Favorite Rajni Performances - V

Annamalai - Annamalai


It is easy to dismiss Annamalai as another of the movies from the later stage of Rajni's career, where the star eclipsed the actor. But the movie provides the perfect mix of the star and the actor, which is why it is my favorite Rajni film.

Rajni is mindblowing in a role that gives him a lot of opportunity to display a wide range of emotions. The innocence and naivete of the milkman in the first half is contrasted wonderfully with the maturity and seriousness of the industrialist, whose sole goal is revenge on Sarathbabu. Rajni displays his comic flair effortlessly in scenes with Kushboo, with laughs peaking in the Kadavule Kadavule... sequence (his expressions as the snake crawls over him are priceless - note particularly the yelp when it crawls down!). He bristles as only he can in the encounters with Vinu Chakravarthy and Sarathbabu when he delivers his challenges and is completely believable as an affectionate dad when he advises his daughter calmly but gets increasingly exasperated as she rebels against him.