Sunday, Aug 18, 2002
Sunday, Aug 18, 2002 |
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Tamil Nadu
By Radha Venkatesan
While the screening of ``Baba'' continues amid tight police protection in the State, a manager of a cinema hall at Vriddachalam, a PMK stronghold, was kidnapped this morning. The abduction comes two days after a mob ransacked a theatre at Jayamkondam in Perambalur district and stole the film reels. Trouble began just on the eve of the much-hyped ``Baba'' release on August 15, with Dr. Ramadoss suddenly turning his ire on the actor. At a party meeting at Poompuhar, he said ``cigarette-flicking and boozing'' Rajnikant was ``misguiding'' youth. After three days of street protests and statement wars by Rajnikant fans and PMK functionaries, the film star today sent out a `ceasefire' message to his followers. ``Be patient. Be calm. And, I propose to legally take on Dr. Ayya (Ramadoss), who was and is responsible for all incidents,'' he said in a statement. Saluting the ``people of Tamil Nadu and fans, his saviour-Gods'', Mr. Rajnikant said he could understand their ``emotions'' on being prevented from seeing his new movie, which hit the screen three-and-a-half years after his last film was released. In his characteristic philosophical innuendo, he said: ``God creates some people so that we do not follow their wrong actions.'' 
For the fans awaiting Mr. Rajnikant's grand arrival on the Tamil Nadu political scene, ``Baba'' sends out a cryptic message that he may storm into politics, after all. An atheist-turned spiritualist, who ousts a corrupt Chief Minister, ``Baba'' thunders: ``I am not after parties or power. But, if circumstances demand, I will be there''. The film is quite reminiscent of Mr. Rajnikant's successful campaign against the AIADMK general secretary, Jayalalithaa, in the 1996 general election. However, after the drubbing the DMK-TMC combine suffered in the 1998 parliamentary elections despite his vocal support, Mr. Rajnikant halted his anti-Jayalalithaa campaign and possibly his political ambitions too. But, in the climax of the film, ``Baba'', who is set to retreat to the Himalayas after installing a Mr. Relatively Clean as Chief Minister, walks back to the people when the villains gun down his candidate. Meanwhile, ``Baba'' continues to trigger law and order problems. A group of PMK volunteers today attempted to burn effigies of Mr. Rajnikant in Erode, while two theatres in north Tamil Nadu stopped the screening of the film. The Additional Director-General of Police, V. Balachandran, attributing the violence to PMK volunteers, said security had been provided at all theatres.
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