Vijayakanth: Actor-politician who brought politics to cinema and cinema to politics

As the Opposition leader in the Tamil Nadu state Assembly in 2012, during his run-ins with the then Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, Vijayakanth used to display bouts of his characteristic anger – much like he would do in his films. There were other such instances too – like some of his press meets were often peppered with a liberal dose of satire and anger.

In the 1980s, though this was not planned, Vijayakanth was already an angry, young man raging against the State. In Agal Vilakku (1979), his first film as a lead actor, Vijayakanth played an activist who is keen to correct societal wrongs. The next year, he played the role of Ranga in Sivappu Malli, where along with actor Chandrasekhar as Tyagu, he revolted against an autocratic factory management.

The song from the film, Erimalai Eppadi Porukkum, in which Vijayakanth in a red shirt plays a parai, remains an iconic song in Tamil cinema. In 1985, Vijayakanth played another angry young man role in Alai Osai – so powerful was the song Poradada oru vaalenthada from the film that director Mari Selvaraj used it twice in his films, in both Pariyerum Perumal and Karnan.

Penchant for cop roles

Vijayakanth also had a penchant for cop roles – he never grew tired of playing a police officer in the relentless pursuit of justice. From Oomai Vizhigal (1986) to one of his last films Virudhagiri (2010) incidentally directed by him, Vijayakanth loved donning the police khaki uniform. In fact, in the 1991 Captain Prabhakaran, which earned him the moniker captain, he essayed the role of a forest officer trying to nab Veerabhadran, a thug torturing the villagers. Repeatedly, Vijayakanth also kept playing the role of a patriotic officer taking on the terrorists, often from Pakistan.

Much as he loved playing cop, Vijayakanth has also played characters that defied the law. In Sattam Oru Iruttarai (1982), he played the role of Vijay who, unlike his sister, believed that the legal route will not help to punish the criminals who killed his father and another sister. In Karimedu Karuvayan (1986), he played the role of Karuvayan who escapes from prison to kill the murderer of his sister.

Varied roles

As an actor with over 150 films to his credit, it might be easy to box Vijayakanth’s career into roles like an angry young man or a patriotic cop but the fact is the actor was much more than that. The characters played by him were varied – From a hot-headed young man, he could effortlessly transition into a loving, doting brother. In films like Senthoora Poove and Vaidehi Kaathirunthal he played the role of a saviour – a hero with a tragic past, who would even give up his life to save a couple. In Oomai Vizhigal, barely seven years into his career, he dared to play the role of a somewhat senior cop.

After doing films like Alai Osai considered anti-caste for its era, Vijayakanth also acted in movies like Chinna Gounder which were openly castiest.

And there were films that showed he was capable of pulling off a comic act too like the 1989 Naane Raja Naane Manthiri. In this film he played a rude, almost narcissistic, boorish zamindar and in the 2004 Engal Anna, he gave ample space to include Vadivelu’s comedy. In fact, since the 1992 Chinna Gounder, which was their first film together, the Vijayakanth-Vadivelu partnership has delivered some memorable Tamil films that came to be recognised as comedies.

There could be no better film like Vaidehi Kaathirunthaal to illustrate his capacity to pull off an utterly melancholic role.

But what perhaps really helped Vijayakanth in his briefly successful political career was perhaps his roles as the angry, young man raging against the State. His advent perhaps promised a change that was only possible in cinema.

One has to hand it to him for taking the plunge when formidable leaders like M Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa were still around and active. Other actors decided to take the plunge only after these prominent leaders had passed away. And, while his films kept him in good stead for a while and though he tried to pull off some cinematic punches in politics, the demands of Tamil Nadu’s politics were muchlarger.