All hail the Emperor!

I am a converted Rajini fan, but, now, I am an ardent Rajini fan. For a long time, mass appeal of Rajini movies did not appeal to me. I found them too silly or, maybe, I took myself too seriously. Both are true to some extent. I always thought that Rajini movies were good comic relief, which one could watch if they didn’t have anything else to do in life. Now, nothing has changed in his movies. He still delivers the same style with similar dialogues. But only now, have I understood why he is well and truly the real superstar.

The change in my perception is not because I saw new facets in acting. It is not because of the grand scale of his movies. It is not even because of his off-screen humility. It is because Rajini has found something that most people, in the excitement of their own day-to-day life, forget to look for. Unlike many others, over time, Rajini has developed a deep understanding of himself and has the mental strength to not get carried away by the din that the millions of fans and fan clubs create. He , perhaps, remembers that he is Shivaji Rao Gaekwad and, perhaps, remembers it all too clearly! Simply put, his brilliance lies in his extraordinary self-awareness. Rajini also possesses an excellent practical awareness of the environment he operates under. But his true greatness lies in the fact he has completely internalized this knowledge and lives his life under the aegis of this knowledge.

He may not be the most talented actor, but he has specialized in one aspect of acting that is unique to him – style. He has time and time again delivered on that style. People laugh, sometimes at him. People mock him, mimic him and imitate him. But he steadfastly has carried that mantra for several years without distractions and without the need for experimentation. All his movies and all his characters merely improvise on it. In some ways, his movies can be stitched together to create one mega movie with multiple forms of the indomitable Rajini style! Many others imitated but failed. Maybe they weren’t good enough, maybe they weren't committed enough.

But Rajini also knows style alone won’t get eyeballs. And, therefore, it is not coincidence that his movies have excellent music, best directors, top co-actors and, most importantly, some of the biggest promotional campaigns. In some cases, Rajini, himself, even provides tacit, or even explicit, downside insurance against the failure of his movies.

It is this collective effort of some very talented people that revolves around the style maestro allows him to completely synchronize the delivery of his movie content to exactly what the audience expects. He delivers -- every single time!

Essentially, Rajini identified a brand and built on that single brand repeatedly with the support of an extremely competent team. These make him a brilliant strategist. Add to this his humble and genial off-screen personality, we have the only real superstar in Indian cinema. Rajini is indeed the Southwest Airlines of the movie stars in India.

And here is a funny/nice account of Rajini from Slate.com

An ode to the spirit of the Supers

In the past few months I’ve seen quite a few superhero movies. I was profoundly moved by the lives our supers lead and decided to dedicate a few lines to the poor fellows.

All superdudes seem to have a poignant story that drives them to a point where they are socially un-presentable. All that the poor guy wants is a place in this complicated and judgmental world. So what if they were stupid enough to be bit by a spider or dumb enough to be dressed like a bat. Why wouldn’t people not understand a simple fact that krypton is a real planet and not a figment of imagination of a disturbed cerebra. All these and more insinuations scar their already distressed soul. It ultimately transpires into rather unconventional sartorial practices –relegating them deeper into the realms of anonymity.

And, it is not as if their job is easy. Almost always they battle an evil mad-scientist. All these mad geeks seem to have invented some form of plutonium enriched cosmos-vaporizing machine and are usually bent on blowing their brains out, along with the rest of the complicated, judgemental and pedantic world. The worst part is that these mad geeks never ever create any user manual to defuse the damned device. And it is not as if these nutjobs can be talked out of it. They are usually dogmatic, argumentative and are fuelled by coffee. Also, they emit unpleasant odor.

The only option that our superbuddy has is to put on his costume, cross the seven seas, wade thro’ the thick forests, fight the dangerous minions and ultimately put out the plutonium enriched cosmos-vaporizing machine just in time to save himself, the nosy but a hot reporter who is curiously tied to the plutonium enriched cosmos-vaporizing machine and also the rest of the complicated, judgmental, pedantic and conniving world – exactly in that order of priority.

Sometimes when the supster is clearing out the place, it hits our fella that he meets only two kinds people in his line of work – smelly mad geeks or nosy reporters. While both are suicidal and can potentially eat his brain out in one form or other, he decides test waters with the nosy reporter. Smelly mad geeks seem to have a lower social acceptance than the superhero himself.

So in a perfectly romantic place, surrounded by bombs, tanks, broken metals parts and all other forms of ill-conceived weaponry, our hero expresses his interest in spending much of his non-crime chasing life with this precariously perched heroine. As the girl, who is literally heels over head, elaborately explains the terms of endearment, our friend begins to understand the exact reasons why the mad geek had tied this specific to the plutonium enriched cosmos-vaporizing machine.

At that instant, our man profusely thanks the cover of anonymity that his super costume provides and saves himself, yet again, from the smelly mad geek and nosy reporter. He heads back to his cave with no recognition of his work, no gratitude for his efforts - only to be confronted by increased insurance premiums and more laundry to do.

As you will now agree, the supers indeed lead a miserable, lonely and an unrewarding life. All I can say is please join me in creating awareness about the wretched dwelling conditions and the sub-human work environments that our super-humans endure. May their scarred souls rest in one piece for now and may all the mad geeks start using Listerine.

Why, Robot !?!

I recently saw the Will Smith movie I, Robot and I tried very hard to find one good reason why the movie was made. The producers, in a single-minded quest to create mind-blowing action scenes, forget to add a motive behind the 105 min crap they dish out. This movie will deeply scar Asimov's soul for it claims to be inspired by one of his stories. But the fact, however, is that no one needs any sort of inspiration to come up with story like this.

This is one movie where you'd find popcorns much more interesting and much more exquisitely designed. If you don’t buy popcorns at the movie theatre and end up at this movie, God save you and your kind.

As one movie critic beautifully puts it, after the movie, I, Robot, "maybe I should have my own wiring examined."