Spotlight on Ultimate Star, 'Thalai', Ajith

What went wrong with this enthusiastic performer? None of his recent movies have been inspiring. I have not even seen his recent movie like Jana, Ji, etc. His last movie I saw was Anjaneya, which was a total disaster at the box office.

So, where did things go off-TRACK??

• He got side-tracked heavily by the car racing fantasy. This is never going to help. He chose to get distracted when he had a nice potential to make it big. I am not sure how this helped him personally, but as far as his position in Kollywood, this was a crash on the race course to victory.
• He got married to Shalini, that is a good thing since the distraction of love was not for too long and he got into a wedlock pretty soon, but I am not sure how it impacted his performances.
• I believe he stopped being his natural self and instead chose to play roles with a pride that a star should not mix too much into his performances.
  
• His roles became stereotyped as a ruf n tuf guy with a good heart, this looked good in Dheena and a totally negative role in Asoka won him some praises, but he carried this too far. His fight sequences were also not all that novel with every new movie.
  
• His instinct for comedy also gradually disappeared in recent movies and tamil audience always enjoys a lead star with a penchant for comedy. Very successful examples are Superstar Rajinikanth, Kamal and of course Vijay.
• I think he began immitating some of the famous stars. I could see some evidence of he acting like Kamal instead of his natural self. His portrayal in Kandukondain went down very well with the audience. Similarly his sincere portrayals in Vaalee, Aasai were all blockbuster hits. We don't see that anymore.
• Directors and Producers lost interest in him since he was almost treating Kollywood as his hobby and racing as his profession, so none of his recent movies have really been a big banner movie and have not boasted of very good music or technicians.
• The competition in Dhanush, Simbu, and others have started warming up their young engines vociferously, so middle-aged stars need to get more creative when choosing and playing roles.
  

Can we see traces of this versatile star in his upcoming movie, Godfather?? Only time will tell us. Tamil audience will give him a chance to resurrect his career if he takes it seriously. Otherwise it is viduTalai from Kollywood and that's not as good as the term sounds. Thursday, June 23, 2005 at 11:36 AM