There is something called a twinless twin syndrome. It has been explored in films like KV Anand-Suriya’s Maattraan and RS Durai Senthilkumar’s Dhanush-starrer Kodi. It is essentially a debilitating grief that comes with the absence of someone who has always been attached to you. In a weird way, Tamil cinema has always been burdened by the idea of duality. Right from the time Tamil cinema evolved from the silent era to the talkies, and made films with a couple of dozens of songs to the present where songs are used sparingly at best, duality has persisted in the collective psyche. PU Chinnappa-Thiyagaraja Bhagavathar, MGR-Sivaji, Rajini-Kamal, Simran-Jyothika, Trisha-Nayanthara, Dhanush-Silambarasan, Vikram-Suriya, and of course one of the biggest duality ever seen in modern day Tamil cinema — Vijay and Ajith.
It was the early 90s when Ajith and Vijay made their feature film debuts. Vijay was the son of SA Chandrasekhar, a proven and influential filmmaker, and Ajith was the first actor in his family. One was making purely romantic films while the other was delivering a mixed bag of entertainment to slowly cater to all kinds of audiences. But both were driven in their need to stand out in an industry where the old guard from the 70s and 80s were still standing tall. They were two of the frontrunners of this brigade.
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Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan were still doing their rounds. Actors like Prabhu, Karthik, Sathyaraj, Sarathkumar, Mohan, Ramki, and Ramarajan were still delivering blockbusters through their solo films. Times were different then, and two new youngsters had to fight it out in this market to find a permanent place for themselves in the hallowed halls of a theatre. But Tamil cinema loves to play on this duality factor. Unlike, say a Rajini-Kamal or a MGR-Sivaji, who, more often than not, traversed completely different paths in cinema, the Ajith-Vijay combination were travelling on the same path. This made the competition all the more fierce. While this did offer the high of the competition, it didn’t quite offer the high of cinema. But that’s a debate for another time.
Even when many of their fellow young competitors including Vijay’s GOAT co-stars Prashanth and Prabhudheva dropped out of the race due to a variety of reasons, the ‘Thala’ and ‘Thalapathy’ of Tamil cinema continued to prosper. Hits and flops happened. Dedicated fan clubs were formed. Diss tracks against each other were found in their films. One’s references were about his solitary climb to the top without the backing of anyone, and the other retorted with snide remarks at the futility of complaining. All said and done, we also saw glimpses of the friendship shared between Vijay and Ajith during parties, blooper videos in Venkat Prabhu films, and other such important occurrences.
Through this journey, both Ajith and Vijay developed a dedicated fan base that couldn’t stand each other. This level of unprovoked hatred towards one, and widespread adulation towards the other was something that was getting toxic with every passing day. Of course, the advent of social media saw fan wars take a rather ugly turn, and it has been a one-way ride to conversational hell ever since. But these fan clubs continued to exist, and thrive. They were the online and offline warriors who assumed that their matinee idol, who saved millions onscreen, needed saving off it. They assumed the moral responsibility to go to any extent to ensure their demi god was unblemished.
But one fine day, Ajith decided to dissolve all his fan clubs, and around the same time, Vijay started his welfare outfit, Vijay Makkal Iyakkam. As Ajith and Vijay grew older, they slowly disassociated themselves from having those petty fights in films, and let their performance and collections do the talking. Now, this gave rise to a newer beast that changed the landscape of how sections of the audience connected with cinema. It was all about numbers. But beyond all the hits, the flops, the enmity, the friendship, the fan clubs, the box-office collections, the fellow cast members, the filmmakers, the producers, and of course, the fame, Ajith and Vijay are like two peas in the same pod.
They grew in cinema together. They became pan-Indian names almost together. They were traversing on similar paths, and might have even been keeping tabs on each other as the destination in their minds was getting closer. I often wonder if the likes of Ajith and Vijay just pick up their phones to call each other and analyse the righteousness of their decisions or the absurdness of it all. Do they meet at secret locations in Chennai or anywhere else to discuss their lineup? Are they really friends or as Vijay says, “Namma nanbar”…? We might not know of what truly transpires between them, but something that hasn’t happened in years together in Tamil cinema is finally upon us.
One of the horses in this two-pronged race is dropping out of it. Vijay has bid adieu to the industry to concentrate on his political career. And it is beautifully serendipitous that his last film would be helmed by H Vinoth who directed three successive films with Ajith namely Nerkonda Paarvai, Valimai, and Thunivu. WIth Vijay dropping out of the race, it is interesting how Ajith has his eyes on a race, albeit a different one. At the age of 53, Ajith has rekindled his passion for motor racing, and is set to launch his motor racing team in the European competitive circuit. It was reported that Ajith would complete the shooting of his next, Good Bad Ugly, with director Adhik Ravichandran and take a break of a year or so to concentrate on his racing pursuits.
Did Ajith and Vijay actually sit down and have a chat before all of this? Was it getting boring for them? Was easy wins not challenging them anymore? Did the pandemic force them to rethink what they wanted to do with life? Remember how a lot of us decided to finally make that short film, pool in funds for that start-up, propose to the love of our lives, regret the missed opportunities, and vowed to be a changed person after being locked inside our own homes and coming to terms with the idea of mortality? Why should our stars be any different? Did Vijay and Ajith believe that now the time is ripe for pursuing other things in life? Yes, they had dedicated their lives to cinema, but isn’t acting just another profession? Can’t people in cinema have other passions? The parallel lives of Ajith and Vijay is something Tamil cinema hasn’t seen among stars of this magnitude. Yes, the likes of Arvind Swamy left cinema to concentrate on other ventures. But no one left cinema at the dizzying heights of their career. Vijay is set to do it, and it is clear that Ajith is set to take it slow for a while.
Now, of course, there will be a clamour to see who will step into the shoes of the next celebrated duality. Even now, we have smaller clashes happening in cinema, but none have been able to break into the big league. It is just a matter of time because everyone is dispensable in the world of cinema. As Mammootty once said, “It is futile to think someone a few years into the future would actually remember an actor like Mammootty existed.” While this pragmatism might be a tough pill to swallow, it is interesting to see where Ajith and Vijay would find themselves in the next few years of their lives.
Ajith aims to create a racing legacy that would nurture more youngsters who have a passion for the sport. Vijay aims to create a political alternative in Tamil Nadu where cinema and politics go hand-in-hand but not all the stars who took the plunge came out unscathed.
Vijay has just one more film to complete before his farewell, and Ajith has two more before he takes that purported break. Some suggest that Vijay would reconsider his decision depending on the result of the elections. Some suggest that Ajith is already in talks with the likes of Prashanth Neel to star in a film that would probably happen in 2026 after the filmmaker completes his commitments with Prabhas (Salaar 2) and Jr NTR (NTR 31). Irrespective of Vijay returning or not, and Ajith making a massive comeback or not, this was a ride like no other.
It is clear that Ajith’s films would release late 2024 or in the first half of 2025, and Vijay would cap off 2025 with the release of Thalapathy 69 in October. What would happen to this dynamic duo after that? What would happen to the millions of fans whose identity is connected to their star’s superstardom? What would happen to the online fans whose primary agenda is to defend their matinee idols and put down their rival? What would happen to the filmmakers who harboured dreams of working with these two stars of Tamil cinema? Will their prolonged absence finally allow other trees to flourish in this garden?
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In this last ride of Ajith and Vijay, it gets clearer that the duality wasn’t always about the two of them. It was about the two of them on one side, and we, the audience, and the rest of the industry on the other. More than Ajith coping with Vijay’s decision to leave, and Vijay coping with Ajith’s decision to race ahead, it is us who are left with an uneasy feeling of uncertainty. We are the ones who would be suffering from the twinless twin syndrome.
Basically… What would WE do next?
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