even in his dreams.
The games Chiranjeevi played with people, especially his brother-in-law Allu Aravind. Allu Aravind is the kind of man Anish Kuruvilla’s Confessions is all about. He is like Ellsworth Toohey in Fountainhead, but much more vicious.
Rajni stuck by people who helped him initially. Chiranjeevi does not bother.
Rajni gave films to the bankrupt and almost on the road producers who helped him initially. Today any distributor or producer in Tamil Nadu who worked with Rajnikanth are living a secured life. Chiranjeevi can never and will never do that.
Chiranjeevi and Allu Aravind destroyed the career of the most promising star, Uday Kiran.
Chiranjeevi’s son is becoming a hero soon to torture Andhra audience further. All their family children have attitude filled up their asses. One of Rajni’s daughter, who runs a graphics company is the most down to earth girl you can ever meet.
Absolutely no comparision between a Hero and a fake.
Very insightful post, Vijay Bhai. and very apt at this euphoric time too i must say.
The excitement revolving around Sivaji gets amplified every passing second. The multiplexes are not playing it in Blore, no wonder considering their small exit and entry gates
Will have to wait another month before I get a ticket, the prices as of now have gone up to 3500 bucks!
Tushar, in Karnataka there are only 10 prints of Sivaji. And those 10 prints have been distributed across the state and allocated to the theatres with maximum seating capacity, which is why the multiplexes are not playing them. Karnataka has a rule that for a non-Kannada film, only maximum of 10 prints can be screened, so the Kannada industry is protected. So because of that restriction, ticket prices have been hiked by the distributor.
@ Vijay another interesting point about Karnataka Film Industry that i heard is…they do not allow Dubbed movies….One has to re-make the movie…but dubbed versions are not allowed to screen
oh ya, get it now. I recall there was this huge furore over Tamil films being released in here recently. But I guess and hope The Boss brings them together
Ya Om, I miss my ‘vishwarakshak’s , ek baby teen badmaash, ab samundar pe, and the wonderfully hilarious dubbed films, i missed makkad man too :(
So the Sivaji prints being screened in Karnataka – They are in Tamil?? Subtitled?
Yes, it will be in Tamil…I dont think they will be subtitled…i might be wrong though…..not quite sure how the sub-title culture in India is?
no subtitle culture in this part of the world,(you only get subtitles for Manirathnam, Kasaravalli, or Adoor Gopalakrishnan) and especially when its a Rajni film, it becomes universally cool to watch it in any language.
as far as i have heard, it is being released in Tamil.
@ Vijay, if they are dubbed/subtitled, they become non-Kannada technically speaking. so I guess thats the reason that wont happen. Moreover I do not see even the Telugu version making it here.
There is a lot of rivalrly between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
From the Cauvery river dispute to Tamil films destroying Kannada film industry, the battle has just increased.
Compared to shoddy productions coming from Karnataka, Tamil and Telugu films (dubbed into Kannada) with better production values were always major crowd pullers. To protect the Kannada film industry, the govt banned dubbed movies.
For ages, the Raj Kumar family had an iron grip on the film industry and are majorly to be blamed for the pathetic situation the industry is in today.
I was in Karnataka when Dr.Rajkumar was kidnapped by Veerappan…..Karnataka was burning!!!!
Well! I was there too! I was in Koramangala at that time. In fact I had to drop a colleague of mine near Billekahalli and it was chaos! Mob was burning tyres and any TN registration vehicle was not spared! (Veerappan was a Tamilian!) haha! But it was fun!
Our exams were postponed for 1 month…that was the only fun part for me ;)
Watch out for my Sivaji review tomorrow night. Well, I don’t think I will review it because of the obvious bias. I’ll just post my reactions.
Can’t wait!
Vijay…write/post a ” fan-review”…PFC hasn’t seen many fan-reviews….it would be cool
That’s a good idea, OM.
Now that I am thinking about it, I realized half of my reviews are FAN REVIEWS!!:((
RARE Rajini interview on NDTV! Check it out.
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/videos.aspx?id=0
The example you have given to drive the point that the chinese and japanese movies being celebrated around for what they are is wrong. The usual kung-fu stuff and crouching tigers are not the one for which chinese movies are respected. The film-makers you are talking are Wai, Yimou, etc. The same is true for japanese movies.
Offcourse, the anime, kung fu, etc movies are crowd pullers like the bollywood or rajni movie as you have said but to elevate them to art level at par with Ray or Adoor’s film from India will be a hyperbole and denigrating cinema.
@Omprakash Seresta – Go pull up some box office numbers and research the history and show me facts to show where I am wrong. Wong Kar Wei and Zhang Yimou entered the Global market only in the late 80’s and 90’s. Prior to that, it was Bruce Lee in the 70s and Jackie Chan in the 80’s who were able to help Chinese cinema cross over globally, and particularly with Kung Fu cinema. The point of this article is not about who has more critical acclaim but who actually crossed over to audiences.
Same is not true for Japanese movies. Japanese cinema became internationally accessible as far back as the 1940 and 50s through the cinema of Kenji Mizoguchi and Yasujiro Ozu, following whom came Kurosawa. But these guys only crossed over on a critical and festival level, not to mainstream audiences. Kurosawa is an exception in that his films were remade shamelessly as Hollywood Westerns catering to very mainstream audiences. It was the Giant Robot and Godzilla kind of films made in Japan that actually crossed over to global mass audiences in the 80s, and now recently since the late 90s, Japanese horror films.
Nobody is equating these films with Ray and Adoor. Read the article first clearly. I am talking about popular cinema that mass audiences enjoy. I don’t see where Ray and Adoor even come into the conversation.
There is no need to pull up the box office facts as I have clearly stated that the movies mentioned by you are crowd pullers. The point I raised was about this statement of yours “Please re read the last para, [its too long to be copy pasted]” The point being raised at the last para is not about the box office records of rajni or any other kung fu movies. Here you are making a judgemental statement of equating kung-fu movies with so-called critically acclaimed movies.
I guess I misunderstood when you say cross-over movies. But do cross-over only means to reach a global audience with giant robot movie. (My point is that the cine-officials of that country did not sent it to some festivals to showcase Japanese talent unlike in India when they sent jeans :d)
There is nothing wrong in making sivaji but eulogising to the point of saying that this is what we are going to make without being embarassed. And one fine day we will cross-over is to make a laughing stock (the same way kung-fu movies are )
There is no need to pull the box office records because I have already acknowledged that they are crowd pullers.
Please re read your last para of the article where you make the judgemental statement that we should not be embarassed (like some snobs) for making it. and even if the movies did succeed to crossover, what then. what exactly we want to tell after the cross-over. Jackie chan and kung-fu movies as you have said crossed over but the officials of that country werent moron enough to send it to film festivals as a showcase of their cinema talent unlike India (when they sent Jeans, etc).
I think I misunderstood your cross-over term.
And when you say that you are talking about popular movies. what difference does it makes. there is either good or bad movie regardless of crowd pulling powers.
Omprakash, I believe we should not be embarrassed. It’s an opinionated statement, not judgemental. If these films are good enough to entertain our people, they are good to entertain others as well. What I said was that it was a matter of finding who, and like in the case of Rajinikanth, he found his non-Indian market in Japan. That’s it. It is not my business to even be bothered about what officials of a country send and to where. Each film is made by its own team and we do not as filmmakers need to rely on our officials to prmote our cinema. We have the ability to do it ourselves. I have not argued anything for or against the quality of our officials who send in our Oscar entries like Jeans. I am talking about markets that present a business opportunity and in this case, I have analyzed a market that has proven successful and given my opinion as to why. Go, entertain, make money. Simple. That is what I mean by crossing over. I have no problems with crossing over for critical acclaim either. Heck I am all for it, but that’s not what my post is about.
This site n info is good.
:)
im frm Malaysia n like many other..i too am Rajni’s fan!
this info is kinda awesome. i knew Japanese alwiz liked Rajni’s movie, but i have ’seen’ and believe.
thnks
Hello…Thanks for the nice read, keep up the interesting posts about chennai india map..what a nice Saturday .