Claimant (Atlee) of SRK Saar!

In an early scene in Atleersquos Mersal 2017 the hero as usual lsquoThalapathyrsquo Commander Vijay gets racially profiled at Paris airport apparently because hersquos showed up in shirt and munduOnce let free Vijay exults ldquoWhenever we think we are big shots we should just come to the airport The way they treat us show us that wersquore just ordinary people I didnrsquot say this It is Shah Rukh Khanrsquos SRK quoterdquoThis is reference to the times that SRK has similarly been held up at American airports While in custody Vijayrsquos character notices a woman in need of medical help He whacks the shit out of the airport cops rushes to attend to the woman slices her neck with his credit card sucks her blood out of a straw Shersquos fineVijay is Dr Maaran the worldrsquos top surgeon plus medical philanthropist Therersquos another side to Vijay in the film of an impossible magician VetrimaaranmdashIrsquom guessing named after my favouriteTamil filmmakerThe third Vijay in Mersal plays the father Likewise in Atleersquos Bigil 2019 Vijay plays both father and son Does this propensity to cast the lead in multiple roles make Atlee the favoured choice for SRK to similarly direct him in Jawan 2023mdashthe directorrsquos first Hindi movie with a nearly allTamil castcrewThis isnrsquot the first such Madras move for SRK Hersquos worked under Chennai directors Mani Ratnam Dil Se 1998 Santosh Sivan Asoka 2001 KS Adhiyaman Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam 2002 even Kamal Haasan for a cameo Hey Ram lsquoWorked underrsquo is inaccurate usage In desi mainstream the star is the system He often casts the director instead of the way aroundAtlee is a natural fit also because few Bollywood superstars have greenlit that many doublemultiple roles in their career as SRK Think about it Karan Arjun 1995 English Babu Desi Mem 1996 Duplicate 1998 Paheli 2005 Don 2006 Om Shanti Om 2007 Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi 2008 RaOne 2011 Fan 2016You could argue a couple of these arenrsquot doubleroles but the same character playing diametrically different parts A lot like Vijay in Atleersquos Theri 2016 Which also makes Atlee the Rakesh Roshan of KollywoodAlso read Let caution be a part of Dahi Handi festivitiesThatrsquos what inevitably happened in pretty much all Roshan pix no Itrsquos a straightoff doublerole Kishen Kanhaiya Karan Arjun Kaho Nahellip Pyar Haai which is anyway innate to a superhero film Koihellip Mil Gaya KrrishIf not the leadrsquos transformation is so stark they become two different people like Rekha Khoon Bhari Maang hiding her identity to avenge the wrongs eventuallyThe latter equals Vijay in Theri This isnrsquot to suggest thatrsquos all there is as an excuse for Atleersquos mad massy machoman actionersBigil for instance is pure sports dramamdashabout a downandout former player leading a female team of footballers as coach Reminds you of SRKrsquos Chak De India 2007 what elseArun Kumar 36 screencredit name Atleemdashunsure if thatrsquos after Clement Attlee the British PM at Indiarsquos independencemdashdebuted as filmmaker with the romance Raja Rani 2013Starring Arya Nayanthara produced by Aamir Khanrsquos Ghajini director A R Murugadoss It seemed a mild throwback to Ratnamrsquos sombre Mouna Ragam 1986 only sillier and perhaps more funI heard the kid in Theri say lsquoAll is wellrsquo thatrsquos a nod to Aamirstarrer 3 Idiots the Tamil remake of which Nanban 2012 Atlee assisted on for gizmogeek director S Shankar whose superb Rajinikanth blockbuster EnthiranRobot 2010 he worked on as wellHis directorial debut onwards Atlee has delivered four consecutive hitsmdashRaja Rani available on Disney Hotstar Theri thatrsquos Policeodu dubbed in Telugu then Mersal Bigil all on Amazon Prime Video Irsquove watched them consecutively too before Jawan In my field itrsquos called homeworkmdashmany rightly wonder if thatrsquos any work at all yeah sureWhatrsquos common between Atleersquos films Firstly the heroines so lightskinned to the point that the British Amy Jackson plays a Mallu opposite Vijay in Theri Probably thatrsquos just Tamil mainstream for you Of his stock actors I especially enjoy the likeably unusual presence of the lean bald shrillvoiced Motta RajendranOr the frizzyhaired broadfaced Yogi Babu who may well be the Tamil lsquoJohnny Leverrsquo of his times Watched him last on the big screen in Vijayrsquos Pongal release Varisu 2023 Loved him most headlining Mandela 2021 NetflixThe point of Atleersquos pictures of course being how dementedly dangerous and dirty business ismdashwhether medicine sports or politics None of the above explains lsquoAtlee X SRKrsquo obviouslyNo part of the planet I reckon is sworn to stardom for cinema as Chennai still Not even Hyderabad And no Bombay film actor has been as intellectually wedded to the star system as SRK Not even Salman None of this is narcissism if it sells tickets or wins elections as it were As with lsquoVijay X Atleersquo The filmmaker gets lauded for projecting the starimage right Merger of onscreen persona and person in the audiencersquos eyes is complete You pull off that emotion foremostThe most popular Jawan line before its release is the meta ldquoBefore you touch my son talk to his fatherrdquo Best line for Vijay in Atleersquos Theri ldquoLet me see you touch my child if you pride yourself in being a manrdquo AhaMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper