Superstar Rajinikanth's recently released film Kabali might've attracted average to negative reviews from online reviewers and critics. Ironically, Kabali could turn out to become a milestone film in the star actor's career. One question that might've lingered on in Rajinikanth's mind is what kind of films should he take up henceforth. Surely, he cannot be running around trees, singing duets & romancing young girls anymore, at least not habitually.
But if the actor, who has been dishing out commercially successful films for a living, stops incorporating the so called "commercial elements" in his movies, chances are that he might lose his much loved on-screen charisma.
What else a 65-year-old man can do to keep his audience entertained? Should he continue beating up hundreds of thugs and receive flak from critics and others for the unrealistic portrayal? What if he decides to give up the trademark Rajinism and starts afresh, say by taking up movies like Cheeni Kum? What will happen then? Will his movies still be able to make hundreds of Crores at the box office? Interestingly, answers for all these questions lie in the movie Kabali, which has been directed by Pa Ranjith of Attakathi and Madras fame.
In Kabali, except for the last few scenes, where Rajinikanth annihilates all his enemies with a pistol and shotgun (which he has been doing for a long time now), the rest of the film deals with how an aged person yearns for the love of his family. Rajinikanth never uses his 'Rajini powers' to get his family back. He is not seen emulating Liam Neeson in Taken, in which an old guy is shown fighting an entire mafia, which somehow seems logical to most of us. In fact, Rajinikanth tries to find his family like how a typical aged gangster in real life would do. And voila! He looks charismatic even when he is being rescued by a girl or while going through the emotions of an aged father.