From the perspective of pop-culture history, it’s fun to see a very “normal” Vijay, a young man looking for a job, a young man we see on the 18S bus, a young man who’s a “soft romantic hero”.
The craze for Master is understandable. We haven’t been to the theatres in almost a year, plus this is the big-star movie to beat all big-star movies. And yet, to see those videos of people climbing on their friends’ shoulders to get near a ticket counter, with no concept of social distancing and without wearing masks… it is a little scary.
And to think that, at one point, Vijay wasn’t this Vijay. Very few leading men become overnight stars like Hrithik Roshan, and going through Vijay’s Wiki page is a reminder that he had a particularly underwhelming beginning. In the early stages, apart from the odd Rajavin Parvayile (directed by Janaki Sounder) or Chandralekha (Nambirajan), it was mostly a series of films made by his father, SA Chandrasekhar (Naalaya Theerpu, Sendhoorapandi, Rasigan, Deva, Vishnu). Even die-hard Vijay fans – the kind who’d risk a COVID infection rather than miss an FDFS – may have trouble remembering these low-budget productions, which were mostly flops, with a mid-range hit here and there.
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Baradwaj Rangan 
Raghav
January 12, 2021
What a co-incidence! This was exactly the guest for the Pongal special episode on my Podcast, Vijai Madhusudan had to say!
For all the readers here’s the link to the Pongal special episode of my Podcast, Movies, Music & Memories:
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Madan
January 13, 2021
Not that I was super fond of Vijay ever, but I preferred this version of him. Which ran its course by early noughties. Likewise with Ajith but at least he has an outing once in a long while like Arambam which is not all mass and no substance.
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Enigma
January 13, 2021
Enjoyed the digs that you took at ‘Poove Unakkaga’, an insufferable 90s tamil film. Can’t believe the shit show that was tamil films (actually Indian films in general) back in the 90s. Even the better ones from that era, like ‘Bombay’, are actually quite unwatchable now. On the topic of Vijay, I can’t understand how this guy became such a big star and how the hell did he earn the stupid moniker ‘Thalapathy’. This guy has piss poor acting skills, weak voice, ordinary looking – in short nothing going for him. I guess daddy’s scheming and manipulations helped during the initial days. He starred in a series of so called romantic movies in the early noughties (like ‘Kushi’ and ‘Shahjehan’), with Vivek playing the side kick. Even those terrible movies were better than the politically loaded crapfests that he churns out these days.
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vijay
January 16, 2021
It’s not like as if after Poove Unakaaga whatever he touched was gold either. There were half a dozen flops pat in the middle of the 2000s. A big machinery orchestrated by his father always works behind the scenes to ensure the films keep coming. Its happening even now. But ultimately the Tamil audiences, with their inexplicable choices and ritualistic movie-going habits, are to blame to a large extent. Its a joke, how a few hours after a movie is released “success parties” are being thrown about already. The Tamil film industry is one big ugly dirty nexus between corrupt politicians, businessmen flush with black money and selfish stars with the gullible audience being exploited over and over again. Look at the cock tease Rajni did to his fans for 30+years before pulling out
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vijay
January 18, 2021
This fellow has ripped the idiot fans a new one, happy to see this
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