Breaking the Formula
With OTT platforms luring viewers away from cinema halls though, it has become necessary for directors to think about what will lure audiences to theatres. Multi-starrers are clearly working well with the audience, going by the roaring response that these films have received, and we’re likely to see more such combinations in the future.
Meeting fan expectations while directing a superstar can be a daunting task. Any variation from the template can earn their wrath, so a young director has to tread carefully. Rajinikanth, for instance, was usually introduced on screen with an energetic song sung by SP Balasubrahmanyam. Ranjith broke the tradition with Kabali where the introduction song ‘Ulagam Oruvanukka’ was sung by Santosh Narayanan, Gana Bala and Ananthu and included rap. In Kaala, it was ‘Semma Weightu’ by Arunraja Kamaraj, Dopeadelicz, and Harihara Sudhan.
In both films, there was another significant change that Ranjith made – he dared to kill Rajinikanth. In Kabali, the aged hero is at an event when a gunman walks towards him. The credits start to roll and we hear a gunshot, suggesting that Kabali has been shot. In Kaala, where Rajinikanth plays a Tamil don in Mumbai, he is believed to have perished in a fire – but the villain sees him everywhere because his ideology is still alive. While every Rajinikanth film since the Nineties had portrayed him as a larger-than-life hero who was never defeated, Ranjith broke the convention. Rajinikanth was suddenly human, he was vulnerable like the rest of us – the ideas that his character stood for were more important than the person.