Streetsmart, thinking, three steps ahead, reading the mind of the opponent, speaking your mind. Almost every reel adult character played by Thalapathy Vijay in the last 33 years in Tamil cinema has embodied these attributes. In his political avatar, however, Vijay has been conspicuous by his silence. Even when the Censor Board went out of its way to ensure his farewell movie Jana Nayagan did not get the Pongal release it wanted, there was not a word from Vijay. Intriguing to say the least, more so when assembly elections are three months away, the movie is his campaign vehicle and he claims his party, the TVK, would win the election. It is a political opportunity missed.
On the other hand, the developments over the past 48 hours have been a win-win for the DMK. With Jana Nayagan out of the way till January 21, unless the Supreme Court grants a reprieve next week, Parasakthi, the period drama based on the anti-Hindi agitation of the mid-1960s, will have a free run at 1000-odd screens across Tamil Nadu. Pongal 2026 was touted as the Jana Nayagan vs Parasakthi clash. But now the latter has emerged as the solo big release this festival season. The DMK has literally 'owned' Parasakthi. The title has a clear Karunanidhi connection as the former chief minister wrote the screenplay and dialogues for the original Parasakthi in 1952, the subject is part of the DMK ideology and it has backed the film financially, with the DMK's first family-run Red Giant movies as distributor.
Unlike Vijay, who embraced silence, Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin struck when the iron was hot. Proving he is the 'Thalapathy' of realpolitik. He condemned the moves by the Censor Board calling it a "political tool'' of the Union government, thereby wielding the tactical stick to beat the BJP with. Ideally it should have been Vijay who should have gone to town, screaming subterfuge and pressure tactics used by the BJP to weaponise the Censor Board. But by staying silent, he has allowed the Congress - and now the DMK - to hijack the issue. TVK, the political start-up, badly needs a team of strategists. If Vijay thinks scripted dialogues on the big screen alone would be good enough to win over the politically aware electorate of Tamil Nadu in 2026, he is mistaken.
By indirectly supporting Vijay, Stalin also effectively took the sting out of the Congress leaders' support for the actor-turned-politician. So far, the public perception was building that it was DMK vs Congress vis-a-vis Vijay. Stalin has tweaked it to DMK+Congress for Vijay in the specific context of Jana Nayagan.
In any other state, Jana Nayagan and Parasakthi would be dismissed as just movies. But three months before the elections, these two Tamil films loaded with political messaging are campaign dynamite. That's why there are wheels within wheels regarding the way the politics around the movies is playing out in Chennai.
First, the Congress is a house divided. The likes of MPs Manickam Tagore and Jothimani have come out in the open supporting Jana Nayagan. This has also been interpreted as an open call to look at Vijay as an alternative to the alliance with the DMK in the Tamil Nadu assembly elections. Even if the Congress does not switch partners, this support to Vijay, the group within the Congress hopes, will put pressure on the DMK to grant more seats in seat-sharing and also share in power if the alliance returns to power in May 2026. On the other hand, the pro-DMK group within the Congress is firmly of the view that status quo should not be disturbed and the DMK-Congress alliance should continue.
The irony is that the Congress has reportedly been villainised in Parasakthi. To be fair to the makers, they have stayed true to history because the anti-Hindi agitation was mounted against the Congress party's central government at that time. So while in the present context, an anti-Hindi stance is interpreted as anti-BJP, in the world of the 1960s Parasakthi, it is the Congress that is on target.
But the DMK's aim is beyond just the movie. Now that Parasakthi has been made the solo movie outing this Pongal, it wants to use the opportunity to build an emotional and ideological connect with the present generation, divorced as it would be from what happened 60 years ago. The movie thus becomes a context-setting vehicle to place the average Tamilian, proud of his or her language, history and culture, within a political context. Come April, the DMK ecosystem would hope to milk this connection through storytelling, reels and memes.
Finally, will the entire controversy surrounding the non-release of Jana Nayagan help or hurt the BJP? If the saffron party's intention was to nudge Vijay to join the NDA, this certainly was not the best way to go about it. Even though the BJP denies having anything to do with the Censor Board's decision, the opposition is bound to amplify the perception that institutional power was used to bully a political opponent.
The silver lining for Vijay and the TVK is that even if the movie does not make it for Pongal, this reported remake of the Telugu-language Bhagvanth Kesari is bound to be a blockbuster because of the hype that has now been created around it.
(The author is a senior journalist)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
