The last of the Mohicans

What is it that makes people from the film industry gravitate towards politics? And what is it that convinces the public that their favourite hero or heroine will make a successful shift from a world of make-believe to another where they will solve real-world problems?

The transition from tinsel world to that of deal-making and compromise, essentially what politics is mostly about, may not be unique to India but certainly it is more common here than anywhere else.

Ronald Reagan is a classic example of one who made the switch — and rose right to the top. From Hollywood, he went on to occupy the most powerful position in the world — the President of the United States of America — for two consecutive terms, after being Governor of California from 1967 to 1975. Arnold Schwarzenegger, another Hollywood star known for his roles in films such as Conan the Barbarian and The Terminator , was the California governor from 2003 to 2011.

Back home, the list of actors who have made their mark in politics is quite long and cuts across languages and States. Just sample this: Sunil Dutt, Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan, Vinod Khanna, Hema Malini, Dharmendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Govinda, Jayaprada, Raj Kumar, A Nageswara Rao, Chiranjeevi, Pawan Kalyan, Sivaji Ganesan and SS Rajendran all tried their hand at politics — and met with varying degrees of success. The East sent actors such as Satabdi Ray and Tapas Pal to Parliament.

What sets apart some of the Bollywood actors from those in the South is that the former joined a large party, were content to be Members of Parliament — or ministers — and fade away from the political scene, as Bachchan did after just a short term as a member of the Lok Sabha, to which he was elected in 1984 from Allahabad. Several actors from the South, on the other hand, went on to leave a lasting imprint.

But none has been as successful as NT Rama Rao or MG Ramachandran or J Jayalalithaa, all of whom became chief ministers of their States.

Top it off: MG Ramachandran (left) and NT Rama Rao transitioned smoothly from leading roles in films to heading State governments

NTR floated his own party and stormed to power in Andhra Pradesh on the plank of Telugu pride. MGR, on the other hand, was part of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), had differences of opinion with then party president and Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi and broke away to form his own party, the ADMK, which later morphed into the present-day AIADMK. Jayalalithaa, MGR’s screen heroine, joined the party, was appointed its propaganda secretary, nominated to the Rajya Sabha and, after MGR’s death in 1987, wrested control of the party and became the chief minister.

Increasingly, however, it seems that the newer entrants — or would-be politicians — are finding it difficult to make an enduring mark in Southern Indian politics.

In the Tamil film industry, Vijayakanth — popularly known as Captain — started his party, made an immediate impact in the elections to the State Assembly, but then overplayed his hand and is now a pale shadow of what he promised. Two other stars — Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth — are waiting to prove their mettle in politics.

Kamal has already formed his party — Makkal Needhi Maiam (Centre for People’s Justice) — and has been campaigning on environmental and economic issues, while still fulfilling his film and television commitments. Rajini, on the other hand, is going about party formation in a more laboured — or methodical — manner, forming and appointing district-level units and functionaries.

In all this, if there was one person who stood out, it was Muthuvel Karunanidhi, the DMK patriarch who died on August 7 at the ripe old age of 94. Karunanidhi, unlike the others, was not an actor, but started his long association with the film industry as a script and dialogue writer and lyricist, all of which he excelled in. He began by writing the dialogues for the 1947 film Rajakumari .

The social milieu in which Karunanidhi entered the film industry and made his mark was entirely different from what it is now.

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In his early teens, Karunanidhi was inspired by the speeches of the then Justice Party, which was formed to counter the dominance of upper caste — read Brahmins — in government jobs and other posts. Very soon, Karunanidhi was drawn to social reformer EV Ramasamy or Periyar, as his followers fondly called him, who founded the Dravida Kazhagam to fight social evils and upper-class dominance. From there, it was but a small step for Karunanidhi — Kalaignar or MuKa, as he came to be known — to follow his mentor CN Annadurai, who broke away from Periyar to form the DMK.

A fiery orator with an intrinsic ability for wordplay, Karunanidhi made his mark in the film industry with scripts and dialogues that were a trenchant criticism against the prevailing social evils. One such film, Parasakthi , launched actor Sivaji Ganesan’s career in the Tamil film industry, and he dominated it along with MGR for close to four decades. MGR, a friend-turned-political foe, too has mouthed dialogues written by Karunanidhi.

Life in spools: Karunanidhi wrote the lyrics for 21 films, and the dialogues, story and screenplay for 70 (the last of which was in 2006)

In all, Karunanidhi penned the lyrics for 21 films, did the dialogues, story and screenplay for 70 (the last of which was in 2006) and produced 29 films. He was a lyricist and playwright too. Not just a scriptwriter par excellence, he was also a tireless worker who churned out books, essays and letters to his party cadre through the DMK’s mouthpiece Murasoli .

He was always clear that politics was his ultimate destination and he would not let his film industry commitments come in the way.

In the art of public speaking, he was nonpareil, forcefully getting his message across to the literate and illiterate alike in a simple, alliterative style that could arouse passions, evoke laughter, provoke anger and bring in a tinge of sympathy.

The social setting provided Kalaignar the ideal launchpad to make his mark in the world of politics. He successfully straddled both worlds — films and politics — without once feeling that one was hindering the other. In fact, in his case, one complemented the other.

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Which brings us to the question why others have not made as successful a transition from films to politics. One reason was that Karunanidhi was a product of his times. He was a voracious reader and would often put to good use whatever he had read and assimilated. He always communicated in a simple language.

Today, the social conditions are different. More important, there are more barriers to political entry now than there were during Karunanidhi’s time. Politics also needs a lot of money — an almost unending supply — for parties to continuously be in the limelight. The mainstream parties have perfected the art and science of collecting money, so much so that in most of these parties it is the treasurer who is the most powerful person. There are also a lot more caste-based parties now than before, which will make it difficult for anyone to tap into a collective anger or identity.

Whether Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth will be able to make a mark where many of their compatriots have failed, remains to be seen. Kamal has identified the left of Centre and rationalist plank as his identity in politics, while his friend and competitor on the silver screen, Rajini, has said he will pursue the path of “spiritual” politics. Both are hoping to turn their huge fan-following into votes. The language now is coarser than before; not too many have the literary flair of a Karunanidhi or his mentor Annadurai to couch their criticism in flowery prose.

Straddling the reel world and the real word requires considerable skill. The former, after all, is about the world of make-believe, while the latter is all about hitting ground zero.

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