The Name is Rajinikanth
Among the authors who have displayed ignorance on the central subject matter of their book, Gayathri Sreekanth displays maximum (in fact complete) ignorance. Her book 'The Name is Rajinikanth' is more idiotic than Rajini's super-flop movie 'Naatukku Oru nallavan'. I am not a fan of Rajinikanth, don't particularly like him. However, there are only 4-5 of movies of his that I haven't watched. With this as disclaimer, I say - This is the worst piece of writing I have read in any form of media. As far as I can recollect, I have not read such a poorly researched, poorly presented piece of work on any topic. To write about Rajinikanth without knowing anything about why people watch him is a tremendous achievement. In her preface, she says that her well-wishers asked her "Why write about Rajinikanth?". It seems her answer was "Why not Rajinikanth?". She then goes on to give a bucket full of clichés - "I believe him to be one of the best human beings. Vices don't maketh a man, quality maketh. Habits don't make a man bad, only his attitude. Rajini hasn't forgotten his roots; he is still basic well-grounded Shivaji Roa and enjoys the company of his driver, conductor and depot friends (huh?). He is spiritual, hate hypocrisy, love simplicity..." - essentially she is saying "bla bla bla, bla bla bla - I don't know anything about his movies". What her well-wishers were probably trying to say was "but.. do you know anything about his movies?". She indeed didn't know anything. And given the fact that this book has seen the light of day, she never got around to realizing that fact.
If I was asked use purely this book as my only source of information and speculate/ stereotype Gayathri's background/qualification to write this book, this is what I would conclude; Gayathri has written this book for North Indian/ North American readers, she hasn't seen many Rajinikanth movies, probably very few in a cinema theater. She is not a Thamizh movie fan or an avid Thamizh movie watcher. She has no idea why Rajinikanth clicks, why he has the pulse of the audience. Although she may not really be - She resembles the stereo type of a 2nd generation South Indian who grew up in North with superficial knowledge of Thamizh movies. She is probably wealthy, is related to (or in the same social circle) as movie big shots like AVM Saravanan etc. The only reason she wrote this book was because she was well-connected and was the first one to think of seriously implementing this idea. The success of Sivaji probably made her, a 'peter' puluthifying 'i don't see taamil moovies' chic to become aware of Rajinikanth or at least made her think she could put her "high society English knowledge" to write a book about him for N. Indian audience. Nobody I repeat nobody would write this in a biography on Rajinikanth; "His first film as a hero was block buster Apoorva Raajmangal. K. Balachander, his mentor, again cast him as the main lead in a slapstick comedy Moondru Mudichu.". If she is blaming people for "nit picking" on this error again and again, then it is time for her to realize why nobody else would have ever made that mistake. And this is not the only mistake. Her lack of knowledge brilliantly shines throughout the book.
She has a "screenplay" for her book. And it does not add any value except serve as a masala piece. Even-numbered chapters describe Rajini's childhood and odd-numbered Chapters describe his life as a movie star. And it is not written in a style that biographies are usually written. She fills the gaps in her knowledge about Rajinikanth's childhood by creating fictional "this is what he must have said as a child" and writes this book like a fantasy-fiction novel. This makes the book really horrible and completely unreadable. And then she makes it even crappier. She has little child Shivaji Roa Gaekwad, growing up in slums of Bangalore, saying phrases/words that suburban kids in Ohio would say - "I want summmmmoooh" (I want some more) etc etc - and you get the point. Maybe she wrote the book with the intention that kids, North Indians or worse North Americans would read it. All 3 categories would definitely not touch this book. And North Indians don't like Rajinikanth. Many make fun of him. Somebody needs to tell her that. I have no idea what made her think otherwise or why she thinks this is so important an aspect to exaggerate upon. Her idea of using Hindi words like 'ghas poos' to describe vegetarian food, 'hai hai', and spelling Latha as Lata (first, I thought it was the Thanglish word - Late'aa?) was probably with this audience in mind. No Thamizh speaker residing in proper Thamizh Nadu would speak like this. Certainly not the characters she mentions.
Don't expect a commentary on his movies, the movie phenomenon called Rajinikanth, why he decided to make a movie with xyz story Vs a movie with abc story, how he built his image, his 80s movies, his love stories, action movies, his 90s image-based movies. Don't expect to read anything regarding his movies in this book. Expect to read on Latha's father Rangachari, how handsome he looked, how he adhered to the 11-day 'vriddhi theetu' after Latha had a child and some such nonsense. Gayathri has got connections. That makes her aware of gossip - the kind that appears in Vaara Malar's thunukku mootai, Dhina thanthi, Rani and Devi. So she writes about why Rajini was not friendly with Khushboo or Sripriya, the fact that he slept around, how he almost divorced Latha (or should I say Lata), how K.B influenced his personal life, how Kamal influenced his personal life, Cauveri issue Raj kumar kidnapping issue, Aishwarya Rajinikanth's crush on Simbu, Rajini's psuedo foray into politics, relationship with Jayalalitha/Karunanidhi etc etc. Of course she also spends a few mandatory chapters on the boring oft-repeated topic of his spirituality, his gurus (some *.nanda is his guru), his good-hearted’ness and bla bla bla. Yawn!
Maybe, due to some irony, this bad book befits Rajinikanth and the legacy he will leave behind. The book indirectly leaves an impression that one cannot write a book on Rajinikanth with extensive details about his career/professional/onscreen life. While a biography typically touches on personal aspects of the person, it is irritating that this book does only that. Rajinikanth's fans will probably cringe on reading this book. On the whole - it is shocking that this book was not reviewed by Rajinikanth, his family members or any cine person this author "profoundly" thanks in her book. Should one be surprised that Rajinikanth will let such a poor book be called his biography and endorse it? It also tells me that if you have money, publishing a book is like publishing a blog post. This book is hastily written, poorly formatted, unedited, and has not been proof read extensively. Miraculously, at any point in time prior to it getting published, this book about a movie star has not been vetted with a person who knows or understands movies very well. I hope she never writes a book on Kamal Hasan. I have been duped. I want my Rs 500 back.
If I was asked use purely this book as my only source of information and speculate/ stereotype Gayathri's background/qualification to write this book, this is what I would conclude; Gayathri has written this book for North Indian/ North American readers, she hasn't seen many Rajinikanth movies, probably very few in a cinema theater. She is not a Thamizh movie fan or an avid Thamizh movie watcher. She has no idea why Rajinikanth clicks, why he has the pulse of the audience. Although she may not really be - She resembles the stereo type of a 2nd generation South Indian who grew up in North with superficial knowledge of Thamizh movies. She is probably wealthy, is related to (or in the same social circle) as movie big shots like AVM Saravanan etc. The only reason she wrote this book was because she was well-connected and was the first one to think of seriously implementing this idea. The success of Sivaji probably made her, a 'peter' puluthifying 'i don't see taamil moovies' chic to become aware of Rajinikanth or at least made her think she could put her "high society English knowledge" to write a book about him for N. Indian audience. Nobody I repeat nobody would write this in a biography on Rajinikanth; "His first film as a hero was block buster Apoorva Raajmangal. K. Balachander, his mentor, again cast him as the main lead in a slapstick comedy Moondru Mudichu.". If she is blaming people for "nit picking" on this error again and again, then it is time for her to realize why nobody else would have ever made that mistake. And this is not the only mistake. Her lack of knowledge brilliantly shines throughout the book.
She has a "screenplay" for her book. And it does not add any value except serve as a masala piece. Even-numbered chapters describe Rajini's childhood and odd-numbered Chapters describe his life as a movie star. And it is not written in a style that biographies are usually written. She fills the gaps in her knowledge about Rajinikanth's childhood by creating fictional "this is what he must have said as a child" and writes this book like a fantasy-fiction novel. This makes the book really horrible and completely unreadable. And then she makes it even crappier. She has little child Shivaji Roa Gaekwad, growing up in slums of Bangalore, saying phrases/words that suburban kids in Ohio would say - "I want summmmmoooh" (I want some more) etc etc - and you get the point. Maybe she wrote the book with the intention that kids, North Indians or worse North Americans would read it. All 3 categories would definitely not touch this book. And North Indians don't like Rajinikanth. Many make fun of him. Somebody needs to tell her that. I have no idea what made her think otherwise or why she thinks this is so important an aspect to exaggerate upon. Her idea of using Hindi words like 'ghas poos' to describe vegetarian food, 'hai hai', and spelling Latha as Lata (first, I thought it was the Thanglish word - Late'aa?) was probably with this audience in mind. No Thamizh speaker residing in proper Thamizh Nadu would speak like this. Certainly not the characters she mentions.
Don't expect a commentary on his movies, the movie phenomenon called Rajinikanth, why he decided to make a movie with xyz story Vs a movie with abc story, how he built his image, his 80s movies, his love stories, action movies, his 90s image-based movies. Don't expect to read anything regarding his movies in this book. Expect to read on Latha's father Rangachari, how handsome he looked, how he adhered to the 11-day 'vriddhi theetu' after Latha had a child and some such nonsense. Gayathri has got connections. That makes her aware of gossip - the kind that appears in Vaara Malar's thunukku mootai, Dhina thanthi, Rani and Devi. So she writes about why Rajini was not friendly with Khushboo or Sripriya, the fact that he slept around, how he almost divorced Latha (or should I say Lata), how K.B influenced his personal life, how Kamal influenced his personal life, Cauveri issue Raj kumar kidnapping issue, Aishwarya Rajinikanth's crush on Simbu, Rajini's psuedo foray into politics, relationship with Jayalalitha/Karunanidhi etc etc. Of course she also spends a few mandatory chapters on the boring oft-repeated topic of his spirituality, his gurus (some *.nanda is his guru), his good-hearted’ness and bla bla bla. Yawn!
Maybe, due to some irony, this bad book befits Rajinikanth and the legacy he will leave behind. The book indirectly leaves an impression that one cannot write a book on Rajinikanth with extensive details about his career/professional/onscreen life. While a biography typically touches on personal aspects of the person, it is irritating that this book does only that. Rajinikanth's fans will probably cringe on reading this book. On the whole - it is shocking that this book was not reviewed by Rajinikanth, his family members or any cine person this author "profoundly" thanks in her book. Should one be surprised that Rajinikanth will let such a poor book be called his biography and endorse it? It also tells me that if you have money, publishing a book is like publishing a blog post. This book is hastily written, poorly formatted, unedited, and has not been proof read extensively. Miraculously, at any point in time prior to it getting published, this book about a movie star has not been vetted with a person who knows or understands movies very well. I hope she never writes a book on Kamal Hasan. I have been duped. I want my Rs 500 back.
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