Vijay at 50: Five times 'Thalapathy' experimented with his career
VIjay turns 50 today.
Versatility will not be part of the laurels when Vijay‘s praise is sung. The actor has become the quintessential masala film star in Tamil cinema, a successful one at that. Vijay has projected himself as an entertainer and seldom does experimental films. His critics have always had problems with how he doesn’t even try changing his look. In an industry that holds physical makeovers in high regard (thanks to Kamal Haasan and Vikram), Vijay has managed to relatively remain the same in all of his films. Yet, with a career spanning over three decades, it is, of course, natural for him to have tried out offbeat movies.
In an old interview, Vijay admitted the need for doing different things to escape the image trap. It was from a period in time when Vijay hadn’t become the star he is now. However, the creative unrest has been with the actor and hence we got a bunch of films where he is not just a masala action hero. Some of them have been a huge letdown, but these still stand testament that Vijay to the fact that the actor tried.
Priyamudan
In the aforementioned interview, Vijay mentions that he did Priyamudan in 1998 to break the image trap he was developing with back-to-back romantic films. Love Today, Kadhalukku Mariyadhai, and Ninaithen Vandhai came one after the other and became blockbusters and made Vijay a romantic hero, and the actor wanted to quickly break the image trap by playing a psychopath who murders people for his love. The film brought out a different facet of Vijay. It wasn’t a blockbuster like his romantic dramas, but it continues to be the best defense in a Vijay fan’s arsenal whenever the star’s versatility comes up for debate.
Also Read | Sathyaraj says Prabhas and Vijay can’t experiment with roles because of their stardom: ‘You can only see him in larger-than-life roles’
Shahjahan
It might feel like a stretch to include Shahjahan in the list as it doesn’t have anything radical in the story. However, when looked at from the perspective of an emerging star like Vijay back then, the choice of the film must have come with a certain level of risk. It was Vijay trying to pull a Kal Ho Na Ho in Tamil. Ashok (Vijay) doesn’t have terminal cancer but he is the anti-thesis of the protagonist in Priyamudan. He sacrifices his love for his friend who is also in love with the same person. It is a sort of story that would land a lot of heroes in trouble, and it did turn out to be a flop.
Sachein
After Ghilli, Madura, Thirupachi, and Sukran, Vijay seems to have wanted to bring the volume down and get a bit sober. All those select fans, who loved the romantic hero in Vijay, relished when the actor chose to do Sachein. It was like a breeze at a time when there were incessant storms in his filmography. Sachein had Vijay as a calm and composed college student who seemed to have all things in life sorted except for the love of his life. He challenges the girl that he will make her fall for her in the rom-com that now looks like an oddball among the masala fares of ‘Thalapathy’.
Azhagiya Tamil Magan
No one would have dreamt that Vijay, after acting in Pokiri, would come up with a film about a person with ‘extra sensory power’ and also play a dual role, one of which is a villain. Though all these experiments sound great on paper, the film turned out to be a damp squib. Still, it doesn’t take away the credit from Vijay, who wanted to do something different when his masala fares were minting moolah.
Puli
This was perhaps the film that stopped Vijay from further experimenting with scripts. The fantasy drama was set in a mythical world with dwarfs and superhumans. Directed by Chimbudevan, the film was pitched to be the end of all the criticism Vijay was facing thus far. Upon release, the film fell flat at the box office due to its puerile execution and bad CGI work. It is unfortunate that Vijay never really bothered to try out things like Puli later. But The Greatest of All Time gives hope.
