Once during an interview Dhanush blurted out that his aspirations as an actor are far removed from his father-in-law Rajinikanth. Of course now Rajini is no longer Dhanush’s official father-in-law. It is unclear whether Dhanush has divorced Rajinikanth’s daughter.
But Rajini is still very fond of his erstwhile(?) son-in-law.He repeatedly asks Dhanush that they do a film together.But Rajnikant can’t fit into Dhanush’s vision of what a film is supposed to do. Dhanush’s growth as an actor has been not short of astonishing.Among his recent films, Aadukalam,Maryan, Velaiilla Pattadhari,Maari, Kodi and Paa Pandi display an actor of tremendous skills at work.
In a past interaction Dhanush had said, “Being a star is secondary to me.What I really want is that the opportunities to better myself as an actor should not stop. I fear a day would come when the well would dry up. That would be like death to me.”
Dhanush at 40 is one of India’s most interesting actors. Sadly his sporadic stints in Hindi cinema have not been fruitful. Aanand L Rai’s Raanjhana and more recently Atrangi Re were pretty much disastrous.
He was last seen in the Tamil film Vaathi where he played an idealistic teacher in a village hero-worshipped by his students. The role and the film came dangerously close to self-glorfication, the kind of cinema that Dhanush’s (former?) father-in-law specializes in.