The Koboi Project is a photo-performative instantiation of identity across the discontinuities of a multi-generational diasporic experience.
Mass is Kollywood jargon for massive or hit or popular or something like that! Whatever it actually means, the one thing that is clear is that Indian cinema is all about a sense of scale! This is also the mechanism or mechanics of democracy … the majority of the people … mass!!! Tamil Nadu has been governed by Mass since the days of Annadurai … MGR, Karunanidhi, Jayalalitha ……
Image: http://www.rediff.com/movies/special/thalaiva-you-proved-you-are-the-best/20180608.htm
The SUPERSTAR hoardings are back. Kaala, the ‘man in black’ is walking tall on cinema walls all over Chennai. It seems that PA Ranjith’s second collaboration with Thalaivar is doing fine at the box office regardless of controversies in Thoothukodi and in Karnataka. There were relatively poor advance bookings and even now there are mixed reports about the first days takings but at least one heralds an all-time record take across Chennai cinemas and cineplexes of 17,000,000 rupees which is over 250, 000 USD. Reviews suggest that Director has struck a better balance between the SUPERSTAR persona and the serious social and dramatic ambit of his work. Ranjith is an outspoken champion of the left in Tamil Nadu. By left I mean Periyar’s Dravidian movement, whose colour is the black of Kaala, and Ambedkar’s Dalit movement, whose blue is equally prominent in the film. While the pairing of actor and director pairing holds up well in the fictions of Kabali and Kaala, there are signs however that this unity of actor and auteur is unraveling. How Rajinikanth will square this new politicized SUPERSTAR persona with his, apparently not so slightly saffron tinged (saffron being the colour of the Hindu right) real life ‘spiritual politics’ remains to be seen ….
Image: http://www.kinkylittleboots.com/bollywood/this-is-how-fans-celebrated-rajinikanths-kaala-in-mumbai/
Kaala has opened worldwide yesterday (June 7th) with, indeed, the familiar rituals in tow. There has however, reportedly been less fanfare than is usual for the SUPERSTAR. Some analysts speculate that this may be because of a conflict between his well established stardom with his emerging persona as a Tamil Nadu politician. His first significant intervention in the domestic milieu after announcing his political ambitions – his visit to Thootthukudi in the aftermath of the police killings and the statements he made in that excursion, resulted in a severe backlash from the left of the political spectrum. Rajinikanth had balked and practically barked at the notion of the people’s pooratum (campaign of political resistance). Indeed it was as if our Thalaivaa had had enough of PA Rajinth’s radical revolutionary ethos he had imbibed in playing the lead in Kaala. The resulting rupture of Rajinikanth’s cinematic persona from his real life person seems to have had negative marketing consequences for the film as reflected in the weaker than expected opening ticket sales.
But wait … is this separation of movie image from real life not exactly what the adoring Thailavaa fans appreciate about the balding and sometimes unkempt star. Rajinikanth has never traded on his cinematic capital in what one might call the real world. He has refused earnings from personal product and brand endorsements and, indeed, he maintains the appearance of an unassuming and ordinary man of his actual age in his off-screen appearances. If the Commission of Inquiry into the Thootkudi killings does indeed reveal, as Rajinikanth had angrily insisted, that organized ‘anti-social elements’ had infiltrated the people’s protests and instigated violence endangering the lives of the police and workers at the Sterlite plant … the Thalaivaraa may come through his first domestic political skirmish unscathed … and Kaala .. well it is just cinema after all – popular cinema at-that! … so lets allow the boxoffice to pass judgement …..
Image: https://thecorrespondent.in/cinema/kaala-records-lowest-ever-opening-for-rajinikanth-film/
With PA Rajinth’s Kaala, staring Thalaivaa Rajinikanth due to open on the 7th June 2018, and with all the controversy around Rajinikanth’s encounter and intervention in Thoothukudi recently, I feel it is timely that I release this video of my own little intervention on the streets of Tokyo as a part of Cowboys and Indians: Tokyo Edition on May 11th 2018. Rajinikanth’s outburst brings into focus the liminality of art and life, and indeed the ultimate severality of these categories. Rajinikanth the politician came out quite harshly against the culture of protest and resistance in Tamil Nadu. While his character in Kaala is a rabble rousing revolutionary, real life Rajinikanth has come off looking rather reactionary. This self-inflected break between person and persona threatens to eviscerate not only the credibility of Rajinikanth’s politics but also that of his highly developed artistic identity. Still, I will be there at the Hollywood 3 Cinema in Surrey for the opening night in the Fraser Valley, British Columbia, Canada!
With days to go till the worldwide release of Kaala, SUPERSTAR Rajinikanth gets asked the metaphysical question of his life – While on a visit to the victims of what a UN working group has called a police atrocity in the context of the 100 day environmental protest in Thoothukudi, a young man among the injured asked him – Yaar Nee Ayah? or Who are you sir? In my reading, the perfectly pitched question interrogates the capacity in which the Rajinikanth visit was being made – that of the Kollywood hero, the renowned philanthropist or, indeed, the newly minted politician!
This question seems to have sent our Thalaivar into a tailspin. In subsequent interactions with the media Rajinikanth revealed a highly conservative streak … contrary to the image that the meticulous marketing campaign has built-up for the release of Kaala, whose revolutionary protagonist leads a ghetto uprising of the downtrodden, Rajinikanth seems to have a highly reactionary core. He blamed ‘anti-social elements’ amongst the protestors for the state violence – police shootings that left 13 protesters dead. He even seems to have said that continuous uprisings will turn Tamil Nadu into a graveyard … Yikes!
In this double whammy of self-infliction, Rajinikanth seems to have squandered his capital in mass perception – the a unity of person and persona, that he has painstakingly built up over decades of cinematic imagineering … and as a consequence, film Kaala and his character in it, which have been promising great heft, suddenly seem hollow and feather light … more significantly Rajinikanth has revealed his so-called ‘Spiritual Politics’ to be, on this matter at least, fully aligned with the State AIADMK government and the BJP Federal government. Sadly Rajni also lost his temper with reporters breaking yet another invaluable asset – the image of the unworldly and unperturbed sage. How will the upcoming film, the Kaala character, the aspiring politician and the man recover from this … I for one will be following closely!
I have always liked Mahathir Mohammed … the way I liked Muhammed Ali I guess … whether it is against great fighters like Frazier or Foreman or underdogs like Bugner … I was always with Ali … same with Mahathir … I like his style, his guts,and his perfect poise … like a surfer or Jazz improviser .. he reacts with the most natural grace … To paraphrase or restate an idea from Miles Davis ( I think it was Herbie Hancock who explained this lesson from the Master) … its not the right note or the wrong note … its just the next note … and its up to you to make it work … Good Luck Dr M.
カウボーイズとインディアンズ： 東京版
コートヤード・ヒロ： 2018年5月11日午後7
〒106-0031 東京都港区西麻布 4-21-2
Courtyard Hiroo: 7pm 11th May 2018
4-21-2 Nishiazabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 106-0031 JAPAN
Tel. +81-3-6427-1185 info@cy-hiroo.jp
The Koboi Project is series of a photo-conceptual performances, involving photographic images, traditional icons, story telling, collaboration and conviviality. For Cowboys and Indians: Tokyo Edition at Courtyard Hiroo, Niranjan Rajah will present an 18ft banner of Tamil movie SUPERSTAR Rajinikanth and an antique Momotaro doll made by the Kyugetsu Company. He will make an offering to the SUPERSTAR, to Momotaro-san and then, to one member of the audience. The visionary film critic and promoter Fumio Furuya (a.k.a. Jun Edoki), who is responsible for introducing Rajinikanth to Japan, has accepted an invitation to attend as an honoured guest. A scaled down version of the performance will be taken around the city for a series of impromptu interventions between the 7th and the 10th of May 2018, starting in Nishi-Kasai, Tokyo’s Little India. Niranjan will be accompanied by: Hiroyoshi Takeda – Autokaran, Chef; Tara Rajah – Cello; Jane Frankish – Poems on the Megaphone; Mikan Bindu (leader and choreographer) Hiroyoshi Takeda, Shinji Kashima, Hiroyo Yamaguchi, Saki Ito, Emiko Sawada, Yumiko Honda, Shinya Asanuma – SANDOSHAM Indian Movie Dance; Durga Rajah – Photography. For more information please visit: https://koboibalikkampung.wixsite.com/momo
The first single from Rajinikanth’s Kaala released on the 1st of May, Labour Day. What can I say, listen for yourself Santosh Narayanan Rocks and Rolls, and Rapps and Beats too! The Boss is looking great in the stills too!!! The timing is great for my Cowboys and Indians performance at Courtyard Hiroo on the 11th of May in Tokyo.
The Koboi had been developing his look after the SUPERSTAR’s image in Kaala (to will be released worldwide on June 7th) for his performance at Courtyard Hiroo, Tokyo at 7 pm on 11th May 2018 I am a fan of Rajinikanth and, as such, I relish the simple pleasure of ‘being’ the Thalaiva. I am, however, also cognizant of the aesthetic and critical connotations of my play. What is the measure of similitude – how much ‘looking like’ does it take to ‘look like’ or signify another person or persona? What is the threshold of sufficiency? Is such similitude founded on ethnic, even ethnocentric, notions of identity? What is the inner dimension of such a representation? How does one actually form a meaningful image of another? When does homage become piracy? Is this a pastiche or a parody, and if it is a parody – what is it a parody of? What, is the difference between a popular and a fine art image in the contemporary taxonomy of the arts?
Most pertinently, Kaala may be the last of my easy and heartfelt appropriations of the SUPERSTAR’s image as, having launched into politics in Tamil Nadu, Rajinikanth has now placed himself in a different context of signification. Unlike his long-time colleague in the Movie business, and now political co-aspirant, Kamal Haasan, who has clear secular leanings, Rajinikanth’s avowed ‘spiritual politics’ seems to be taking on the pungent saffron hues of Hindutva (the Hindu Right)!.
Image: https://wallpapers.filmibeat.com/tamil/movies/kaala/wallpapers-c5-e42999-p47913.html
For Cowboys and Indians: Tokyo Edition, at Courtyard Hiroo on 11th May 2018 at 7pm, I am proud to announce that visionary film critic and promoter Fumio Furuya (a.k.a Jun Edoki), President of Eden Entertainment Inc., has accepted my invitation to attend the performance as an honoured guest. In 1998, Jun Edoki had the audacity to bring the film ‘Muthu Oduru Maharaja‘ (Muthu Dancing Maharaja) to the Tokyo audience. According Naman Ramachandran in his biography of Rajinikanth, Edoki found the movie in Singapore and took a copy back with him to Japan. He watched it with his wife and, Ramachandran quotes Edoki saying, ” It was absolutely fascinating – even without subtitles … We became addicted to the point that we had to see at least part of the movie at least once a day”.
With absolute faith, Edoki took the movie around to distributors in Japan until Xanadeux released the film in 1998. I myself was amazed, upon a visit to Tokyo in 1998, to find the image of Thalaiva beaming over the streets of the city. That encounter on the streets of Tokyo in 1998 set into motion the ideas and approaches that inform the Koboi Project. Under the prevailing international marketing practice, global products are deliberately differentiated to address specific markets (what Roland Robertson called dochakuka after the Japanese term dochaku)… Muthu in Japan was a media product that ‘crossed over’ without any such a priori considerations … it made a heart-to-heart connection to become a massive box-office success sans dochakuka.
Image: https://twitter.com/EdokiJun
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/students/modules/hi31v/syllabus/week18/robertson-1995.pdf
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The Koboi Project 
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