Book Review: The Name Is Rajinikanth 
By Joginder Tuteja, April 14, 2008 - 17:11 IST
'He will be a phenomenon some day'
So predicted acclaimed filmmaker K. Balachander when he discovered Rajinikanth and signed him for multiple projects in his very first meeting.
'This boy has fire in his eyes'
He was truly impressed as an observation made decades back holds has stayed on to be so true over all these years. So much so that the phenomenon called Rajinikanth now even has a biography written about him - 'The Name Is Rajinikanth'. Written by Dr. Gayathri Sreekanth, an ophthalmologist, for whom this is her debut effort as an author, the book makes for one of the most interesting reads ever. Reasons? There are two of them.
a) Instead of turning out to be a routine chapter by chapter chronicle of the superstar's life, both personal and professional, it takes a unique approach. The book continues to showcase different instances in the life of Rajnikanth in no particular order, hence doing a flip-flop between the present times, younger days and superstar days. So, while in one chapter a reader may be taken on a journey of Rajinikanth falling for his would-be wife, the chapter to follow would showcase how Rajni's lived his childhood days as Shivaji Rao Gaekwad!
b) The soap opera feel of the book hooks you in instantly. With the story traversing genres and bringing all the necessary ingredients of a commercial potboiler - action, drama, emotion, romance, tragedy, comedy - 'The Name Is Rajinikanth' ensures that a reader takes out time to finish the book in a single setting. In fact, that's quite a task considering the book is pretty voluminous with 375 pages of solid text!
It is sheer fun to know how he was as a young boy who was hardly interested in studies and was constantly on some mischief or other. Born in a poor family where even bare minimum three meals a day was a challenge, he never ever had any respite for as many as 25 years of his life before he got his first break.
Till this age, he was living off all the help he could get from his friends and family, who themselves didn't have many resources to boast and lived on hand to mouth existence. Since, special word has been reserved throughout the book for Bahadur, his earliest friend and a confidante of many decades, who went all out to ensure that his friend never lost hope and short of resources.
The book explores various incidents/milestones in his life which helped shape the legendary status of Rajinikanth, both personally and professionally. They can be broadly classified as:
His childhood days
- When his first stint with acting lasted only three scenes
- When he juggled cigarettes around him as mere show off; something which became 'Rajini' trademark as he grew into a superstar
- When he eve teased a young girl, only to be locked up in a police station later
His youth days
- With a not-so-happy childhood behind him, he had a knack of getting into frequent brawls
- When an astrologer had predicted that he would be his own boss and would either be very rich and famous or turn to religion
- When he used work as a coolie to make ends meet
- When he started getting fascinated by the stardom in order to get rich, famous and powerful
- With no one to teach him good habits, he had least regard for hygiene and didn't have any qualms sharing not just friends' shirts but even their toothbrush
His love life
- Did you know that he first fell in love with a nameless girl during his stint as a bus conductor?
- How his second love happened to be a girl who came to him for an interview? He married this girl, Lata, eventually!
His days as a superstar
- The film 'Baba' is inspired from his own life as he has dreamt about 'Babaji' over the years
- He had his own low points even at the peak of his stardom as he suffered from nervous breakdown
- He has a habit of putting on disguises and visit places of prominence/friends. Once a lady gave him alms in a temple mistaking him for a beggar!
His brush with politics
- Though Rajinikanth hasn't been involved in active politics, he hasn't been completely isolated from the field too. He has repeatedly told his fans though that he wishes to stay away from politics.
- When cops stopped traffic on road since Chief Minister Jayalalitha's entourage was expected to pass by, he himself stepped out of his car. The challenge for the cops was to control crowds then!
- Dr. Ramadoss was open about his opinion on Rajinikanth's superstardom. He was of a strong opinion that actors were given undue importance and were a bad influence on Gen X.
His inclination towards spirituality
- Rajnikanth has always had a strong spiritual inclination, so much so that at the peak of stardom he even contemplated leaving films and adapt spiritualism
- In one of the low phases of his personal life, he had even asked for divorce from his wife
- Though reams have been written about Rajinikanth-Kamal Hassan professional rivalry, the fact is that it was Kamal who advised him against leaving film world and instead balance it with family life and spirituality.
Ironically, in spite of numerous positives going in the book's favor, 'The Name Is Rajinikanth' too falls into the first half - second half trap, just as in the case of numerous movies which threaten to fizzle out towards the end. Something similar happens in case of the book too which starts off brilliantly, makes one turn around pages in a tearing hurry, find any available space and moment to see what's next in store, know about the superstar's life in awe and admire Dr. Gayathri's work for most part of the book.
However, it is the ending portions where one starts feeling that something is amiss. There is a sense of shallowness which comes in towards the concluding chapters as the narrative starts loosing its steam, surprises cease to make an appearance while the ending turns out to be pretty much abrupt. One tends to conclude that while additional effort had gone into highlighting the childhood, teenage and struggling period of 'Shivaji', there doesn't seem to be much light thrown on his 'Rajinikanth' days.
No, it isn't as Dr. Gayathri hasn't done her research on his superstar days; she has indeed! It is just that one gets a sense of not really knowing 'everything' in entirety as 'something' out there seems to be 'amiss'! Is it because maybe Dr. Gayathri believed that his die hard fans would anyways be clued on to what makes Rajinikanth a 'legend' and hence she concentrated mainly on his growing up years as 'Shivaji'? Maybe!
Leaving this blemish aside, one gets much more than just 'paisa vasool' entertainment while reading 'The Name Is Rajinikanth'. Since entire book is written in a cinematic style, one actually feels like reading a script as characters in and around Rajini communicate in flesh and blood with numerous scenes from his life unfolding. It is the 'dialogues' approach of 'The Name Is Rajinikanth' which gives the book a sharp edge. A master stroke by Dr. Gayathri Sreekanth!
Price: Rs. 495
Rating: ****
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