Nobody and absolutely nobody can exude masculine power, menace and killing rage like Rajinikanth. His turn as Manick Basha proves the above statement beyond a shadow of a doubt. Certain scenes in Basha like the one where he has a ‘friendly’ word with the dean of a university who has been trying to seek sexual favors from his sister in return for a medical seat or the one where he flies into a spectacular paroxysm of rage when a bunch of thugs manhandle his sister and beats the stuffing out of them is the stuff of legend.

The famous “Naan oru tharava sonna nooru tharavu sonna madhiri” line is insanely popular and is quoted a billion times by a billion people on a daily basis. Which other actor can boast of such a powerful performance that is indelibly imprinted on the minds of so many?