Little Superstar!
I grew up in Sri Lanka, and I’m Sri Lankan in heart, blood, bones and soul. I’ll be proud about that forever. I also grew up in a culture that was sort of a fusion. We had a lot influences from various nations, mostly from our neighbouring countries such as India and Pakistan. And mostly, in the last decade, a lot from the US, UK and a few other western countries as well. This is very evident in the style of music, fashion and the TV shows. Even our very own Muslim weddings are a fusion of Buddhist, Christian and Pagan traditions, with anything but very little to do with Islam.
This post is about something that inspired me from my childhood. Rajinikanth. He is known as the “SuperStar” in Kollywood (sort of a South Indian version of Hollywood. Different to Bollywood – as Bollywood is predominantly in Hindi, where as Kollywood is mainly Tamil. I think.) My parents spoke in all three of the main languages in my country – Sinhalese, Tamil and English. And the music, TV shows and films they watched were always in Tamil. This may also be the reason I may not know a lot of the English songs that were popular when I was growing up (like most of my English and other foreign friends). I was an late adaptor to the English language music. To hip-hop, R&B, drum&bass, dub-step, rock, pop and to pretty much everything. The most popular songs among the school kids where I was were mostly the popular local hits by local artists, or Bollywood songs, and the odd Backstreet Boys/Westlife/Vengaboys/Shaggy song. So yes, Rajinikanth – I probably might have seen pretty much all of his movies. Even the ones he acted in the 80′s or before that. And his later famous ones, which every kid who spoke Tamil as a first language, tried to imitate. Though Rajinikanth may look cheesy and clichéd, one thing he had was style. May be the settings of the movies weren’t correct, or the production of it wasn’t great, and his sense of fashion looked like Lady Gaga had gone Bollywood. But he knew the trends, the styles, the brands. He knows how to wear a tux, he was all hip with RayBan Wayfarers and was pretty much in sync with the latest fashion and styles from the west.
This video here is from one of his films. Unfortunately I don’t remember what the film was. (when I do, I’ll add it here). In this clip named “Little Superstar” Rajinikanth doesn’t take center stage, though he is the one lying on the bed controlling the cassette player/radio. The clip has been a viral hit, with over 16 million hits world-wide, and sparked a few spoofs.
A spoof from the popular TV show (cartoon) American Dad -
And another spoof, done with a little bit help of CGI/Greenscreen.
And another
More on the SuperStar, here is a clip of him in action. They may be utterly ridiculous, but the entertainment value is epic! Also, people of Thamil Nadu usually go crazy in cinema due to the overwhelming epic-ness! And, if in Hollywood Keanu Reeves as Neo can do crazy shit, why can’t Rajinikanth? He’s the SuperStar after all!
Also, something I just stumbled upon today. This cracks me up. Cringe-worthy too. But what better than an Indian Superman and Spider-woman to brighten up your day! Click here (embedding is disabled by the owner :-S)
And finally, the Indian version of Michael Jackson’s Thriller! Check it out!