Vijayakanth obituary | Kingmaker and catalyst whose dreams were dashed

Narayanan Vijayaraj Alagarswami (born August 25, 1952), better known as Vijayakanth in his film and political career, emerged as a strong political force who defied both AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa and DMK president M Karunanidhi.

From the time of the launch of his party, the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK), he turned out to be the Stormy Petrel of Tamil Nadu politics, defying both the AIADMK and the DMK, but blotted his copybook once he joined hands with the AIADMK for the 2011 Assembly polls.

Vijayakanth’s parents were KN Alagarswami and Aandal Azhagarswami. He married Premalatha on January 31, 1990, and has two sons — Shanmuga Pandian, an actor who starred in Sagaptham (2015) and Madura Veeran (2018), and Vijay Prabhakar.

A serious challenger

In his political avatar, Vijayakanth shook the AIADMK and DMK out of their slumber when his party, the DMDK, secured 8.38 per cent votes contesting on its strength in 2006, and 10.3 per cent in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections. Although his party won only one seat in 2006, and nil seats in 2009, he was considered a major force, and a serious challenger to the throne.

The AIADMK believed that it could not register wins in the 2006 and 2009 polls due to the DMDK factor. It is said that Jayalalithaa’s confidante and aide, VK Sasikala, and Editor of Tughlaq magazine, Cho Ramaswamy, persuaded her, despite her hostility towards Vijayakanth, to strike an alliance between the two parties in 2011. Vijayakanth proved that he was the deciding factor in Tamil Nadu politics, as his party won 29 of the 41 seats it contested as part of the AIADMK-led alliance and helped Jayalalithaa's party crush the DMK.

The uneasy truce between Jayalalithaa and Vijayakanth ended as the DMDK MLAs, when they took up various issues in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, were heckled and abused. There were verbal duels and stormy bouts between the AIADMK and the DMDK, and personally between Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and Leader of the Opposition Vijayakanth. At one point, when Vijayakanth raised his finger to make a point, Jayalalithaa was said to have erupted in anger as none dared raise a finger against her. She is said to have pointed out to Sasikala that her prophecy that Vijayakanth could not be trusted had come true.

The AIADMK is said to have set out to break up his party, and eight of his MLAs submitted their resignations to the Assembly Speaker. When Vijayakanth sought to get his brother-in-law Sudheesh elected to the Rajya Sabha from Tamil Nadu, Jayalalithaa ensured his defeat, even if it meant DMK candidate Kanimozhi, Karunanidhi's daughter, would emerge victorious. Such was the animosity that Jayalalithaa showed for Vijayakanth and his party.

At one time, the AIADMK government had filed over 40 defamation cases against him. But the Supreme Court later quashed them and criticised the AIADMK government for filing defamation cases that did not hold water. The court observed that the AIADMK government showed no tolerance.

Poor ties with DMK

Vijayakanth later fell foul of the DMK when he backed out of a possible alliance between the two parties for the 2016 Assembly polls and later floated his own front comprising six parties. Earlier, he had been upset with the DMK government that insisted on knocking down a portion of a marriage hall built by him, to enable the construction of a flyover at the Koyambedu junction in Chennai.

In 2015, Vijayakanth developed severe health complications that hampered his party work. He further presented a poor picture of himself at public appearances during the 2016 Assembly polls. Some thought he was drunk, others called him buffoon-like. In reality, he was sober but severely sick and could barely stand on his legs.

Sadly, he became the butt of ridicule and memes by a section of the media, and this dragged down not just the DMDK but also the five alliance partners. The six-party alliance not only failed to win a single seat but also fared very poorly in the 2016 Assembly election, winning just around 6 per cent of the popular vote.

Though the BJP tried to prop him up in the 2014 and 2019 general elections, Vijayakanth's failing health prevented a strong presence for his party. The DMDK poll percentages dropped to 2 per cent and 1 per cent in subsequent elections.

Vijayakanth was once known as a powerful speaker and could take on all opponents in one stroke, and was loved by a section of the public for his frank and transparent political stance. From 2015, the deterioration of his health ensured that his popularity in the film world nosedived, besides severely crippling his political career. His wife Premalatha and her brother Sudheesh began to take direct control of the party. For his fans, this was a huge disappointment.

Action hero

Earlier, in the film world, he had carefully cultivated an image of the Angry Young Man and was known as ‘Karuppu (dark) MGR’ — the ‘Karuppu’ an obvious reference to his skin tone and ‘MGR’ due to his philanthropic activities through his fans' association and the college that he founded. Like MGR, Vijayakanth took a lot of pains to ensure that the fight sequences in his films were a big draw. Thus, he drew sustenance from the image of an action hero.

By encouraging young directors and producers, he enabled the launch of many successful film careers. Later, he earned the trust and admiration of this film circle, and was called ‘Captain’ after the release of his film Captain Prabhakaran, a runaway hit.

Vijayakanth warded off attempts to be cast as a second hero in films of other actors like Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan, maintaining his individuality. Even if it was a Herculean task, he managed his fiefdom with his elite circle of directors and producers. This relationship soared to greater heights as he became the president of the South Indian Actors' Association, enjoying his own space, and acting in over 150 films.

As his film Captain Prabhakaran suggested, in real life too, he was a supporter of LTTE chief Prabhakaran, and projected him as captain of Sri Lankan Tamils. He would routinely lash out at the AIADMK and the DMK for not doing enough to support the LTTE and Sri Lanka’s Tamil militants.

He was disheartened when Prabhakaran died in the Eelam war. His own decline came soon after 2011. Towards the end, he remained largely a silent spectator, making an occasional appearance to the delight of his fans but had to frequently shuttle between hospitals and his house in Chennai.

In the end, it was a sorry sight to see Vijayakanth struggle to speak or stand on his legs, a huge change from the image of a powerful opponent to both the AIADMK and the DMK, a crusader seeking to chalk out an independent strategy to form a successful third front. With his death has died the dream of a third front in Tamil Nadu in the near future.