The Humble SUPERSTAR Rajinikanth!

I went inside the theater to watch Rajinikanth's Endhiran ("Robot") in Tamil with no expectations. And I came out after almost three hours of extravaganza comprising of breathtaking action, loud but good music, hyper excited audience and having no idea what most of the dialogues meant (sadly I don't understand Tamil)! But I do feel I know now why Rajinikanth is considered the God of "Indian" cinema; more than twenty four hours later. But this new found admiration for the man is more to do with his off screen personality rather than his onscreen panache.

A little bit of background of "The Man" as millions of people across southern India and world would describe him. According to online magazine Slate, he is the second highest paid Asian movie star after Jackie Chan. During his 61 years of earthly life he has starred in more than 150 movies. And what the magazine says next is probably the most funniest as well as dandiest words anyone can ever use to describe a man:

"If a tiger had sex with a tornado and then their tiger-nado baby got married to an earthquake, their offspring would be Rajinikanth. Or, as his films are contractually obligated to credit him, "SUPERSTAR Rajinikanth!"

The single most important source behind my admiration is not is his stardom but his humility off the screen. In his interview for his new movie he describes a funny incident. He talks about how a guy was surprised at the fact that Aishwarya Rai was starring as the heroine opposite to this bald, middle aged guy. You can see the clip below:

But why humility is such a great quality a man could possess? Perhaps humility is the only quality that can support two opposing forces of nature. One being the lack of false pride and other being the "super" confidence that comes with it. The lack of false pride rid ourselves of any image we might have conjured of ourselves. As we live our life we begin to associate ourselves with our surroundings, it's natural. We begin to measure ourselves as per our grand house, high paying job, a trophy wife or our influential relations. The outside world elevates our inner world and herein lies the problem. It's not a secret that the outside world is fickle and most of the times limited to a level. But our inner world is limitless as it is powered by a divine energy. All of us believe in this divine energy whether we worship it in a form of an idol or just as a mystical force affecting our lives. We may lose our outer world anytime but our inner world always remains faithful to us. A man may lose all his limbs but if he hasn't lost his will there is always something to live upto in his life. In the movie "The Legend of Bagger Vance" Will Smith's character teaches R Junah (Matt Damon's character who is a golfer) about the life. He says and I quote:

"Inside each and every one of us is one true authentic swing... Somethin' we was born with... Somethin' that's ours and ours alone... Somethin' that can't be taught to ya or learned... Somethin' that got to be remembered... Over time the world can, rob us of that swing... It get buried inside us under all our wouldas and couldas and shouldas... Some folk even forget what their swing was like... "

So the characteristics that define us may be lost beneath layers of outer world but it's the inner world everyone aspires to eventually.

The second force is the "super" confidence I talked about a little bit earlier. Although it may sound strange but with humility comes the confidence in the actions we undertake. This confidence arises from the fact that the actions are selfless as well as the "personal" expectations have been reduced to a minimum. The extra burden of expectations has been shaved off. Througout our life we have added layers of misconceptions, false pride or ego on our consciousness until our real self was lost. And it takes years of meditation or a cataclysmic event to erode this. Some called it self-realization others may call it God-realization. This can be considered the ultimate level of our inner self. As Michaelangelo so eloquently put a few centuries ago, "Lord! Free me of myself so I can serve thee."

Coming back to Rajinikanth "The Man" has still preserved his inner self while the whole world around him as raised him to heights beyond human imagination. And I do hope I can too preserve my inner self as the world continuously bombards me with excuses to lose it. And I also hope I can enjoy the benefits that come with humility. I also wish the same for you. Thank you for reading.