While Rajinikanth’s on again-off again flirtation with politics seems indefinitely suspended for now, it adds another chapter to the ties between Tamil Nadu politics and its film industry. And though MGR remains its most successful link — for reasons beyond his stardom — this story doesn’t begin or end with him.
If S S Rajendran, Sivaji Ganesan, Jayalalithaa, Captain Vijayakanth are the more known examples, and Kamal Haasan hopes to join their ranks, there were others who fell along the way. The common thread is that unlike other parts of the country, cine stars entering politics in Tamil Nadu have failed to click without a solid grounding in political ideology.
A scholar of South Asian cinema, Gopalan Ravindran, who teaches at the Central University of Tamil Nadu, points out that the founder of Dravidian movement, Periyar, didn’t view film stars favourably. “But Annadurai (Periyar’s disciple who left to set up the DMK) was a theatre artiste and writer, and roped in his followers like Karunanidhi and MGR to communicate with people. Annadurai used a combination of mediums… There were also many factors… cinema was not seen as a separate entity unlike today,” Ravindran says.
The actors too belonged to the post-Independence era where nationalism was at its peak, and cinema often reflected that, along with themes of socialism.
One of Annadurai’s first choices was K R Ramaswamy or KRR. A much-in-demand actor at the time (1950-60s), who starred in both theatre and films, Ramaswamy was a committed DMK functionary who kept aside his entire remuneration for the party. Soon after, the DMK had two more actors in its ranks, S S Rajendran a.k.a SRR and Sivaji Ganesan. More popular than Rajendran, Sivaji too was a diehard DMK functionary. It was when he got too busy with his movie career, and branched onto mythological movies (seen at variance with the DMK’s professed atheism) that the space vacated by him in the DMK was filled by M G Ramachandran.
Gopalan says that unlike Sivaji, MGR was clear about his political ambitions and worked on this. “He picked roles where he was cast as an idealistic man, and cultivated an image of being benevolent to the poor. He marketed and branded himself for the masses.” If J Jayalalithaa was his protege, M Karunanidhi wrote the scripts for many of MGR’s films, with both eventually joining politics. Karunanidhi carved a separate space on the strength of his writings, both for theatre and film, and his poetry.
This is where the older film stars differ from Rajinikanth’s ambitions, despite the latter’s unsurpassed success and name recognition that extends to North India.
Tamil film historian Theodore Bhaskaran calls a comparison between MGR and Rajinikanth “foolish”. “Right from his 30s, MGR was active in politics, initially in the Congress and then the DMK. When he left the DMK to form the AIADMK after party founder C N Annadurai’s death, the followers he took along with him were not mere film fans but a highly political, homogenous set of people, unlike Rajinikanth’s heterogenous fans,” he says.
Apart from this, MGR was a powerful orator with complete command over the Tamil language, Bhaskaran says, with Rajinikanth trailing on both accounts.
This is why, Bhaskaran feels, that despite all the hype surrounding any announcement by Rajinikanth regarding politics, he will fail if he rests on “mere stardom”, without firm politics or ideology.
One of the most recent examples of this is Captain Vijayakanth, whose DMDK blazed to the second-highest number of seats after the winner AIADMK in the 2011 Assembly polls, but is now reduced to zero MPs and MLAs. Kamal Haasan’s party Makkal Needhi Maiam failed to open an account in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, with its vote share not crossing even single digits.
Kalaippuli S Thanu, a veteran Tamil film producer known for several Rajinikanth superhits including Kabali, says the success of film stars in politics is a thing of the past, and not just because they are not as rooted in politics as before. Actors had a certain aura, Thanu points out, with a larger-than-life image, accessible only on the big screen.
“Also, unlike the past, fans too are no longer political.”
This article first appeared in the print edition on January 31, 2021 under the title ‘Why Rajini is no MGR, and other starry stories’.
WINNIPEG – The federal New Democrats have kept a longtime stronghold in the Elmwood-Transcona riding in Winnipeg.
The NDP’s Leila Dance won a close battle over Conservative candidate Colin Reynolds, and says the community has spoken in favour of priorities such as health care and the cost of living.
Elmwood-Transcona has elected a New Democrat in every election except one since the riding was formed in 1988.
The seat became open after three-term member of Parliament Daniel Blaikie resigned in March to take a job with the Manitoba government.
A political analyst the NDP is likely relieved to have kept the seat in what has been one of their strongest urban areas.
Christopher Adams, an adjunct professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba, says NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh worked hard to keep the seat in a tight race.
“He made a number of visits to Winnipeg, so if they had lost this riding it would have been disastrous for the NDP,” Adams said.
The strong Conservative showing should put wind in that party’s sails, Adams added, as their percentage of the popular vote in Elmwood-Transcona jumped sharply from the 2021 election.
“Even though the Conservatives lost this (byelection), they should walk away from it feeling pretty good.”
Dance told reporters Monday night she wants to focus on issues such as the cost of living while working in Ottawa.
“We used to be able to buy a cart of groceries for a hundred dollars and now it’s two small bags. That is something that will affect everyone in this riding,” Dance said.
Liberal candidate Ian MacIntyre placed a distant third,
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau say the Liberals have “all sorts of reflections” to make after losing a second stronghold in a byelection in Montreal Monday night.
His comments come as the Liberal cabinet gathers for its first regularly scheduled meeting of the fall sitting of Parliament, which began Monday.
Trudeau’s Liberals were hopeful they could retain the Montreal riding of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, but those hopes were dashed after the Bloc Québécois won it in an extremely tight three-way race with the NDP.
Louis-Philippe Sauvé, an administrator at the Institute for Research in Contemporary Economics, beat Liberal candidate Laura Palestini by less than 250 votes. The NDP finished about 600 votes back of the winner.
It is the second time in three months that Trudeau’s party lost a stronghold in a byelection. In June, the Conservatives defeated the Liberals narrowly in Toronto-St. Paul’s.
The Liberals won every seat in Toronto and almost every seat on the Island of Montreal in the last election, and losing a seat in both places has laid bare just how low the party has fallen in the polls.
“Obviously, it would have been nicer to be able to win and hold (the Montreal riding), but there’s more work to do and we’re going to stay focused on doing it,” Trudeau told reporters ahead of this morning’s cabinet meeting.
When asked what went wrong for his party, Trudeau responded “I think there’s all sorts of reflections to take on that.”
In French, he would not say if this result puts his leadership in question, instead saying his team has lots of work to do.
Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet will hold a press conference this morning, but has already said the results are significant for his party.
“The victory is historic and all of Quebec will speak with a stronger voice in Ottawa,” Blanchet wrote on X, shortly after the winner was declared.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and his party had hoped to ride to a win in Montreal on the popularity of their candidate, city councillor Craig Sauvé, and use it to further their goal of replacing the Liberals as the chief alternative to the Conservatives.
The NDP did hold on to a seat in Winnipeg in a tight race with the Conservatives, but the results in Elmwood-Transcona Monday were far tighter than in the last several elections. NDP candidate Leila Dance defeated Conservative Colin Reynolds by about 1,200 votes.
Singh called it a “big victory.”
“Our movement is growing — and we’re going to keep working for Canadians and building that movement to stop Conservative cuts before they start,” he said on social media.
“Big corporations have had their governments. It’s the people’s time.”
New Democrats recently pulled out of their political pact with the government in a bid to distance themselves from the Liberals, making the prospects of a snap election far more likely.
Trudeau attempted to calm his caucus at their fall retreat in Nanaimo, B.C, last week, and brought former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney on as an economic adviser in a bid to shore up some credibility with voters.
The latest byelection loss will put more pressure on him as leader, with many polls suggesting voter anger is more directed at Trudeau himself than at Liberal policies.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
The New Democrats have declared a federal byelection victory in their Winnipeg stronghold riding of Elmwood—Transcona.
The NDP candidate Leila Dance told supporters in a tearful speech that even though the final results weren’t in, she expected she would see them in Ottawa.
With several polls still to be counted, Conservative candidate Colin Reynolds conceded defeat and told his volunteers that they should be proud of what the Conservatives accomplished in the campaign.
Political watchers had a keen eye on the results to see if the Tories could sway traditionally NDP voters on issues related to labour and affordability.
Meanwhile in the byelection race in the Montreal riding of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun the NDP, Liberals and Bloc Québécois remained locked in an extremely tight three-way race as the results trickled in slowly.
The Liberal stronghold riding had a record 91 names on the ballot, and the results aren’t expected until the early hours of the morning.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
