In a birthday party scene in his 1999 superhit Padayappa, Rajinikanth's character is nudged by two guests at the party – a politician and an industrialist – to join politics.
Exasperated, Rajini asks, “Shall we start the party?” The politician falls at his feet, screaming “Thalaiva”, thrilled that Rajini had finally heeded to his request to embrace politics.
At which point, Rajini gets up irritated and says, “I only asked if we can start the birthday party.''
For more than two decades, Rajini has teased his fans with dialogues such as these, a pointer to his Hamletian dilemma. It was worth a good chuckle, the audience amused by the cleverness of the dialogue writer to link the real with the reel.
But seven months after he announced that he had left the decision on whether he should join politics to God, Rajini broke the suspense on the last day of 2017, announcing his decision to step into the cesspool of politics.
A balcony appearance, a standard operating procedure for Tamil Nadu politicians, that followed soon after to greet his fans meant he had started taking baby steps to Rajinikanth 2.0, one at a time.
The Force Behind Rajini
Obviously, no one knows the nature of the communication between God and Rajinikanth. The manner in which he attributed his decision to Lord Krishna's advice to Arjuna in the Bhagvad Gita was an indication of where Rajinikanth was coming from.
But, the way the BJP reacted soon after his announcement lays bare where the push came from, in the real world.
BJP leaders appeared on TV channels to welcome Rajinikanth to politics while Narayanan Thirupathy, the party spokesperson gave the game away by tweeting: “#Masterstroke of Modi and Amit Shah.”
There cannot be a more direct confirmation of who is providing the GPS to this bus-conductor-turned-actor-turned-politician.
Rajinikanth, thanks to his spiritual bent of mind, has always been seen as a right-leaning individual. A veshti-clad Narendra Modi even landed at his Poes Garden residence in 2014, while campaigning as the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate.
On the street, the belief is that Rajini's outfit will have an understanding with the BJP, that is seen as having done the back-end work to his political launch, and would also provide the last mile connectivity to his ambitions as a neta.
In terms of return on investment, the BJP, by riding on an extremely popular face whose appeal would cut pan-Tamil Nadu, would hope for a decent harvest of Lok Sabha seats in 2019 from Tamil Nadu.
Though the BJP has one MP from Kanyakumari, it neither has strong leadership in the state, nor is it seen as a political force to reckon with in Tamil Nadu.
An indicator of this was the recent RK Nagar by-election in which the BJP candidate polled less votes than NOTA.
But Will Rajini’s Star Power Be Enough?
But will Rajinikanth taste the kind of success in politics that he has tasted in Kollywood? If his debut speech is anything to go by, one can only wonder if he has indeed thought this through before jumping into it. Or has he succumbed to external pressures?
Rajinikanth has said his target is the assembly and the Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu and not the local body polls which will be held in 2018.
Though lack of time is admittedly a factor, the local bodies are where the cadre of any political formation gets political muscle and that, in turn, helps a party scale up.
Rajini, like Kamal Haasan, has identified corruption in Tamil Nadu as the reason why he has to step in to launch a Swachh Tamil Nadu Abhiyan.
Comparing present-day politicians to the kings of a bygone era who looted enemy kingdoms after conquering them, Rajini says it is unfortunate that the leaders of today are looting their own state.
The irony of the statement is not lost on anyone, given how money power played a major role in the verdict in the by-election in RK Nagar.
Why You Should Take Rajini Seriously
If there is a reason why Rajinikanth's entry is not being dismissed as just another gimmick, as flashy as his signature flick of the cigarette or his sunglasses, it is because 2017 has seen politics in Tamil Nadu hitting a new low. Rajini in contrast, is seen as new blood, uncorrupted by the machinations of the political world.
The reaction in the form of firecrackers and sweets, give one the feel of a ‘first day first show’ of a Rajini movie. That also confirms that most people are reacting not so much to Rajini, the person, but to Brand Rajinikanth.
An exuberant fan outside Raghavendra Kalyana Mandapam, where Rajinikanth made the announcement, said, "All 234 MLAs will be his. He will be permanent CM.''
What Rajinikanth is aiming for is a political box office hit. If it was a three-hour movie scripted by a Shankar, Rajinikanth would be CM in three hours. The people of Tamil Nadu have three years to decide on Rajinikanth's most ambitious offering.
(The writer is a senior journalist. He can be reached at @Iamtssudhir. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)
(Breathe In, Breathe Out: Are you finding it tough to breathe polluted air? Join hands with FIT to find #PollutionKaSolution. Send in your suggestions to fit@thequint.com or WhatsApp @ +919999008335)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)