Rajni - Netru

As the Netru in the title indicates, this is the first post in 3-part article about Rajni. This post is about other movies Rajni could've acted in. The next one tackles a couple of the most common accusations thrown at Rajni. And the last post will be about what I would like to see Rajni do next (they will not be posted on consecutive days though and the next one may not be online until next week).

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Rajni has acted in too few films in the past decade or so. Both Baasha and Muthu released in the same year(1995) but in the 12 years since then, he has acted in only 5 films(Arunachalam, Padaiyappa, Baba, Chandramukhi and Sivaji) with 2 or more years between films. So one of my favorite past-times in the time between those movies was to imagine what other movies would have been great vehicles for Rajni. Looking back at the movies in the last few years, here are 3 films I really wish had been made with Rajni instead.

Muni
This is a film even I didn't like much and it is the only flop on this short list. But I think the story, inspite of being a modern-day version of Kalyanaraman, had all the ingredients that go into a Rajni movie. The first half, with the hero as a scaredy-cat, would've allowed enormous opportunities to exploit Rajni's comic abilities. The flashback(which would ofcourse have had Rajni again) created a memorable, good-samaritan character along the lines of the dad in Muthu. And the second half, with Muni's ghost entering the hero's body, would've provided enough action to satisfy Rajni fans. Graphics, which our directors seem to love, would actually not seem out of place considering the storyline. In the hands of a good director, this movie could've been quite the entertainer.

Dhool
I feel no other director can showcase an actor's macho image as well as Dharani does and that would have come in real handy in a Rajni film. Dhool is a fantastic entertainer with action, romance, comedy and sentiments in the right proportion and that naturally makes it an ideal Rajni movie (the Madurai Veeran... song alone would've been enough to drive the Rajni fans delirious). The film had a politician as the villain, which would allow Rajni to spout some politics-tinged dialogs. And as an added bonus, the film would've paired Rajni with Jo :-) Ofcourse the glamour quotient vis-a-vis Reema Sen would have had to be toned down to make it a family-friendly film - a key criterion for a Rajni film.

Mudhalvan
This one's a no-brainer. A project that Shankar himself admitted he had prepared with Rajni in mind, the actor passed on it since he thought the story was too sensitive considering his political affiliations at that time. But the role would have fit Rajni like a glove. The one-day CM concept with all those radical acts would have been a perfect match for Rajni's do-gooder image. The scenes from Sivaji where Rajni implements his plans in the villages(the ambidextrous signing, the slow-mo walks, etc.) were proof of just how stylishly Shankar would have presented Rajni in the scenes where he sets things right. And if Rajni does get into politics, the Mudhalvane... number would have served as the perfect theme song :-)