It has been almost two weeks since the much-awaited Superstar Rajinikanth film Jailer hit the theatres and by all accounts, it is turning out to be a massive hit.  Keeping aside the box-office numbers that are coming in from different sources, it is clear that Jailer has succeeded because it is appealing not just to Rajini’s hard-core fan base but also to the general film-going audiences. This must come as a major relief to Rajinikanth himself, for whom such an unqualified success was eluding probably since Enthiran.

Those following Rajini and his choice of scripts and directors can feel his dilemma in charting a future course for himself considering his age, health, superstardom, the huge stakes riding on his shoulders, and his desire to do something different versus sticking to time-tested templates. Though one cannot fault Rajini for not trying – like opting to work with directors such as Pa Ranjith who uses the medium of cinema for social messaging or with new age commercial filmmakers like Karthik Subbaraj, the fact that those films did not match the universal appeal of his yesteryear hits raised questions about his future. Then came Jailer, in which director Nelson Dilipkumar used his dark and wry humour style of storytelling while at the same time capitalising on Rajini’s star power to the fullest.

First up, it is not that Jailer is totally an ‘un-Rajinikanth’ film. In fact, it is a full-on commercial entertainer that has Rajini playing the central character with glimpses of his earlier popular roles. The story also follows the usual Rajinikanth film template of riches to rags to riches, but in Jailer, there is a slight twist and we get the ‘rogue to restrained to rogue’ template we saw in Baasha.

Within this familiar template, Nelson brings in quite a few novelties in Jailer. Rajini plays close to his actual age and is, in fact, shown to have a grandson. The young Rajini portion in the flashback is short and gets over in a jiffy. The Superstar doesn’t have a love interest, nor does he have any song and dance sequences with a young heroine. He lives with his wife, son and family. The usual mass entry sequence reserved for the Superstar is given a miss and instead, it is the villain Vinayakan who is accorded that privilege.

Importantly, for an actor who is known for outlandish action sequences, in Jailer, Rajini doesn’t have any. He is only shown to be a mastermind behind some great action set pieces. His character is more brains than brawn. In such a formulation, he is shown to cede space to fellow stars from other languages like Mohanlal, Shiva Rajkumar, and Jackie Shroff. Finally, there is one more thing usually not seen in a Rajini film of late. The jailer’s son is depicted as part of the villain’s group and doesn’t redeem himself even in the climax.

It seems that Rajini consciously agreed to play ball with Nelson in the way the story and screenplay have been conceived in Jailer, which has seemingly resonated with the audience. Therefore, will the success of Jailer not just at the box-office but also in terms of overall appeal encourage Rajini to pave a new path for his future films? A path where he may continue to play the central character but not necessarily packed with just Rajini-isms that audiences are familiar with? Jailer, of course, has its own share of Rajini-isms, such as the close shots of Rajini’s glasses before any big scene and so on, but we can see that there is a conscious effort to move away as much as possible. I see this as an attempt to step out from the old Rajini mould both by the director and the actor.

This, therefore, begs the question – is Rajini finally going the Amitabh Bachchan way in terms of choosing his films, a path that many critics and well-wishers have been suggesting for a long time? At the time of his comeback to films at the beginning of this millennium, Amitabh stopped playing youthful roles and picked scripts where he may not be the hero but his role would be substantial. Considering the huge financial stakes riding on a ‘Rajini padam’ in Tamil Nadu, it may not yet be viable for Rajini to follow Amitabh’s model. However, he may do well to gradually adopt the model for which the first step has been attempted with Jailer, in my opinion. After all, following in Amitabh’s footsteps is not new to Rajini. At the beginning of his career, Rajini imported Amitabh’s ‘angry young man’ persona from Bollywood to Tamil when he played Amitabh’s role in Hindi to Tamil remakes such as Deewar (Thee), Don (Billa), Khud-Daar (Padikathavan), Kasme Vaade (Dharmathin Thalaivan), and so on. That, in a way, built the foundation for the Superstar image he has today.

Rajini’s appearance in a cameo in his next film being directed by his daughter Aishwarya Rajinikanth may not be a real indicator that he will follow in Amitabh’s footsteps from hereon. But his subsequent film, which is his 170th, could. #Rajini170 is said to be directed by TJ Gnanavel, whose last venture Jai Bhim received critical and public acclaim though it wasn’t a typical commercial film. Amitabh has also been reportedly approached for a role in this film, which in a way signals Rajini’s openness to star in multi-starrers with actors of his stature or even bigger after the successful experiment in Jailer.

While we all enjoy the typical Rajinikanth fare, it is obvious that even he cannot save a film whose script and screenplay are shoddy. At best, such films may still get a huge first weekend opening thanks to the ‘Thalaiva’ factor but beyond that, it is the script and the screenplay that utilises Rajinikanth properly that make the film appealing beyond the fan base. That’s exactly what Jailer managed to achieve and, in the process, has shown the way for what Rajini could do in the future.

Anand Kumar RS is a management professional by week and avid blogger by weekend. He writes on politics, business and films.

Views expressed are the author’s own.