வாத்தி

One of the biggest reasons Tamil cinema normalised mediocrity as a culture is Rajinikanth. At his peak, Kamal Haasan fought to push Tamil cinema towards better storytelling, technical excellence and artistic ambition. He invested his own money, suffered losses repeatedly and still took risks because he believed audiences deserved better. Rajini, on the other hand, not only acted in mediocre films but turned mediocrity into a marketable identity. Even his celebrated “style” owes more to Amitabh Bachchan than people care to admit, much like the borrowed templates behind several of his films. Kamal brought better technology, technicians and scripts into Tamil cinema, while Rajini largely played it safe, capitalising on a formula that audiences were conditioned to celebrate. The bigger damage was cultural. “Dehatism” became a virtue, and mediocrity became commercially aspirational. Vijay followed that template, and now Pradeep Ranganathan and a generation of actors and directors seem to believe that exaggerated mannerisms, mass hysteria and wafer thin scripts are enough to build a career. Kamal tried to elevate the audience’s cinematic experience. Rajini mastered the art of giving the audience what it already celebrated. And Tamil cinema has been paying the price for that distinction ever since.