Actor Vijay's five most political films: Thamizhan to Sarkar

The actor is gearing up for the release of his latest film, 'The Greatest Of All Time' (GOAT), in which he plays a character called Gandhi. The opening stills of the trailer carry the message, not so subtly, Our brother is coming, make way". Then comes the voiceover - 'This is a new assignment. A new leader is going to lead you.' Vijay is no longer being coy about getting overtly political in Tamil cinema which he has ruled as a 'Thalapathy' (commander).

The actor, who in 2011 participated in Anna Hazare’s India Against Corruption campaign, had established himself on celluloid as an action mass hero. Most of his films may have had a social message tucked in but there were a few in which he directly took on issues like farmers' fight against big corporations and corruption in politics and voting.  

Even as Vijay unveiled the flag of his new party 'Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam’ (Tamil Nadu Victory Party) recently, The Federal unpacks five of Vijay's movies that clearly sent out a political message or became political:

Thamizhan (2002)

If this film can boast that it is international star Priyanka Chopra’s debut movie, it was also a film that gave Vijay an image of a patriotic Indian. The film’s screenplay penned by his father, S A Chandrashekhar, shows Vijay on a singular mission to educate people on their basic legal rights.

This film is about a young lawyer Surya, played by Vijay, who becomes socially conscious and starts righting the wrongs in society. It played a big role in giving him the image of a do-gooder. In Thamizhan, he takes up issues like water scarcity on behalf of the people and even distributes free booklets on the basics of Indian law. Also, he manages to settle India’s debt by persuading all the citizens in the country to send ₹4,000 to the Union government as their share to clear the country's debt! 

Thalaiva (2013)

Though this film is made on the lines of the 'Godfather' and 'Nayakan' and is about the son of a mafia don who is unwittingly forced into taking on his father's mantle, there were enough political overtones that got the then AIADMK CM Jayalalitha worried. There were threats from an unknown student group warning of bomb attacks at theatres if the film was screened. At first, the filmmakers and Vijay were puzzled by the hate campaign and Vijay also appealed to Jayalalithaa directly to allow the film to be released.

Thalaiva was released in other states, but theatre owners in Tamil Nadu were scared and kept away. The state government, too, said that they could not provide protection for the film and banned the release in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. Finally, in a discreet fashion, the filmmakers were told that Jayalalithaa was upset with the tagline 'Time to Lead', and if that was dropped, all would be well.

Thalaivaa's story revolves around Vishwa (Vijay) who runs a small business in Sydney. He is unaware that his father (Sathyaraj) is a gangster in Mumbai. His father is killed by an arch rival, which forces Vishwa to take up his place to avenge his death. A commonplace revenge drama but the AIADMK was upset with Vijay's father political intentions for his son and wanted to thwart them.

Kaththi (2014)

Now, in this film, Vijay gets political. Kaththi revolves around the struggles faced by farmers in Tamil Nadu after the government invests in companies manufacturing soft drinks. They use the precious water required for irrigation. In this AR Murugadoss directorial, Vijay is an escaped convict named Kathiresan, who pretends to be Communist activist Jeevanantham who tries to liaison with the government to solve the problems of the drought-stricken farmers.

However, Kathiresan begins to empathise with the farmers’ cause. He embarks on a battle against Chirag (Neil Nitin Mukesh), the owner of the MNC cola company who wants to take over the lands in the village, which has untapped water resources. He is now out to get justice for the farmers. Though, his earlier films Gilli and Nanban too had social messages, in Kaththi, it was loud and clear. That he is firmly on the side of the farmer. On the film's posters, the one-liners that were featured were 'Kathiresan's youth brigade in line of fire' and 'Let's deliver to an inspirational India'.

Mersal (2017)

'Mersal' was more like a political pamphlet said one reviewer and complained that Vijay is constantly waving at the audience like he's on a jeep at an electionr ally. In the opening scene he is doing push-ups to an MGR song 'Unnai Arindhal' from 'Vettaikaran'. And goes to brim over with pro-poor messages in quintessential MGR style. There's also an AR Rahman song 'Aalaporan Thamizhan'  (Tamilian is going to rule), which rings like a clarion call driving home the  overt text of the film. In this film, the director Atlee pushes Vijay up from Ilayathalapathy (young commander-in-chief) to Thalapathi (commander).

In 'Mersal', Vijay in a double role is out to crush corrupt medical practitioners. One scene however got him trouble with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Vijay, who plays a magician in one avatar, tells the media that there is a dire need for better healthcare facilities in Tamil Nadu. He then asks how Singapore, which levies only 7 per cent GST offers free healthcare, while India, which levies 28 per cent GST, doesn’t. This annoyed the state’s BJP leaders who felt that  Vijay was insulting the politics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

H Raja, a senior BJP party member, went on an attack mode making pointed remarks about Vijay being a Christian and accused him of starting a “hatred campaign”. This led to a war of words between Vijay's father and the BJP.  All of this became water under the bridge and the film went on to make ₹100 crores at the box-office.

Sarkar

Sarkar is Vijay's most political film to date. It is a political action thriller film written and directed by A. R. Murugadoss, and produced by Kalanithi Maran of Sun Pictures. 

The film revolves around an NRI who attemts to cleanse corruption in Indian politics by taking on a powerful party in power. An NRI Sundar Ramaswamy  comes to India to vote and finds that somebody else has cast it in his name. This arouses his anger and he decides to raise awareness against electoral fraud and contest as a non-partisan politician in the elections even as several attempts are made on his life. And there are efforts to sully his image. But he comes through as a hero in shining armour, of course.

As a saviour out to cleanse society's evils, Vijay was evidently using Sarkar as a stepping stone to a real-life career in politics.

In the film, he reels off laws and the electoral processes with a big lecture on section 49 P. (Section 49P of the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961 allows a voter to have the right to get back his/her ballot back and vote if someone else voted in that individual's name.)

'Go vote' was another loud and clear social message in the film.

'Sarkar' got dragged into controversies with its references to J Jayalalithaa in an audio track and other sequences from the film led to protests by AIADMK members. After lawsuits were registered against the makers of the film, the allusions to Jayalalithaa were muted.

Despite the hiccups, 'Sarkar' grossed over ₹250 crore worldwide in its entire run and emerged as a commercial success. Politics pays clearly in Vijay's case.