"Thalaiva, what have we done to deserve this!"
- Exit-poll comment heard at a Pollachi cinema-house.

I wonder if you have had to endure the agony of a title buzzing in your head and demanding that you drop everything and do a write-up to go with it. It happened when I was working on another feature idea. In fact, I was marshalling my thoughts to be put
together in a 1000-word reply to the persistent question people have put to me since my retirement: What do I do the whole day?

When I mumble something about catching up with unread books in my personal collection, channel-surfing, and updating my homepage http://coonoor.isgreat.net, they nod their head agreeably and say, "Yes, we understand; but what is it that you do during the entire day?" This was the moment when I cried out in exasperation, "Hey Baba." And that is how the title of this Zine5 feature suggested itself and started buzzing in my head.

Suddenly, I had this vision of a beedi-smoking Rajnikant (or was it a cheroot that smouldered from his mouth) stepping out of this film hoarding at Periyanayakanpalayam bus-stand and breathing down my neck with the chant, "Maya, Maya." I had him right behind my back, invisible to others like the ghost in Sixth Sense, till I e-mailed this feature to the editors.

I can't say I know Rajnikant well enough to wish him ill. In fact, I don't know him at all. Nor does anyone else, I guess. Take my daughter-in-law, Meera, who is born and brought up in the US. Her take on Rajnikant is based on Sri Ragavendra, the one and only film of his she has seen. This is not quite our perspective. In Tamil Nadu we judge Rajni by his less engaging flicks such as Badsha, Padayappa and now Baba. The superstar gave us a fresh insight into bicycles. Though this contraption on two wheels had been invented decades earlier, the bicycle did not become the poll symbol of the Moopanar-led Tamil Maanila Congress until Rajnikant chose to ride a bike to work in Annamalai.

A politician described Rajnikant as "a spiritual Tamil" who should be viewed in the same light as Ramanuja, Ragavendra, Vivekananda and Subramania Bharthi. And there was this Dravida Kazhagam activist who reckoned that Rajnikant, who had earlier tried to emerge as a political force in Tamil Nadu, was now projecting himself as a "spiritualist" and this was a dangerous trend. It appears that Rajnikant's political friends would not let him stay a mere human who likes his smoke and, perhaps, a sundowner or two in company.

I was amused by this righteously indignant statement made by the president of a party. "How could posters showing Rajni smoking cigarette be permitted?" he asked. As a political statement this was nothing short of a propaganda coup. I thought he brought into play a smart touch of 'Taliban' there. Then came this punchline - "Can Rajnikant guarantee that no youth has emulated his style of smoking?" I don't think the star can. For one thing, such guarantee would not be worth the stamp-paper on which it is typed.

In my youth the favourites were Ashok Kumar, Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor and Humphrey Bogart - all of them stylish on-screen smokers. I can't say our generation was influenced by their style. And then there was this villain Pran, who used to drag it in long and hard, and exhale perfect rings of smoke. This was something the youths sought to emulate. But with all their contortions of the mouth, few could accomplish the smoke rings that Pran delivered with effortless ease. My point is, it is not given to everyone to throw a cigarette up in the air and catch it in the mouth as it falls filter-end first. Emulating the Rajni style
is hard work and there is usually a slip between the fag and the lips.

I read somewhere that the superstar had his fans worried with a statement that he might quit films, if Baba were to become a super-hit. It now appears that Rajni fans need have no cause for worry on this score. Ananda Vikatan doesn't even give the film the minimum pass percentage - 39/100 marks. Baba might have bombed. But stating it in such unambiguous terms is not a politically correct thing to do. Besides, how can we be so dismissive of Rajni's magnificent rigmarole in celluloid, particularly when we don't
know as yet what they think of Baba in Japan? And you never can tell how the film plays out in Timbucktu.

Anyway, I am not for taking a conclusive stand on any issue. It may well be my considered view that two and two make four. But I would not commit myself. For in a democracy there may be other views. And in coalition politics you have to accommodate all shades of opinion. After the deliberations on two plus two, a consensus could emerge in favour of several decimal points short of four.

Rajni is far from being a spent force and it doesn't make sense to annoy him by being truthful about Baba. I understand the film has something to do with a Himalayan Baba who grants Rajni seven wishes and the hero squanders them. He walks out on the world, presumably, to meditate in the Himalayas. Some might pray that he stays there.

I don't suppose it is Rajnikant's "spiritualist" build-up or his style of smoking that bothers his detractors. Their worry is that he might quit films. Baba, they feel, might prove a turning point for Rajni, the point for a downturn in his film career. Besides, the superstar is not getting younger. It was in such circumstances that NTR and MGR took to politics. In Tamil Nadu's politics a film star past his/her prime becomes a candidate for chief-ministership.

If I were Dr Ramdoss of the Pattali Makkal Katchi, I would want the superstar to stay on in films to produce a sequel - Baba-II. And even offer to make a guest appearance in it - as a reformed politician who returns to full-time medical practice at Tindivanam.
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