Letter from Chennai: 'Baba' fever grips Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu is in the grip of Baba. Superstar Rajnikant's multi-million rupee 151st film which had its premiere on India's Independence Day is making waves all over the state, both in terms of viewership as also politically.

The first Tamil film to be dubbed in Japanese, (the actor has a fan following there too), it is all set to rake in the moolah for the star and its makers because it stars Rajnikant after a three-year gap.

Tickets for the film, priced from 10 to 20 times the actual theatre rates, were sold out a month ago. When the film finally hit the screens, Rajnikant's fans went wild. They bathed his cutouts in milk – a ceremony reserved for Hindu gods. One fan arranged for his baby daughter to be born exactly at the time of the release of the film, through a caesarean on the mother!

Another fan pawned his mother's jewellery for Rs5,000 to plaster the street in front of the Albert theatre in Chennai with posters proclaiming: "When god comes to earth, let us all be present to welcome him". There were wild scenes of bursting of crackers and of dancing fans.

Vendors reaped a fortune from Rajni memorabilia like keychains, pendants, photographs and so forth. Also making hay were the black marketeers selling tickets for the premiere.

The film was produced under a veil of secrecy. Filmed in Chennai and in Switzerland, with a Japanese actress, Yashi Merlijuki, in the cast as also Hindi actress Manisha Koirala and with the music score by A.R. Rahman, it was given sustained publicity hype.

The film is directed by Suresh Krishna. Rajni, who is pushing 50, is said to have scripted the story besides starring in it. He has further patented the film's posters, drawings, costumes and even his looks and the film title. So also his mannerisms like throwing a cigarette into the air and then catching it with his lips!

The film was released in over 13 cities of the U.S. last Thursday. The distributor, Vijay Anand, has filed patents to prevent "illegal copying or screening of video and DVD cassettes of Baba" across the U.S.

In course of time the film is to be shown in more than 100 locations in the States. Swami Satchidananda, Rajni's yoga teacher and 'guru' who lives in Yogaville near Washington, was present at the release function of Baba in Chennai recently. Rajni was a regular visitor to Yogaville.

The distributors are worried that pirated versions of the film brought in from Malaysia will be sold.

The event management has been handled by Rajni's wife Latha.

The film is an amalgam of spiritualism, with vague imagery of Shirdi Sai Baba as also politics.
Rajni, of Maharashtrian origin, a one-time bus conductor, burst onto the Tamil screen nearly three decades ago. Over the period he has got a fan following of over a million young people.

Last month, part of the publicity was the release of some 100,000 audio cassettes of Baba.

Politician Veeramani's Dravida Kazhagam went to court against alleged denigration of Tamil icon Periyar. Rajni hastily offered to remove the allegedly objectionable words from the songs.

Incidentally, cynics said that even this was a publicity stunt.

More serious was the response of PMK leader S. Ramadoss to the film. He said Rajni had, unlike the PMK (read Ramadoss himself), done nothing for the people of the state and that he could not be a role model for the youth.

He criticised Rajni's smoking and drinking in all the films he has so far acted in, for "corrupting the youth". He suggested a boycott of the film by his Vanniyar following spread over the northern part of Tamil Nadu.

On the day of the film's release, a cinema theatre at Jayamkondam in Perambalur district was attacked by some people. They managed to set fire to the screen. The fans, however, chased them away, put out the fire and secured another print of the film for screening.

Increased security

The police had increased security for the theatres showing Baba. According to reports, at Erode Rajni fans had to return without seeing the film. Near Cuddalore yesterday, there were clashes between PMK men and Rajni fans.

Last Wednesday, at Madurai, a mob of fans tried to burn effigies of Dr Ramadoss.

Police resorted to a baton charge. In Erode special prayers were held at the Saktivinayakar temple by theatre owners. The fans have issued an ultimatum to Dr Ramadoss to apologise in the next 10 days for attacking Rajni.

Knowledgeable critics aver that the film by itself is no great shakes. Minus the Rajni aura, they say it would flop. But then Rajni is there and there are hints that he could finally switch to the political stage after Baba.

Everyone has an open mind on this prospect. Ramadoss might have just jumped the gun to take preventive political action.

Meanwhile, on the political stage, there have been subtle moves, as all parties in Tamil Nadu wait for what happens next on the national scene.

The Election Commission's decision to go slow on the announcement of the Gujarat poll has thrown a spanner in the works. There had been signs that the BJP was going all out to win the Gujarat election and then call for national elections.

Sonia Gandhi's visit to the state for the TMC merger seems, at least for the present, with no election in the offing, to have diminished chances of Jayaram Jayalalithaa teaming up again with the Congress. The Congress party has declared its intention to displace the Dravidian parties and bring back 'Kamaraj rule' after a 35-year gap.

As for the DMK, Karunanidhi has openly called upon the BJP-led central government "not to be a mute spectator" of wrongdoings by the AIADMK in the state. He took off on the August 9 police attack on DMK men serving 'kanji' (rice gruel) to people in Madurai.

He accused the police of openly siding with the AIADMK and victimising his own men, arresting over 100 of them. He asked the central government to "warn the state government or censure them or ask for explanation".

He was openly indicating his displeasure against the Vajpayee government for not helping an NDA ally in distress.

In response, Jayalalithaa gave a clean chit to the police and said there were absolutely no grounds for any action against the AIADMK government. In the meantime, she exercised her powers by banning Nedumaran's Tamil Nationalist Party after arresting him under POTA for supporting the banned LTTE.

On Friday, Nedumaran's second in command, Suba Veera Pandiyan, was arrested under the same Act and remanded to judicial custody till September 13. Jayalalithaa's immediate problems are less political than economic.