Tag: Superstar

How Rajinikanth and Kabali mania swept India The man who got 250,000 followers with just one tweet But Kaala is a dramatic departure from this trope. The film gets its name from the hero, played by Rajinikanth, a slum lord named Kaala or black. "Black is the hue of labour; the colour of the proletariat," retorts Rajinikanth who is dressed in black throughout the film. The slum, which is home to millions of poor migrants, has a strong ethnic population of Tamils from the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. In the 1960s and 1970s, Dharavi was notorious for Tamil criminals. A cartoonist by trade, Thackeray formed the group in 1966, partly with a view to keeping south Indian migrants out of the state of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital. Through its references to Hindu gods and epics, the film critiques the discrimination against dark skin that is inherent in Hindu mythology - the dichotomy between fair-skinned gods and dark-skinned demons can be found across many myths. The film is clearly critical of Hindu nationalist politics and expresses Rajinikanth's affiliation with Dalit politics and Tamil identity. For his fans, Kaala is as much a cause for celebration as any other movie of his. At cinemas in Tamil Nadu and elsewhere, fans erupted into cheers and roars as Rajinikanth's name flashed on the screen.