Political Potboiler: Vijay’s new film, Jana Nayagan, is the chronicle of a popular icon foretold

WHEN AN AI-GENERATED avatar of the legendary actor turned politician MG Ramachandran hands C Joseph Vijay a black leather whip while address­ing him as Thanga Thalapathy (Golden Leader) in his latest and last movie release, Jana Nayagan, the newly elected chief minister of Tamil Nadu is not merely threatening the enemy but also emulat­ing his political predecessor. Later in the movie, Vijay breaks the fourth wall and sings MGR’s classic song, ‘Naan Aanaiyit­tal’, from Enga Veettu Pillai, a 1965 comedy about twins separated at birth.

This is not the first time he has claimed the mantle. A fight scene in Bigil (2019) where Vijay plays a double role—as a foot­ball coach for the Tamil Nadu women’s team and as the father, a gangster with a heart of gold from subaltern North Chen­nai—begins with the song, ‘Ennathaan Nadakkum Nadakkattume’, from MGR’s film, Panathottam (1963).

In reality, Vijay, 52, has been more circumspect about his political inheri­tance, saying only that he has adopted “electoralapproaches” fromCNAnnadurai, a multimedia writer who was the last chief minister of Madras for two years and the first chief minister of Tamil Nadu for 20 days till his death, and MGR, who was a successful action star before becoming chief minister for a decade between 1977 and 1987, perhaps because of the state of Tamil Nadu politics. As analysts have pointed out, an overwhelming percent­age of those who voted in the 2026 Assem­bly elections for Vijay, who formed the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam in 2024, were under 40, and wanted a change from the forced binary choice of DMK, founded by Annadurai, or AIDMK, founded by MGR.

Actions speak louder than words, says Vijay repeatedly in Jana Nayagan. As writer and political commentator Vaasanthi says: “His coming is a fresh start of a rule that is devoid of the Dravid­ian parties’ rhetoric. People were clearly tired of that.” It helps that he speaks very little and remains an enigma, she points out, adding that he seems like the boy next door. “But he is not MGR. MGR came from a political background, an ideology. Vijay has no ideology which perhaps attracts the young. His main plank was fight corruption like the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP). I think that is the main issue with the young now. Vijay has played the Good Samaritan in his movies that were also crafted to his benefit; people believe he is their sav­iour. The DMK and the AIADMK were oblivious to the change in the air.”

In Jana Nayagan, a remake of the 2023 Telugu-language film Bhagavanth Kesari, starring Nandamuri Balakrishna, Vijay promises to be all things to all people—father figure, older brother, younger brother, teacher and friend. His character, a police officer who is unfairly imprisoned and then emerges as the symbol of truth for the people, fights against every injustice: sexual assault of women, child abuse, poverty, caste oppression, sand mafia, anti-national forces intent on making Tamil Nadu “another Africa”, communalism, misogyny, AI-controlled drone warriors and anti-democracy.

The first time we see Vijay, whose character is named Thalapathy Vetri Kondaan (TVK) in Jana Nayagan, di­rected by H Vinoth, it is with a copy of a book titled ‘Indian Democracy’. It is no accident that the main villain in the film is an IPS officer turned terrorist (called Himmler, after the Nazi minister for interior, and played by Bobby Deol) who believes people are sheep whose emo­tions can be manipulated, which could be a nod to a certain police officer turned politician in Tamil Nadu. He believes in Meluha, the empire established by Lord Rama’s descendants, while songs laud Vijay’s character as a descendant of Ravana (Raavana mavandaa) in a north-south flip. There is another venal politician who wears dark glasses and all-white clothes, and yet another who claims to be from a dynasty of crooks-turned-politicians. Both political parties, he says in the film, have been looting the state for decades.

In Jana Nayagan, women are his allies. Kayal (Pooja Hegde) a journalist who helps him investigate the build-up to a terror attack and a friend’s adopted daughter, Viji (Mamitha Baiju), whom he is preparing to join the Army. There is another woman whose daughter is raped and murdered by the villains, which becomes the focal point of a revolt. Much of that action takes place in the shadow of a statue of Kannagi, the tragic heroine of the epic poem Cilappatikaram who fights for justice and fair play. It certainly helps him to reach out to women, just as Bigil did. The film also throws in details of the 2024 Kallakuruchi hooch tragedy and the 2018 Thoothukudi Sterlite protests, all under the watch of the DMK. All these help in establishing the idea of Vijay’s continuous resistance to the state and its oppression.

Scholars Mohamed Ilyas R and Aysha Viswamohan have studied the careful construction of Vijay’s stardom from its inception in a paper titled “Performing ‘The Man of the Masses’ : Vijay and Construction of Stardom in Contemporary Tamil Cinema”. After the debacle of his debut film, Vijay’s father and director SA Chandrasekhar cast him in Senthoorapandi (1993) where actor Vijayakanth played the titular role as Vijay’s elder brother. The casting, note the scholars, abetted the construc­tion of Vijay’s star persona by position­ing him as the younger iteration of Vijayakanth, a hugely popular star among the cinegoers. In his next film, Rasigan (1994), his father positioned him as Ilaya Thalapathy (Young Leader), a respectful hat tip to Rajinikanth’s blockbuster film Thalapathi (1991).

From 1995 to 2002, Ilyas and Viswamohan say that Vijay played roles that were romantic and family-centric, with the conviction for an eternal notion of heterosexual love and with a sacrifice of desire. Repeating such roles with minor differences solidified Vijay’s status as the new-age modern hero. They also see his election as a continuum of the 2017 protests in Tamil Nadu which began as a movement against the ban on Jallikattu (bull taming) but morphed into something more akin to cultural pride. This is also the time Vijay changed his monicker to Thalapathy, dropping Ilaya, in the 2017 film Mersal, where he played two brothers separated during childhood and their father, who is killed in the flashback sequence.

Add to it the use of Tanglish (a mix of Tamil and English) over traditional Tamil oratory; the rise of his 85,000 fan clubs in Tamil Nadu; the trademark gestures; social media reels spreading information and disinformation: and his ability to rationalise his public sightings, much like Rajinikanth, and you have a phe­nomenon at the intersection of the social, cultural and political.

Change is a process, it will happen slowly, says Vijay’s character in the movie. Now one waits to see how much patience the people of Tamil Nadu have with Vijay, the chief minister.