Editorial: Blow the Bigil

It’s the fledgling stage for Kollywood 'Kuruvi' turned political aspirant, thalapthay Vijay who on Sunday threw open the floodgates to his calling, with the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam's (TVK) maiden political conference at Vikravandi in Villupuram. The party founder pulled no punches during his speech where he identified his main rivals, or discreetly alluded to them — the DMK, his political adversary, and the BJP, his ideological opponent. The actor, a newbie to politics, where cutthroat competition is the norm, went on to declare that he was open to forming alliances for the 2026 assembly election, and that he was keen on sharing power with his allies.

The actor, who is known to his fans as a performer who lets his work do the talking for him, prefers to keep a rather low profile, vis-a-vis his appearances, both in traditional and social media. But this time around, Vijay has literally plunged into the deep end of the pool, by his own volition, and attempted to channelise his star power and 'pure punch' dialogues to make a dent in the duopolistic Dravidian hegemony of Tamil Nadu's polity. The actor was seemingly in no mood to please those seeking eloquence or poetry in his war cry as Vijay put his money where his mouth is, and appealed to the masses in a lucid lexicon that they followed, glazing his narrative with sobriquets like 'bro' and employing the well-worn Tanglish rhetoric that the youth connect with.

Sticking to his onscreen persona of a do-gooder who only has the welfare of the people on his mind, Vijay took a decisive call to tackle the bull by its horns when he tapped into the prevailing sentiment of a pro-Dravidian electorate. Cutouts of Periyar EV Ramasamy, K Kamaraj, BR Ambedar, queen Velu Nachiyar and freedom fighter Anjalai Ammal lined the sides of his dais, but he did not mind calling out a party 'that speaks of the Dravidian model government but engages in corruption'. Interestingly, Vijay's speech-writers seem to have gone for a 'take no prisoners' approach as the 50-year-old actor made veiled references to the failures of his predecessors from the cinema industry (such as Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth), who were unable to cement their alternate or spiritual politics ideology with the people of TN.

As expected, the optics of Vijay's entry were there for all to see. One of the four functionaries on stage was a Muslim woman, while another speaker was a Christian woman, a show of strength in unity which seemed to validate his comments on tackling the divisiveness ruining the country. He also came clean on the TVK's action plan as well, which included the usual suspects that are part and parcel of election manifestos across the board — implementing a two-language policy prioritising Tamil; allocating a third of party and assembly seats to women; implementing principles of social justice by opposing the Varnashrama Dharma principles, a proposal that invoked the furore surrounding the Sanatana Dharma controversy.

What was conspicuous by its absence was a cursory reference to the AIADMK, the second largest party in Tamil Nadu, which set the speculation mills spinning in top gear on whether Vijay might reach out to Team EPS for an alliance. The political greenhorn has his work cut out for him. Sunday’s gathering showed that he can talk the talk, but we really must wait and watch if he can walk the walk.