Hero of masses not just in reel, but in real life too
It was after his 100th assignment – Captain Prabhakaran – Vijayakant became Captain, the moniker that stayed for him till his last breath, and will continue forever.
Stills from Vijayakanth's films
CHENNAI: At 24, he landed in Chennai with one of his trusted pals Ibrahim Rawther filled with dreams of moulding a big career on the big screen.
Like for any other silver screen aspirant, it took three years of studio-hopping, meeting popular names in shooting spots, offices, and other kinds of hardships for Narayana Vijayaraj Alagarswami to get the name of Vijayakanth in the celluloid world with the first project ‘Inikkum Ilamai’.
From then on life in front of cameras was filled with hyper action, and a bit of romance and comedy intermittently.
More prominent as an ‘Action Ambassador’, Vijayakanth’s guru was Jackie Chan. When it comes to stunts he would do most of the sequences without a body double.
It was after his 100th assignment – Captain Prabhakaran – Vijayakanth became Captain, the moniker that stayed for him till his last breath, and will continue forever.
While his skill in sensing people’s pulse was the secret behind success in the tinsel world, his caring attitude helped to win the hearts of all people and sections.
The Captain’s mission ‘food for all’ started from the early stages of his stint in Kodambakkam — say around the 1980s — on the advice of Rawther. Anyone who visits his office won’t go hungry as the kitchen will be steaming round the clock. The list of guests includes local auto drivers, people coming to Chennai with film world dreams, and even journalists.
Interestingly, Captain Vijayakant too would have his lunch cooked in the same kitchen served at his shooting spots.
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When it comes to money matters, Vijayakant used to be lenient and had never ‘harassed’ producers. Going out of the way, he would also extend help to finish films stuck due to financial issues and industry players have many to quote from the memory.
Another milestone to his credit was the ‘resurrection’ of the Nadigar Sangam through his novel strategies like ‘Natchathira Kalai Vizha’ in Singapore and London apart from the Star Cricket tournaments. Another hallmark was his loyalty. The generosity he showed to his mentor SA Chandrasekhar was a case in point. When Vijayakanth was basking in glory after the runaway hits like ‘Captain Prabhakaran’, ‘Maanagara Kaaval’, and ‘Chinna Gounder’, a hesitant SAC wanted him to play his son Vijay's brother in ‘Sendhoorapandi’. Vijayakant surprised SAC by promising to do the project sans payment.
This reporter had the chance to interact with the actor-politician in September 2017. Despite his failing health, his memory was intact, and even reminisced about incidents from 1987 and the box-office collection of almost every film in 2017.
If there was anything that he hated the most, it was social media, which according to him was making people crazy. With all these good and noble traits, he deserves to be referred to as ‘Karuppu MGR’, which people used for some time during his stint in politics.
