August 25th 1952, In Madurai known for its Meenakshi Temple, a couple gave birth to a child who would become Tamilnadu's captain. His name was Narayanan Vijayraj Azhagarsami alias Vijaykanth. He studied in school and college and also worked at his father's rice mill.
He started to take pictures of himself and his pictures were noticed by a producer who launched him into the big screen with Inikum Ilamai which featured him as a villain. He got recognized for his acting chops with films such as Doorathu Idi Muzhakam, Vaidehi Kaathirundhaal where a song called Raasathi Unna attained Popularity.
His breakthrough as an action hero came with Sattam Oru Irrutarai which was directed by S.A Chandrashekar and thus they associated on a few films together. Since then he was called as Tamil Cinema's Angry Young Man. He maintained a record of having worked a lot of shifts to finish his filming schedules. He later rose as a competitor to Rajinikanth and Kamalhassan who were ruling the roost as Stars.
Vijaykanth has appeared in films that were shot in a low budget and featured Gravity Defying Stunts. His Generosity resulted in introducing not just newcomers to Kollywood but also having acted with two new actors; Vijay and Suriya who would become upcoming superstars. He never took any remuneration from producers thus earning him the nickname; Karuppu MGR. As leader of Nadigar Sangam, He organized two star shows in Malaysia and Singapore to help clear its debts. He also started an engineering college.
Vijayakanth earned the monickers; Captain and Puratchi Kalaignar. The nickname Captain was earned from His 100th film Captain Prabhakaran. In the 2000s, his acting career was vanning when he plunged into politics by forming a party named Desiya Murpoku Dravida Kazhagam. His last film was ironically his directorial debut Virudhagiri.
His Political career started with a lot of victories and had made him a star. His boldness was on full display when he got in an argument with Jayalalitha, a former film star turned politician. Unfortunately, Ill health dampened his career in politics from 2016.
On December 28th 2023, The captain took his last breath in the early morning hours. Thus marked the end of another chapter in Tamil Cinema and Dravidian Politics.
