Kamal Haasan has stirred the political waters of both Tamil Nadu and the nation. Tamil Nadu has had the unique distinction of electing parties led by script writers and actors. But the Tamil voter is more discerning than his northern or even Andhra counterparts. The star pull of a Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Babul Supriyo, Vinod Khanna or Jaya Prada is adequate to only fetch them their own seat, provided the political headwinds are favourable. Their political leanings, if they have any, are obscure. But the allure of characters from Tamil cinema who made the transition to state politics has endured for decades and continues to leaven political loyalties.
Kamal Haasan has entered a crowded field. By declaring that his fight would be against corruption and communalism, he has set a high asking rate for himself. The earlier film stars in Tamil Nadu built their following on the more easily emotive issue of cultural nationalism and anti-Brahmanism. They later proved to be all too human and fallible but they all had to go through the usual grind of politicians making their way up the socio-political ladder.
Kamal Haasan does have an uphill task but he is different from the way he has lived his life — at least six relationships with women, many of them live-in — or conducted his politics — calling himself an atheist and openly expressing his aversion to communalism. Kamal has had greater exposure than the inward-looking Dravidian politicians and his craft is superior to that of all the politician-actors who occupied Fort St George. His meetings with Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal have made his political trajectory clear. He has started out with the right noises: declaring that he is still a “student” but will aim for the top prize of Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. But minus a huge and committed supporting cast as was the case with MGR and Karunanidhi, Kamal has months of slogging ahead before he can hope to capture the hearts in Tamil Nadu and beyond.