29 July,2026 09:24 AM IST | Mumbai | Mayank Shekhar
C Joseph Vijay in a still from ‘Jana Nayagan’, released in Hindi as ‘Jan Neta’
As a people's movement, you could argue, TVK (Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam) was the OG CJP (Cockroach Janta Party). Both played out on the screen, first. Their key constituency were Gen Z.
They achieved their ends - getting into power in Tamil Nadu (TN), with the former; resignation of a cabinet minister, for the latter - in such a short period of grouping together, that nobody had given them even half a chance.
Only, that while TVK was led by a popular movie-star, Thalapathy Vijay, with a strong movie fan-base, over decades - CJP comprised social-media followers, who spilled over, offline, for students' protests, answering a call to action by one, Abhijeet Dipke, who had casually floated a parody for a political party, named after a six-legged insect.
Neither leader emerged from a political party-system still. Vijay formed TVK, li'l over two years before April, 2026 elections in TN that, for 60 years, had either DMK or AIADMK rule.
This is unlike movie-stars MGR, Jayalalithaa, who had served partisan politics for long, before they became CM. At the peak of stardom, Vijay simply announced
H Vinoth's Jana Nayagan (Leader of the People) as his last film. It got blocked by censors, and finally released on July 23.
I rushed to catch it - not for the movie per se, but a monument in contemporary TN history.
There is, indeed, a character in the film, who wants to break the Dravidian duopoly. Except, he's the villain (Prakash Raj), who aspires to be the state's greatest scamster!
Vijay himself enters the screen long after his tattooed hand from behind a pillar, holding a copy of the book, Indian Democracy. That's supposed to be the Indian Constitution.
What follows is a film so bombastically brainy that you must stay alert to every moment, lest you're gobsmacked, as I was - perhaps sleeping with eyes wide open - suddenly discovering Jan Neta had transitioned into sci-fi, with drones, Terminator-like robots taking over TN, under the lordship of Bobby Deol, who'd earlier single-handedly destroyed an African country, Swasnia; surreptitiously spewing hate, pitting Hindus against Muslims against Christians, using I-T cells and fake WhatsApp forwards!
The movie closes with archival stills of Vijay, unusually tiny/baby-faced for a superstar, encapsulating his filmography.
Which sent me as far back as 1997 to watch Kadhalukku Mariyadhai (Doli Saja Ke Rakhna in Hindi remake) - the tender, young romance, where it's not once mentioned the conflict in it is the girl's Christian, and the boy, Hindu.
Vijay's himself half-Catholic. Christians probably comprise six-seven per cent of TN. Of which he's the "honourable chief minister" (Jan Neta's opening credit). Pop-culture bears the capacity to render such distinctions redundant, even electorally.
Frankly, for a North Indian, it's hard to analyse Tamil mainstream, between decades, without sounding an ignoramus âAmit'!
That said, you can sense direct parallels to Bollywood superstardom, from the same '90s vintage, with Vijay - going from lover-boy, to action-hero, with elements of both, before attaining mythically masculine divinity. Like Vijay like Salman. Both benefitted from Pokkiri/Wanted.
The super-hit Ghilli (2004), perhaps, captures the mid-career switch best. It was Vijay's first film with Trisha Krishnan, who might hold the world's lowest ratio of dialogue to screen-time in that pic.
The conservative public loved this star-pair enough that it didn't matter Vijay was dating her, while still legally married, during the elections.
The eliminated lines between the actor and onscreen character/persona is complete. Which plays off even better when the star, who greenlights/owns the film, after all, expresses his personal politics through it, over time, as Vijay has.
This is quite common in Tamil commercial cinema, anyway - somehow, Hindi viewers were surprised by SRK talking about voting in Atlee's Jawan (2023)!
I suspect Vijay's best election precursor might still be the first act of Master (2021), wherein, as presiding officer of college polls - he teaches students the dos and don'ts of fair politics, arguing for grace in victory, shunning caste & religious identities. That's implicit manifesto, for his audience, toward the kinda politics he'd himself pursue.
In Jan Neta, he explicitly states the divisive origins of social ills: violence - > hatred - > threat - > dirty politics. In the end, pointing his index finger where goes the indelible ink, he looks to the camera to say, you have to change yourself, in order to make the change.
These are effective Reels for a 24/7 cellphone consumption cycle. You'll be sold, if you find the content creator sufficiently sincere/likeable. Call it the Mamdani Effect, if you like.
As it is, all politicians are actors. Why should the professional one not hold a natural advantage, in the age of the screen? Of course, what the candidate does, once in power, is the point.
As for me, half-asleep in the hall, struggling through Jan Neta? Ah, would've preferred a better film!
Mayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture. He tweets @mayankw14
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