Ajith Birthday Special: 10 Turning Points In His Career
Ajith Kumar turns 44 today and still commands an unprecedented, loyal fan-base in the industry. On this special day, we have compiled the ten turning points in his career which played a pivotal role in shaping up his career.
[nextpage]Tasting success for the first time with Aasai
Ajith’s career graph didn’t shoot up from the start. The actor had a weary start, with parallel projects in Tamil and Telugu along with a TV serial too. It was only in 1998, when Mani Ratnam roped him in for his home production Aasai, which was helmed by Vasanth. Aasai had cinematography by the late Jeeva and music by Deva. The film went on to become a blockbuster, raking in immense recognition for the star. Thereafter, Ajith became a household name and was a well-known face across the country.
Kadhal K
ottai and the National Award winning recognition
Ajith’s Kadhal Kottai turned out to be one of the path-breaking films in Tamil Cinema. The film won a national award for its epistolary-based
screenplay, and brought him a good name amongst the critics and common audience alike. Kadhal Kottai narrated a love story where the lead pair do not meet each other until the climax. It is also one of the very few instances where the screenplay of the film was transcripted into a story format and released as a novel in 2010. Noted Tamil magazine Ananda Vikatan gave the film 52 marks, something which is pretty rare these days.
Filmfare Award for Best Actor Vaali 
One can easily term ‘Vaali’ as the BEST movie in Ajith’s career acting-wise. Directed by debutant S.J.Suryah, this film gave Ajith all that he needed, essentially a blockbuster. He was facing a string of failures before Vaali but his utmost confidence on a newcomer proved him right and struck him gold. The following year, Ajith won his first Filmfare Award for the Best Actor and it was indeed a very big achievement. Ajith did a dual role for the first time and the one in which he essayed the role of a deaf-and-dumb guy was widely appreciated by everyone. It was the first film to showcase Ajith’s ability as an actor and brought him closer to the common audience. ‘Vaali’ is also responsible for taking his ardent fan following to the next level.
[/nextpage] [nextpage]
Developing a rapport with Shalini during Amarkalam
Ajith is a star who has been at minimum when it comes to gossips with women. While shooting for his gangster thriller Amarkalam, Ajith and Shalini struck off a good relationship which later led to their marriage in the year 2000. Even today, Ajith and Shalini are picked to be a cordial duo in Kollywood. Eight years post their marriage, Shalini gave birth to the couple’s first child Anoushka. Come 2015, and the family celebrated the entrance of a new member, little boy Aadvik.
[/nextpage] [nextpage]Dual Ending in Mugavari: Ajith’s most touching classic
Ajith’s another classic ‘Mugavaree’ explained how hard it is for a common man to enter the cine field. The role ‘Sridhar’ who is an aspiring young musician striving to enter cinema, was done effortlessly by Ajith. This film brought out many internal politics that is happening in the selection process in cinema and also how luck factor is dealt by the individuals when they are in to achieve something. Ajith carried the whole film on his shoulders single-handedly. Interestingly, this movie had two different third-acts. The first one is that the hero fails in all his efforts and eventually let goes of cinema to choose a different career to reciprocate the love of his family members who constantly encourage him whenever he is down. As the first one didn’t go well with the typical Tamil audience, it was later changed in such a way that the hero succeeds in becoming a music director. Though the second climax gives a pleasant feel while watching, the first one is the reality and kudos to director V.Z.Durai for creating it and Ajith for accepting it. Balakumaran’s dialogues in the film are talked about even today.
Ajith’s ‘Mass’ Image and the ‘Thala’ tag from Dheena 
When things were looking good in his career, Ajith provided a launchpad to director AR Murugadoss who made his debut with Dheena. The film had Ajith playing the younger brother of Suresh Gopi, showcasing the rivalry between the two. Dheena brought in a mass hero image for Ajith, along with the tag name ‘Thala’. The film had a lot of memorable scenes among his fans, such as the rain fight, the superb scene at the mall and the emotional snippet with his sister. Yuvan Shankar Raja came up with a chart-buster album, songs like Nee Illai Endral and Sollamal Thottu Chellum Thendral create ripples when played on TV even now.
[/nextpage] [nextpage]
Nine avatars in Citizen: A milestone moment!
Ajith is a man of versatility. He tries to differentiate himself in every movie. One such was the 2001 release ‘Citizen’ in which he outplayed all his previous roles by doing 9 different get-ups in the entire movie. The buzz ‘Citizen’ had before its release was very huge. It’s a physically demanding movie and Ajith had to undergo severe workouts while shooting. Ajith, the protagonist, played an angry youngster who seeks revenge for the greedy government officials who were the reason for the demise of his parents and the destruction of his village ‘Aththippatti’. Ajith’s performance especially in the climax and the flashback portions was critically acclaimed and the film was a huge hit too. This was the first time when fans got to see Ajith in multiple avatars.
[/nextpage] [nextpage]Turning away Saamy, Kaakha Kaakha and Ghajini
Ajith’s career had a dull phased three year window in the mid-2000s. The actor took off from cinema to analyse his actions and also concentrate on his racing career. Ajith turned down a lot of blockbuster scripts such as Hari’s Saamy, Gautham Menon’s Kaakha Kaakha and Murugadoss’s Ghajini during this period. Two of these went to Suriya who took a giant leap with these films.
Breaking Stereotypes in Mankatha 
Negative roles are always a cakewalk for Ajith and he appears totally in his comfort zone in them. After a not-so-good 2-year sting with Aegan and Aasal, Ajith roped in Venkat Prabhu to direct his 50th film. It was titled ‘Mankatha’ which itself conveyed that the movie deals with gambling. But what we never expected was that Ajith would do a full fledged negative character for the first time in his career. There was no compromise in the portrayal whatsoever and Ajith did full justice to his role ‘Vinayak Mahadev’, a police officer, who would do anything for money. With this, he broke the stereotypes on how a hero should be shown in Tamil cinema. The film became a huge hit and has achieved a cult status among Ajith fans.
[/nextpage] [nextpage]Yennai Arindhaal: The most honest Ajith film 
Gautham Menon’s Yennai Arindhaal is the most honest film of Ajith Kumar in a long time for a number of reasons. For an actor of his calibre, Ajith’s decision to not let his ‘star’ image overshadow the ‘actor’ was appreciated by everyone. There were no punchlines, no mass introduction, no gross fanboyish moments in the film which stayed true to genre completely. It turned out be a critics’ favourite which is considered a rarity for mass heroes of late. Ajith’s restrained performance in a film where he could have easily played to the gallery at least a gazillion times brought out the actor in him after a long time.
[/nextpage]
