Anyone who went to watch Sivaji expecting a good story or even a loose plot would have been sorely disappointed. But one must understand that Sivaji doesn’t need a story or a plot. It has Superstar Rajnikanth starring in it. The fact that it is made by Shankar helps build some credibility in trade circles; not that Superstar needs it. The fact that AR Rahman has given the score helps record sales. Again, not that Superstar needs a good score. The special effects justify the amount of money spent, but Superstar could have pulled it off even without them. His larger than life presence is more than enough.

As this was my first Rajnikanth film I had been forewarned that I should expect a masala film. One that entertains by creating a colourful and illusory world, where even gravity is suspended from time to time. After all, Superstar doesn’t need gravity. That I must not expect anything close to reality and enjoy the song, dance and most importantly the dialogues and return happy three hours later was my plan.

I was most disappointed. While the movie fails on virtually all counts except Rajnikanth’s larger than life screen presence; the one count on which it succeeds is the reality it presents. The reality of the various biases that prejudice the educated and uneducated masses and affect Indian policy and governance. So it was hardly the escapist entertainment I expected.

Sivaji (Rajnikanth) is a techie who returns from US and intends to spend his life’s earnings on building a foundation for charitable medical schools and hospitals. Sivaji is faced with enormous regulatory costs, which he didn’t account for, as he has to bribe everybody to get the myriad licenses and permits to build and open the foundation. The villain, a capitalist who runs a hospital and a medical college in the vicinity, hates competition creates problems for Sivaji through his typical rent seeking behavior. As all of Sivaji’s plans are foiled by the villain he decides to use the “different path” to take revenge and launch his foundation.

For this he decides to use rob the “Black Money” that the rich capitalists have, since he attributes the non payment of taxes as the real reason for the large scale poverty and mal-governance. He converts all that money into US Dollars by using the “Hawala network” to escape money laundering and then receives them as contributions for the foundation from all over the world. Then he uses that money to build roads, charitable hospitals, schools and colleges winning the goodwill of the masses. In the end he gets killed by the villain and in true Rajnikanth style comes back to life.

With such a plot and dialogues; many insights, on an average individual’s perception of governance and policy, can be gathered since the movie has played to the masses. They are the same reasons which can be attributed to these individuals consistently choosing bad policies as voters.

What Bryan Caplan has explained in his book, the Myth of the Rational Voter, the movie affirms. The Economist has succinctly explained the four biases Caplan talks of which make voters consistently choose bad policies.

“First, people do not understand how the pursuit of private profits often yields public benefits: they have an anti-market bias. Second, they underestimate the benefits of interactions with foreigners: they have an anti-foreign bias. Third, they equate prosperity with employment rather than production: Mr Caplan calls this the “make-work bias”. Finally, they tend to think economic conditions are worse than they are, a bias towards pessimism.”

In the movie, Sivaji has a distinct anti-market bias. He believes that non payment of taxes and black money leads to inflated pricing of essential goods by the government. He thinks it is the government’s role to produce and distribute those essential goods and services, a function that has failed due to the greed of capitalists and corrupt bureaucrats. Similarly the “make-work” bias is also clear in the movie. Sivaji believes in a paternalistic charitable foundation which will give employment irrespective of skill so that the families may sustain themselves.

I think the anti-foreign bias exists much less in India than in other developed countries. Indians are enthusiastic about foreign goods (a reaction to the erstwhile “self-sufficient” economy) post liberalization and also about foreign technology and experts. Instead of a foreign bias I think Indians have a communal bias. By communal I loosely mean religion, caste, class and language; and in economic and social transactions as well as in voter preferences these communal biases are apparent.

Sivaji clearly reflects this communal bias, especially because Tamil Nadu is such a communally divided state and most vote banks are earned or lost along castist lines.

Inadvertently Sivaji manages to contradict himself. Despite having no faith in the markets he uses the age old Hawala system to transfer his money. Despite believing in a welfare state, he feels the government is inherently inefficient in welfare activities and hence opens a charitable organization and in a sense privatizes governance.

The other thing that the movie manages to convey despite its theme is that in the free market, if there is rule of law, it becomes very difficult for the rent seeking villainous capitalists to destroy someone who is highly valued in the market. The villain cannot touch Sivaji because Sivaji followed the law and has the goodwill of the people. He only manages to hurt Sivaji in police custody by using the coercive state machinery and the corrupt police. So it makes it clear that no coercion is possible in any significant and real way without the consent or the help of the state.

In all, Sivaji managed to do so well and become such a big hit for the same reasons that bad politicians and their irrational policies are elected each day. It managed to play on and tug the heart strings of every bias in the irrational voter’s minds. Because the irrational voter is often an irrational audience. At least in a Rajnikanth film.

I liked Guru, more than most others I think. It’s definitely not Mani Ratnam’s best, but as I keep saying, it is ideologically important.

It’s a very “free market” film, and demolishes Nehru’s “profit is a bad word” logic completely. Excellent instances of how the law is bad, how it is impossible to start one’s business and how being corrupt is not much of a choice but a necessity when laws restrain economic freedom. And the fight between Goenka and Dhirubhai has been romantically captured. An appropriate time to highlight Indian entrepreneurs, don’t you think?

I don’t think the critics had this take, they have completely rubbished the film and aren’t entirely off the mark. Aishwariya is only for decoration and a little wooden, the songs, though wonderful, are actually a hindrance in the narrative, and some of the side plots could have been avoided.

Mithun is a surprise, Madhavan is great as always, and Vidhya Balan is also charming. AB is good (not great), there are moments when you are reminded of AB Sr (especially when AB Jr looks out of the window at Marine Drive, very reminiscent of AB Sr doing the same in Deewar, after he takes over the office). I really like Ae Hairathe perhaps because it doesn’t feature completely in the movie and just plays in parts without interrupting the narrative.(I believe it is dedicated to Nusrat….even better).

So the film is not great as a Mani Ratnam film per se, but if you look at it as a giant endorsement of free markets and entrepreneurs (or India’s aam aadmi), in mainstream cinema, which is hard to come by, it strikes the right note. Almost no one romanticises the struggle to make money and pursue self interest. Sad.

Oh, I almost forgot, it is beautifully shot, you will be reminded of Tu hi Re type cinematography in the songs etc, Menon is great!

The Tamil Nadu government has decided that movie tickets are too expensive. And since they are of such importance they must be made available to the aam aadmi at a reasonable price.

So the price ceiling for movie tickets has been fixed.

In cities like Chennai it cannot sell for over Rs.50; for towns it has been fixed at Rs. 25 and only at Rs. 15 in villages.

I think we all know what to expect.