The man strides down a set of dimly-lit stairs. An ordinary occurrence, at first sight. But the way he half-runs, half-walks, his hands swaying with measured stiffness, tells an extraordinary story.
In the dull evening light, S Anand Raj looks startlingly like actor Rajinikanth. Once he’s out on the cramped street in Royapuram, an entourage of local kids on his trail, it shows. The make-up, the clothes...Anand has carefully dressed himself up to resemble the superstar. He’s trying to be someone else. And the truth is — he’s extremely good at it.
Better known as Kamal Anand (he’s a Kamal Haasan fan, ironically), he makes a living out of impersonating Rajinikanth at events such as weddings, temple festivals, and stage shows. “I dance to Rajini songs with his complete get-up,” says Anand. The 52-year-old resident of Pattalam, took to the stage when he was 13.
“I loved dancing to Kamal’s songs. It was he who inspired me,” says Anand. He started by performing popular Kamal numbers. “Those days, we didn’t have a proper stage. A truck was parked in the middle of the road and was secured such that it functioned as a podium. I danced on them.” With people seated all around, it was the perfect set-up for Anand. “I wasn’t paid initially. The people’s applause was my payment.”
The key to this applause, Anand discovered, was Rajinikanth. “The moment his song comes on, people start clapping. Such is his magnetism.” Anand copied the actor’s moves from his famous movies such as Muthu , Padayappa , Uzhaippali, and Baasha , among others, and performed them on stage. He was an instant success.
Anand is busy during the wedding season. “But I don’t prefer to perform at weddings. People are distracted by conversations with relatives and do not watch my performance entirely,” he says. “This makes me feel bad. I begin to doubt my performance.” It’s the ordinary people and their unabashed love for Rajini that excite him. “If I perform at a settlement for the disadvantaged, for instance, the response I get is phenomenal. The kids...the excitement in their eyes...that’s what drives me.”
Anand has travelled to places in and around Chennai, Puducherry, Vellore, and Kanchipuram for performances. Thousands of Rajini impersonation shows over three decades is bound to alter his persona. The way he speaks, winks when he laughs, moves his hands swiftly when making a point...there’s Rajini in all of it and Anand knows it. “I can’t help it,” he laughs. Even at his work place where he’s a security guard, people smile at his gestures. “They say I act like Rajini,” says Anand.
The line — the one that separates the real Anand from Rajinikanth — has long been erased. The man speaks with a mad glint in his eye: “When I get on the stage with my make-up and a song begins to play, I forget everything. My family, my job, myself...in that moment, I become Rajinikanth.”
