A blockbuster like no other. An explosive script that simply could not have been predicted (except by Axis My India exit pollsters). A re-write of political history.
That is what unfolded Monday as votes were counted for the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly election, and actor-politician C Joseph Vijay, just Vijay to his adoring fans, stood on the brink of a historic debut win.
At 2.10pm - after an early lead for the DMK was neutralised and a stuttering AIADMK's challenge seen off - the TVK was leading in 110 of the state's 234 seats, only eight short of the majority mark and the right to form its own government.
Vijay's Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam came into this election as the unfancied challenger, up against Dravidian behemoths DMK and AIADMK in a state that had not voted for any other party in over six decades. The last time was back in 1962 when the K Kamraj-led Congress won. The DMK and AIADMK have traded election wins and rotated governments since.
Chief Minister MK Stalin and his Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam were widely seen as the favourites.
This was largely because the party-led alliance recorded dominant wins in the 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha polls - 38 the first time and all 39 the second. And also thumped the AIADMK in the 2021 Assembly election, winning 159 of 234 legislative seats.
The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam - rudderless since the death of party icon J Jayalalithaa in December 2016 - was seen to be in a re-building phase, with questions over the leadership nous of ex-Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami.
Doubts were also cast over EPS' decision to re-align with the Bharatiya Janata Party - the acrimonious split of September 2023 apparently a thing of the past - given its dismal track record in the state, a political puzzle it hasn't yet solved.
The stage seemed set for the DMK to claim a second term; Stalin exuded confidence last week when he said: "There is no doubt about victory. I am saying this not on the basis of exit polls but on the basis of feelings of party workers I see."
Except there was.
In a state where voters' only options - i.e., parties that understood the Dravidian identity - were the DMK and AIADMK, Vijay offered something they have not had in decades - a choice.
To his cadre and supporters, and on the campaign trail, he played on just those emotions, presenting himself not as an upstart challenger but someone rooted in Periyar's ideology of social justice. And, in a cheeky narrative flip, as someone who had been 'blessed' by the founders of his rivals - the DMK's CN Annadurai and the AIADMK's MG Ramachandran.
So what does this mean for the Dravidian giants?
Different things for each.
For the AIADMK this is a story of resurgence. Largely written off before the election, more so after two high-profile leaders - KA Sengottaiyan and O Panneerselvam - walked out.
Sengottaiyan went to the TVK and Panneerselvam to the DMK.
But despite the personnel losses the party rallied with surprisingly strong performances in the north and west, outscoring both the DMK and TVK in these regions to establish a strong base.
For the DMK it is an entirely different story. It is a fall from heights after a hat-trick of major elections wins in seven years. The party has been here before - in 2011, after the Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK scored a massive win, it retreated into political wilderness for a decade.
That decade proved to be tumultuous for the party as it rebuilt under MK Stalin - who took over in 2018 after the death of his father, M Karunanidhi. A similar outcome cannot be ruled out.
