Chennai: Known as ‘Karuppu MGR’ (Black MGR) for his philanthropy, Vijayakanth was the only actor to make a mark in Tamil Nadu politics after MGR himself and Jayalalithaa. His party, the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) won 8.4 percent of the vote when it contested the assembly polls for the first time in 2006, and five years later it was the main opposition party in the state — a breathless ascent that would be followed by an equally abrupt fall.
Vijayakanth, popularly called ‘Captain’, passed away in Chennai Thursday. At around 6 am that day, his X page had shared a party press statement saying that the former opposition leader was on ventilator support after testing positive for Covid-19.
Later, the private hospital where he had been admitted released a statement that read, “Captain Vijayakanth was on ventilatory support following his admission for pneumonia. Despite the best efforts of medical staff, he passed away in the morning on 28th December 2023.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered condolences for the death of his former ally in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), calling the actor-politician a “close friend” in a post on X.
Extremely saddened by the passing away of Thiru Vijayakanth Ji. A legend of the Tamil film world, his charismatic performances captured the hearts of millions. As a political leader, he was deeply committed to public service, leaving a lasting impact on Tamil Nadu’s political… pic.twitter.com/di0ZUfUVWo
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 28, 2023
Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, who announced full state honours for the DMDK chief, personally went to Vijayakanth’s residence to pay his respects.
Actor-turned-politician
Narayanan Vijayaraj Alagarswami adopted the stage name ‘Vijayakanth’ when he acted in his very first film, Inikkum Ilamai (1979), in which he played an antagonist.
His next few films didn’t do well at the box office, but he then got his big break in 1981 with S.A. Chandrasekhar’s Sattam Oru Iruttarai. In the years that followed, Vijayakanth established himself as a top commercial actor in the Tamil industry, with his films running the gamut of action, romance and sentiment. Eighteen of his films were released in a single year, 1984 — a record among Tamil actors.
Over the years, he began to act in films that carried social messaging and also set a trend of playing dual roles. Films like Amman Kovil Kizhakale, Oomai Vizhigal, Cooliekkaran and Senthoora Poove marked his career graph through the 1980s, and in the 1990s films like Maanagara Kaaval, Honest Raj, Sathriyan, Chinna Gounder and Vanathai Pola won Vijayakanth fans among both urban and rural audiences.
His 100th film, Captain Prabhakaran (1991), where he played an Indian Forest Service officer who leads a Special Task Force, won him the moniker of ‘Captain’ among his supporters.
Speaking to Sify in 2019, director S.A. Chandrasekhar, who worked with Vijayakanth in 17 films, recalled how the DMDK founder had helped launch the career of his son, Tamil star Vijay, with the 1993 film Sendhoorapandi. After Vijay’s first film failed to take off, his father approached Vijayakanth.
“I thought if Vijayakanth and Vijay act together in a film, it would be a big boost for the latter. When I called Vijayakanth and told him that I would be at his home in five minutes, he came to my house in just two minutes. When I opened up about the remuneration part, Vijayakanth asked me to start the shoot and said that other things can be discussed later. Sendhoorapandi was a hit, what Vijayakanth did (for) Vijay was really a huge help,” said Chandrasekhar.
Rise and fall of DMDK
It was in 2005 that Vijayakanth took the political plunge, offering an alternative to both the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), the two major Dravidian parties that had ruled the state for decades.
The DMDK was an out-and-out fan-based party formed due to Vijayakanth’s charisma, said political analyst J.V.C. Sreeram. “When MGR formed his AIADMK, splitting from the DMK, a large faction of the DMK jumped ship to the AIADMK. But when Vijayakanth formed his DMDK, there was no such break away from either the DMK or AIADMK,” Sreeram said.
Vijayakanth — who had declared during his party’s launch in 2005 that his alliance would be with “God and the people of Tamil Nadu” — won only one seat in the 2006 state assembly polls: Virudhachalam, where he himself was the candidate. The party, however, had made a mark by winning an 8.4 percent vote share overall from the 234 seats it had contested without an alliance.
“The people of the state were ready to give him a chance. They acknowledged the intention behind his efforts and that was the reason for his success in the 2006 polls,” said political analyst Priyan Srinivasan. In the following general elections in 2009, the party contested in all 39 seats in the state and one in Puducherry, and won 10.1 percent of the votes.
Speaking about their “Captain”, a former DMDK leader who had been close to the actor since the 1980s said, “He was very kind and loved interacting with his fans. Every day, we would meet him at his residence and the first thing he would ask when he saw us would be, ‘Did you eat?’”
“The conversations would continue only after a meal. He would insist that everyone eat with him. He was very keen on making his party members feel like one big family.”
The former DMDK leader, who claims to still be a fan of Vijayakanth, said, “He had a very pure heart and the intention to help others. When the COVID-19 outbreak occurred in 2020, he was one of the first to come forward to help others despite his poor health. He had announced that his college and the DMDK headquarters could be used by the government for helping Covid patients.”
His passion was reciprocated on ground by his supporters, added Priyan, who said that during Vijayakanth’s campaigns “in north Tamil Nadu, both Vanniyars and Dalits welcomed him. Similarly, down south, he had the support of both Devendra Kula Vellalar and Mukkulathor. People from different castes voted for him as they saw in him a sincerity and wanted to give him a chance.”
Vijayakanth’s party tasted success in 2011 in alliance with Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK and won 29 of the 40 seats it contested. However, as the AIADMK had won 150 of 234 seats by itself, it did not require the support of allies to form a government, and the DMDK went on to become the chief opposition party in the state.
But political analysts see this year as the beginning of the DMDK’s downward journey. It had several face-offs with the ruling AIADMK over the state’s law-and-order situation and government schemes. On 1 February, 2012, after a fiery exchange between the ruling and opposition parties led to the eviction of all the DMDK legislators — including Vijayakanth himself — Jayalalithaa remarked: “Their good times are over.”
In the next two years, the AIADMK poached nine DMDK MLAs to its side, bringing the party’s strength in the assembly down to just 20. “Captain was deeply hurt when many of his MLAs jumped ship. From 2009 onwards though, he had health issues, which aggravated after 2012,” said a former MLA from the DMDK on condition of anonymity.
The former MLA said that since 2009, the influence of Vijayakanth’s family — specifically that of his wife, Premalatha, and his brother-in-law, L.K. Sudhish — increased in the party and they began to influence decisions.
“In 2014 despite most of the party leaders wanting to align with the DMK, Captain at the last minute decided to go with BJP following Premalatha’s advice, and this did not go down well within the party. We also went on to lose all the seats we contested in the Lok Sabha elections,” said the former DMDK leader, who quit the party after the 2014 loss.
The 2014 campaign by the DMDK for the NDA in the state won the BJP one seat and garnered praise from Modi at the NDA’s victory meeting that year.
However, in the 2016 assembly elections , the DMDK allied with the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), Communist Party of India (CPI) and Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M). That alliance — the People’s Welfare Front (PWF) — performed badly, and the DMDK lost all its seats as well as its state party status.
In the following 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the DMDK once again joined the NDA but was defeated by the DMK-led alliance, which won 38 of the state’s 39 seats. In the 2021 state assembly polls, the DMDK’s alliance with T.T.V. Dhinakaran’s Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam again failed to attract the masses.
Captain remembered by political parties
Vijayakanth proved in 2006 that a new party beyond the AIADMK and DMK can gain the support of the people, said Tamil Nadu BJP vice-president Narayanan Thirupathy, adding, “We were thrilled to see the kind of work Vijayakanth did to make the NDA win and make Narendra Modi the PM. His work ensured that the NDA won close to a 20 percent vote share in the 2014 polls.”
Thirupathy added that Vijayakanth proved that there could be a change in Tamil Nadu politics.
Meanwhile, the DMK called Vijayakanth an astute politician who had bravely floated a party. “He made a niche for himself, he found out the pulse of the people — that there was scope for an alternative to the AIADMK and the DMK — and in his first election got a vote share of over 8 percent, which is unprecedented. After MGR and Jayalalithaa, he is the first actor-turned-politician who captured the hearts of the people,” DMK spokesperson A. Saravanan said to ThePrint.
Makkal Needhi Maiam chief and actor Kamal Hassan called Vijayakanth his “loving brother” in a post on X and said the late leader was an unique actor who was lovingly called ‘Captain’ by everyone in Tamil cinema.
“He lived with humanity in every action. He was the creator of innovative ideas in Tamil Nadu politics. He had a helping hand extended to the poor. Fearless courage was his hallmark. Vijayakanth, a revolutionary artist who made his mark in both the fields of cinema and politics, will remain forever in our memories,” he wrote in Tamil.
எனது அன்பிற்கினிய சகோதரர், தேசிய முற்போக்குத் திராவிட கழகத்தின் நிறுவனத் தலைவர், தமிழ் சினிமாவின் தனித்துவம் மிக்க நடிகர், கேப்டன் என்று அனைவராலும் அன்பு பாராட்டப்பட்ட விஜயகாந்த் அவர்களின் மறைவுச் செய்தி மிகுந்த துயரத்தைத் தருகிறது.
தன் ஒவ்வொரு செயலிலும் மனிதநேயத்தைக்…
— Kamal Haasan (@ikamalhaasan) December 28, 2023
DMDK’s future
On 14 December, the hasty announcement of Vijayakanth’s wife, Premalatha, as the DMDK chief had raised several eyebrows. Now with the captain no longer there, the ship he floated might not be the same, according to political analysts.
“The very purpose of the formation of DMDK — to be an alternative to the DMK and AIADMK — was lost when it contested as an ally with the AIADMK. Over the years, the vote share of the state has also changed. Without Captain, the party does not have much of a future now,” said Priyan.
If Premalatha wants political relevance then she will have to contest polls in alliance with the NDA or the AIADMK, said Sreeram, adding “The NDA will be more practical as there is a PM face. That could be a way Premalatha can revive the party.”