ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

From Mr Madras to DMK nominee

Of all the flip-flops that Tamil Nadu politics, circa 1998, is witness to, none perhaps is as amusing as the announcement, by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagham-Tamil Maanila Congress combine, that actor Sharat Kumar will contest the election under the DMK banner.

Talk of turnarounds -- Sharat Kumar, a former Mr Madras turned matinee idol, was AIADMK supremo Jayalalalitha Jayaram's answer to the Rajnikanth factor during the April 1997 assembly election in the state, roped in by the then chief minister to provide some star-power to her beleaguered All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagham.

Which brings up the question, what is the muscle-bound cine-idol doing in the enemy camp?

The story of the rupture is interesting -- and indicative of what was wrong with the previous AIADMK regime in TN. During the run-up to the assembly election, Jayalalitha expressed a desire to see Nattamai, the Sharat Kumar flick about a tough, no-nonsense local satrap set against a feudal backdrop.

Sharat Kumar obligingly sent across a videotape of the film to the Jayalalitha residence at Poes Garden.

Shortly thereafter, the star found to his shock that the film was aired on JJ TV, the cable company owned and operated by the family of Jayalalitha's "sister of the heart" Shashikala Natrajan. The cable company made a huge profit out of advertising -- not least because at the time of the airing, the film was still doing houseful business at theatres across the state.

An angry Sharat Kumar demanded an explanation. Jayalalitha, in keeping with the high-handed mein she had adopted during her chief ministership, brushed him aside. And that, for the actor with an enviable following across the state, was that.

Interestingly, on January 14 -- which in TN is celebrated as Pongal, the harvest festival -- the Karunanidhi-owned Sun TV aired, as part of its special programme, the selfsame film, Nattamai, that had earlier triggered off the rupture between Kumar and Jayalalitha. This time, of course, with the actor's consent, and apparently intended as a signal to the AIADMK that the shift in loyalties on the part of the movie idol was complete and irrevocable.

Sharat Kumar's entry into the DMK fold could not have come at a better time for the ruling party -- the actor is riding on a wave of unprecedented popularity in the state. His 1997 release Suryavamsham (which casts him opposite the Bombay-born Keralite girl Devayani) was rated the biggest hit in Tamil Nadu in the last 50 years. And his latest release, Janakiraman, a comedy that features him as a misogynistic Hanuman bhakt, is still going strong three months after release, and bids fair to rival Suryavamsham at the turnstiles.

A sports freak, Sharat Kumar's passion -- besides cricket -- is basketball, and his posh house in the Madras suburb of Kottivakkam boasts a fibreglass basketball backboard and hoop with a half-court. And his biggest dream? "I would like, sometime soon, to set up and run a sports school where poor, but talented, boys are given proper training in the sport they show aptitude in, for free."

Tell us what you think of this report