Post Traumatic Syndrome Rajini

Rajini in Dharma Yuddham, unchained and allowed near Sri Devi

 

I posted a beautiful Ilayaraaja-composed song in my WhatsApp status, from the 1979 film Dharma Dhurai, titled Aagaya Ganggai. You can search it on YouTube. Anyway, in that post I commented, “I think they had werewolf in mind because Rajini’s character has to be chained during full moon.”

Because in the film, during the full moon, he experiences a violent childhood trauma and tends to behave violently; hence, his sister has to chain him up beforehand, let him do all those scary faces close up, pull the chain, shake his bell bottom, and all that till he calms down. Watching it can be traumatic too if you are averse to overacting. You can watch it here (somewhere at 12^th minute) And don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Then, an acquaintance (the same who made me write this) commented on it, rattling of the usual ADHD, bipolarity, etc. I first wanted to respond by saying “dude, I know a bit about those, because I have lived with them, including schizophrenics, for two-plus years during my stint, er-hum, at the Rehab centre.

They never had to be chained up like this. Then she jokingly said, “You are the same too”. Well, she is not wrong. Alcoholism may be a habit, but it’s also a disease. The medical term for it is Alcohol Use Disorder. Of course, rehab centres won’t tell you that, because we would just go, “hey just pop a pill and it will be alright”. They are there to fix the habit of wanting a swig at any time of the day. If there is a pill to cure that, the alcohol industry will go the way of the dinosaurs, because—and I know this—you know at some point that you need to stop.

Speaking of which, the ones affected most mentally in the rehab are the ones who were popping synthetic drugs. Poet Laureate Kannadhasan once wrote, “unakkum keezhe ullavar kOdi, ninaithu pArthu nimmathi nAdu” (there are those worse off than you; think of that, and you will feel better). That’s how I feel when I see these cases. I mean, at least alcoholics have to fear about the state of their liver. These guys are fucked mentally for the rest of their lives.

Usually, the ones most who return to the Rehab are drug abusers. From what I figured out, alcoholics do well. Not saying they are all clean and sober, many are, but there are also those who are able to handle the drink responsibly. But drug abuse is a habit that’s like a wild horse; it kicks you, and you can’t kick it off.

Making a circle, Rajini’s character can be acting out of anything. Perhaps he is secretly a drug addict or
a prescription addict. Or maybe some of the supplements he has been popping are making him do terrifying expressions. Maybe that dude needs to go to rehab.