'Kaala' trailer proves Rajinikanth is serious about 'netagiri'

Rajinikanth, the superstar is alive and kicking in the trailer of his new film, rather racially referred to as "Kaala".

'Kaala' Rajinikanth, it seems, is the son of the soil. Dark (kaala) thoughts are vanquished as he seethes against those who toil to torment the farmer. He rages against the landlord played by Nana Patekar, who it is quite clear from the trailer's first shot, is a formidable adversary for our hero. Rajinikanth not only plays the hero of the farmers a la Aamir Khan in "Lagaan" without the dhoti, he also takes on Nana as only he can.

Interestingly, Nana plays a nuanced, scholarly adversary. So we can safely assume that this time Rajinikanth's herogiri won't be offset by plain unalloyed evil. This is a more complex villain. Nana addresses the masses and refuses to be a snarling lip-curling villain. That he insisted on learning the Tamil language from scratch for this part is a measure of the actor's diligent commitment to getting it right.

We can safely assume the confrontational episodes between Nana and Rajnikanth will give a centrifugal force to what otherwise looks like a film designed to exploit the plight of farmers by pinning their exploitation to a suave refined adversary.

"To you, land is power. To us, (the masses), it is life," says Rajinikanth to Nana.

Why do I feel Nana would still get more applause than the hero in every state barring Tamil Nadu? Is the tenor of the trailer to blame for this unintentional leaning towards the wrong side?