Actor-turned-politician, Vijaykanth is no stranger to drastic ups and downs in his career. His 65th birthday, yesterday, marked a year of downs, unfortunately: from a crushing defeat in the recent elections to the failure of his son’s debut film, Sagaptham.
A look back at his career shows an unlikely beginning, steady success, followed by a plunging graph.
In 1979, when Vijayakanth first made his appearance on the Tamil screens, the atmosphere was not quite friendly. The dark youth was jeered for his unusual looks. Undaunted, he went on to act in two other films that year. They failed at the box office. It wasn’t until Doorathu Idi Muzhakkam (1980) that Vijayakanth tasted success. The actor’s broad, expressive face was put to good use as Ponnan, the fisherman pining for his lover. Directed by Vijayan, the film received positive reviews upon its release and established Vijayakanth as one of the rising stars in Tamil Cinema. Sundar K Vijayan, son of the film’s director, tells Silverscreen that Vijayakanth was almost not cast in the film. “Vijayakanth sir was just establishing himself in the scene at that time. Only one of his films had released at that point, and even in that he played the villain. So some of the people involved in Doorathu Idi Muzhakkam were hesitant about casting him. But my father insisted. He saw Ponnan in Vijayakanth,” he said.
This was followed by S A Chandrasekhar’s Sattam Oru Iruttarai. In this disturbing revenge drama, Vijayakanth was cast as the ‘angry young man’ who takes justice into his own hands. The film was a massive success and went on to be re-made in Telugu, Kannada and Hindi. Vijayakanth’s image was forever tied to his role in the film, and he exploited it to tremendous effect in films like Sivappu Malli, Pattanathu Rajakkal, and Sattam Sirikkiradhu.
Despite its less-than-stellar beginning, Vijayakanth’s career is made up of many singular achievements. In his fifth year as an actor, 18 of Vijaykanth’s films were released! His 100th film was a massive success – a feat very few had accomplished before him. With Captain Prabhakaran, Vijayakanth became a larger-than-life figure. He also acquired a new name along the way – Vijayakanth became ‘Captain’: the honest, upright hero of the big screen who never failed to save the country from bald terrorists and nuclear missiles! Films like Chinna Gounder, Karuppu Nila, Alexander also reinforced his standing in the industry. His firebrand image was given a mature twist with the 2002 film, Ramana. Here too, Captain took the law into his own hands – only he was less showy about it.
But around the time middle age set in, Vijayakanth’s films, which have always bordered on the incredulous, began to tend more towards the ludicrous: he stopped bullets with his eyes, and did the Produnova much before Dipa Karmakar attempted it! His films flopped.
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In the last six years, Vijayakanth has acted in two films – both of which have failed at the box office. The jeers are the loudest ever now for the sixty five year old star. Last year, we saw Vijaykanth with a bright red mop of hair and bloodshot eyes in the run-up to the 2016 elections – a far cry from the ‘Captain’ the masses loved. Just a decade into his political career, Vijayakanth had become a divisive figure. His increasingly bizarre antics made him the favourite of meme creators, which only served to make him an object of ridicule.
With his political career at stake now, Vijayakanth is attempting to redo his image once again. With the interestingly titled Tamizhan Endru Sollada, the Captain will be back in action next year. But he will require a major resurrection to return to his past glory. His fans seem confident about it. Silverscreen wishes him luck.