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Every
man is his own master, at least we think so. But
the men we perceive as the most powerful and willed
are often helpless at the hand of circumstances
and pressure of all kinds. Knowing what you want
is one thing and being able to do it is another
and that is where even the biggest celebrities
become prisoners of their own fame. The classic
example of this is that of the man who is considered
one of the most powerful men in Asia, one whose
voice is always heard and acted upon (in both
good and bad ways) and one who is never far away
from the public mind, whether he has a movie coming
up or not – Superstar.
Why would we talk about Superstar as a prisoner
of his own fame? This is not to once again talk
about all those good roles that the wonderful
actor in Superstar missed out on because his fans
wanted him to be their hero, fighting, dancing,
laughing etc. We have talked about that for some
time now. But, one does not really feel a great
sense of loss because even if a few memorable
roles might have been missed, what we have got
instead is nothing less |
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than
memorable
or enthralling, only in a different way, which we all
must admit has been enjoyed by an overwhelming
majority of people who have watched Superstar movies.
In short, this is not about Superstar being the prisoner
of his fame, this is about Rajinikanth being a prisoner
of the Superstar.
Much
of this might be attributed to the fact that his fans
have never been able to see Rajinikanth as a distinct
individual from Superstar. The blurring of liners between
reel and real life is not unique only in Rajini’s
case, but it does seem to have a uniquely strong intensity
which has made his fans look up to him as their savior
in real life too, as in films and thus their incessant
demand for him to enter politics.
Anyone
can enter politics, but that does not mean that a particular
person must enter politics just because there are a
huge number of people who expect him to do so. Politics,
as it should be, is a field of service (the contemporary
perception and reality is something else) where one
ideally takes upon oneself the responsibility to move
a nation or state and its people towards progress. It
does not mean just playing the leader of the masses
and enjoying the adulation. Politics is not a place
where one can be just the mascot of change and sit back,
it is like wearing a crown of thorns. Making a decision
to enter politics requires a lot of mental preparedness
because it is a field that does not allow a person who
has once entered it to distance himself once he thinks
he has had enough. In politics, ‘you either die
a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the
villain’, to borrow from The Dark Knight. Politics
is also not something which can be pursued in one’s
leisure. It requires more than full time attention and
that would mean distancing oneself from many things
that one loves most. For Rajini, it would mean saying
bye to movies, something that he loves intensely which
is proved by the zest with which he is showing even
as he nears the universal retirement age and he looks
good for many more years.
The decision to enter politics has to ultimately come
from within. A wrong call on whether to enter the field
and about when to do it can put even a person of Rajini’s
stature in a bad position. With all the coercion and
persuasion from his fans, even a calm and spiritually
inclined man like Rajini may have trouble thinking freely
and clearly. The decision has to be taken by all fans
to trust Rajini with the final call. After all, he is
his own man with ideas of a quite and peaceful life
and no one has any right to tell him what to do. We
cannot deny that his fans played a part in making him
the Superstar that he is, but if anyone has to enter
politics it has to be Rajinikanth and not Superstar.
So, let him decide and let us wait and accept what he
thinks is best for him.
(By
Sudhakar, with inputs from Arun Gopinath.)
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