28 Mar 2009, 0416 hrs IST
Assisting his father in running the family rice mill in a dusty street in Madurai town in
southern Tamil Nadu, young Vijayaraj, a crazy fan
of matinee idol MGR, preferred to go
to watch MGR, rather than listen to his real teachers at school. The youth with unkempt hair relished re-enacting film scenes to his friends, but never dreamt of making it big in the Tamil film industry.
Vijayaraj, a school dropout, was a star among his friends due to his philanthropic nature. He was also known to be humane and used to freely mingle with workers in his rice mill and even share his food with them. Even when young, Vijayaraj juggled his time between managing the mill and pursuing his passion for movies.
A Madurai-based film distributor who was planning to make movies took him to Chennai, the destination of all starry-eyed youths, in 1976. However, the dream factory did not embrace the dark, 24-year-old with hardy, unsophisticated looks.
Seen as another actor in the Rajnikanth mould, Vijayaraj was cast alongside the emerging superstar in En Kelvikku Enna Pathil (What is the answer to my question), but was dumped. Many refused to act with him and big banner film-makers did not come forward to do movies with him. Fortune finally favoured him after he was rechristened Vijayakanth and got to play the protagonist in Inikkum Ilamai (Sweet Youth) in 1979.
Not one to look back after that, he went on to feature in several hits and became one of the top heroes in Tamil, acting in more than 150 films. He won the sobriquet captain after his blockbuster movie Captain Prabhakaran.
Before launching a political party in 2005, Vijayakanth raised his stakes among public by distributing assistance to poor through his fan clubs. Sensing that sections of the public may be disillusioned with the DMK and the AIADMK, Vijayakanth has positioned himself as an alternative to the Dravidian majors.
When his marriage hall was demolished by the NHAI, to make way for a grade separator at a key junction in Chennai, he accused the DMK, which holds the Union road transport ministry, of trying to scare him away from politics. His label as Black MGR did not go well with AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa, who accused him of trying to claim the MGR legacy. Once she also alleged that he came drunk to the state Assembly.
His Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) contested the Assembly election in May 2006 on its own, fielding candidates in 232 of the 234 constituencies and polling 8.33% of votes. It thus established itself as a party to reckon with. Though the Congress and AIADMK made intense efforts to bring him to their folds for the May 13 Lok Sabha polls, the Captain decided to fight on his own.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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