Rara Avis

This blogpost is the result of thoughts and opinions which have been sequestered over time but slowly returning to surface, in the quest of meaning. Things and events which I have been observing for many years and which have intrigued me, but always lacked the cutting edge to propel me to take pen in hand and let it all out. But just like a dormant volcano, which has been slowly gathering steam underneath before making that final eruption causing much concern and displeasure to its nearby inhabitants, certain unformatted ruminations have been simmering on my mind in recent months, which I will start offloading one by one in the coming days. Folks beware!

The title of this write-up, ‘Rara Avis’ is a latin expression meaning 'Rare Bird' metamorphically indicating a rarity unsurpassed elsewhere. And I think it is befitting to describe the fan club phenomenon in South India in general, but Chennai and Tamilnadu in particular as one, because I don’t think I have ever come across such a thing existing anywhere else existing other than this part of the world. Nonpareil by any stretch of imagination!

Oh! I got to be more clear and precise. Fan clubs for what? Or rather for whom!?  Well I would say for anyone, from unheard of actors to big movie stars to corrupt politicians to their side kicks, to sportsmen, to their wives, every god damn guy seems capable of having a fan club of his own in Chennai! 

Let us come to movies first. If you ever plan to enter the Tamil film industry don’t be one bit surprised if a group of urchins accost you with a proposal of starting a fan club in your name! Starting right from Rajinikanth who sits at the very apex of the pyramid with Kamal Hassan (earlier at close quarters but now slowly fading from the scene due to his last few movies failing miserably at the box office), you have as you climb down, a fierce dog-eat-dog slugfest being carried out by fans of Vijay and Ajith who are perpetually at loggerheads (albeit friendly ones mostly!) and engulfed in a perennial battle of one-upmanship. 

Ajith Fans in an attempt to clarify who the boss is

Then you have Surya and now of late in recent years, the younger ones of the pack such as Vijay Sethupathi, Siva Karthikeyan, Vishal and the rest. The first thing that happens when you enter the movie industry and start being recognized as a capable actor is that fan clubs start mushrooming up in various parts of the state. A moniker is immediately bestowed upon the actor. Everyone has it. Rajinikanth is fondly referred to as 'Thalaivar', Kamal Hassan as 'Ulaga Nayagan', Vijay as 'Ilaya Thalapathy', Ajith as 'Thala' and so on and so forth. It has almost become an indispensable and existential part of the process in order to make one's movies succeed at the box office. 

Fans Deifying 'Thalaivar' Rajinikanth

The activities of fans club or association (Rasigar Mandrams as they are called in Tamil) deserve special mention. New movie releases are nothing short of a festival in this part of the world. Huge 100 feet cutouts of actors are made and garlanded, Pal Abishegams (Milk adornment) are conducted, firecrackers are burst everywhere. Thousands of posters with punch dialogues crop up with youngsters putting submissive photos below the actor’s mammoth image to show their allegiance and loyalty. In short an immaculate display of thraldom. 

A totally naïve outsider would be awe-struck if he ever had the opportunity to catch a Vijay or Ajith movie's release in an electrifying and rip-roaring ambience outside the more unrulier of Chennai's theaters such as Vetri Theater for example, teeming with rambunctious fans (Read 'Thala/Thalapathy Veriyargal' :P) at 4 AM on the day of release. Even female actors haven't been spared – In the more recent last 2 decades, the curvaceous Khushboo and more recently Namitha have even had temples built for them!

And this is not a recent phenomenon by any stretch of imagination. Even from yester-years the craze for cinema and cinema actors has been inherent in Tamilnadu. The activities and exertions were outright jocular even then. Sivaji Ganesan fans used to conduct Parakkum Padais (Flying clubs) who used to wander about the city on motorcycles hoisting flags and shouting slogans, and Kamal Hassan fans at a point in time, on days of his new flick releases, would queue up in thousands outside blood banks to donate blood in an overwhelming urge to differentiate from fans of other actors. 

But more shocking was the craze for foreign movie stars. My father once told me, that during his college days, in Chennai alone there were 267 fan clubs of Roger Moore, the star who essayed James Bond in many a classic! When Roger Moore was informed of this he was shocked out of his wits and pinched himself in disbelief that this could happen in a remote corner of the planet.

I did not believe this was possible, I even argued with my dad that this simply surpasses all levels of lunacy, till I myself came across one such incident which till today has left me dumbfounded.

Have you ever wondered if the suave looking Leonardo Di Caprio, a man who probably has never visited India in his life, or more so doesn’t know where or rather what on earth Chennai is, would be a perfect fit to lead the state of Tamilnadu? No I am not joking friends! When Di Caprio won the Academy Award  for The Revenant in 2016, a congratulatory poster was put by a Di Caprio fans association in Kaanadukathan (a nondescript rural village in TN, 400 Km south of Chennai) shockingly declaring him as the future CM of Tamilnadu. I was simply at a loss for words!

Di Caprio heralded as the future CM of Tamilnadu

Well atleast Movies are still fine, but the urge to start fan clubs and the love story with Posters transcends the film world by several miles. Few months back the scripted 'Big Boss' – a TV reality show that shot up TRP levels to dizzying heights, had half the 7 Crore population of TN spend every single night for 100 days in front of Vijay TV. Social media went berserk and the deluge of memes and videos was becoming a bit too much on the discomforting side that I was almost on the urge of deactivating my FB account! What was even more astonishing was the sight of youngsters garnering all the support they could for saving Oviya, the so called darling of the masses. So what next – Oviya fan clubs, posters and Save-Oviya movements started blooming everywhere. Is there a limit to this idiocy?

Oviya Craze taking TN by a storm

Movies are still bearable but politics is where you see the self esteem of followers plummeting to the nadir, which is truly saddening. George Bernard Shaw once said ‘Politics is the last refugee of the scoundrel’. In TN, one can feel the prescience of those words which are epitomized in every possible manner. Most of the thugs in politics are the ones who have made money thru every illegal manner, and it is due to sheer monetary muscle that he/she has been able to garner a horde of loyalists who would not hesitate to descend to the lowest possible level to show their loyalty. This loyalty is not one that has come from the bottom of the heart. It is only because that every single person is a so called loyalist, is in there to curry favour. Let us say if X is a big politician worth 1000 crores, and assuming a hypothetical scenario where next day he finds himself a pauper, he is not a pauper not just in monetary terms but in terms of his man power as well, for his set of so-called loyalists would have already flocked to the next most convenient bigwig where they would be better attended to. This is servitude at the lowest common denominator really. But questioning this is probably questioning the very cultural fabric of this state and would evoke a terrible backlash rebuking the questioner for not being able to appreciate the uniqueness of this culture. In short a Shakespearesque response would be shot back that “The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils”!

A poster intended to depict the cadres loyalty to the late TN CM

By now some of you may be getting the feeling that the tone is taking a more sombre colour and since this does not befit me or my disposition in general, I will beat a hasty retreat and return to the more humorous parts which are my forte. Secondly as a part-selfish motive, me being a conscientious person, I would always prepare to eschew the route to controversy to the best extent possible. So I’ll save the rants, lambasts and vitriolic outbursts for a later time :P

Right, now not willing to spare other permutations and combinations, how about mixing cinema and politics, which have been tautly intertwined since the prelapsarian days of the Dravidian movement and evolution of its ideologies. Almost every big actor has been inevitably linked to politics, the logic (though undoubtedly ludicrous), being if one is capable of acting well and garner a massive fan base for himself, he in reality must be a great man capable of doing great things for the state. With every box office success, an actor’s star appeal and worth goes up and so does his credentials for entering the murky world of politics. Years of kakistocratic rule and lack of economic growth have already left the people seething with discontent and anger. This when further fueled by unsuccessful attempts to persuade a big star to start his own political bastion sometimes leads to frustration and the results are sometimes downright hilarious. The stars persona sometimes even leads to him being compared with icons hailing from the state. Not joking at all! There were times when caricatures have been drawn up to show an actor as the messiah of the masses.

Unbelievable caricatures of Ajith as Thiruvalluvar and Dr. Kalaam

Jokes apart the culture of deifying movie stars and sportsmen is rather saddening because it speaks volumes about the lack of self-esteem in the youth and how precious time of their lives and hard earned money is being spent on mindless activities no good to man or beast. I again say self-esteem because it is only here that I have ever seen a need to establish one’s identity by perforce associating with someone else.

Vijay as MGR - Sign of the actor's impending entry into politics ?

As can be seen in the images, Ajith being portrayed as Abdul Kalaam or Vijay as MGR may look comic, but one has to peel into the layers to discern the motive behind such posters, as it speaks volumes about the deep rooted angst of the people, but now slowly coming more and more to the fore. There is certainly a strong undercurrent suggestive of Tamil pride especially considering movies like Mersal releasing in the backdrop of a wave of recent events in the state, such as the Jallikattu Protest, Farmers protest in Delhi, Suicide of Anitha and the protest against NEET, and the overall stance opposed to radical government measures such as demonetization & GST. There is an overwhelming feeling of subjugation and neglect of Tamils by the BJP government which has always maintained a pro-Hindutva stand. Hence it is no surprise that the movie which takes a dig at a number of issues such as GST, Demonetization, Healthcare System of the country etc has been lapped up by the audience gleefully.

On one hand it is true that the political system of TN is mired in a putrid cesspool of mediocrity, and we as people of TN will be happy to see stars like Rajinikanth or Kamal Hassan or Vijay wanting to jump into the political fray, change the system and lug us out of this squalor. On the other hand, what is concerning is that the fan clubs and posters are much more to it than what meets the eye. They are possibly being used as tools to incessantly whip up the passion of people and might be the handiwork of fringe Tamil Nationalist (read Anti-National) parties and elements. While we are still in nascent stages of what can be termed as a Tamil Nationalist Movement, what is fearsome is the fact that these fissiparous tendencies which have always been innate in the social fabric of Tamilnadu might cause it to become a hotbed of unrest and civilian chaos, in short the next Kashmir in a few years time.

Without taking more time, I would leave it to the people of Tamilnadu to retrospect for themselves on the path we are treading and urge utmost caution.

P.S. ending the piece on a lighter note, I am sure the Madras High Court’s judgement last week to ban the use of “photographs or pictures” of living persons on “banners, flex boards, signboards” across the state, would have sent shockwaves amongst the poster boys of TN and I wonder how they are going to grapple with this! J