Vijaykanth: Fourth time lucky?

Rajitha

There was a time when they used to call him the poor man's Rajnikanth.

Today, if you say that, you better be joking -- Vijaykanth has, in recent times, made a brilliant blindside run, to race into the position of Tamil superstar, with mega hits in his last three films.

Stand by for another: Narasimha, his latest starrer, is well on its way towards completion.

Directed by the young and upcoming Tirupathiswamy -- whose credits include Mr Azad in Telugu with Nagarjuna, Soundarya and Shilpa Shetty -- the film will pair Vijaykanth opposite Ramya Krishnan and Isha Koppikar, with the likes of Nasser, Raghuvaran and Kitty figuring in the credits as well.

Shooting has been spread over Delhi, Calcutta, Kulu Manali and Kerala. The highlight of the film is its stunt sequences. For one such shot on trams in Calcutta -- filmed on Vijaykanth, Varghese (a Keralite actor making his Tamil bow) Nasser and Kazhan Khan -- passers-by were fooled into believing that a real live street fight had broken out.

There was panic and confusion for a while, till the moviemakers and cops stepped in to calm things down.

Kalaripayattu, the traditional martial arts form of Kerala, features extensively in the film, large portions of which have been shot in Kerala. Villain Kazan Khan spars alongside Vijaykanth in the kalari sequences.

'Rocky' Rajesh is credited with the stunt choreography, while the story is by G V Kumar and cinematography, by Bhupathi.

The music is scored by Mani Sharma, who is quite a rage now in Andhra Pradesh. Director Thirupathiswamy, we are told, listened to over 300 tunes before picking the six that will feature in this film -- including one number that has Kavita Krishnamurthy singing to the backdrop of the chenda, the traditional temple drums of Kerala, for a dance sequence picturised on Ramya Krishnan.

The letter V appears to have been lucky for Vijaykanth, of late. Check out his three latest hits. Vanathai Pole (which, incidentally, figures in this year's National Awards list, for best wholesome entertainment) has him playing a double role, with Meena, Prabhu Deva and Livingstone making up the rest of the cast in a happy-family tale helmed by director Vikraman.

Then came Vallarasu, directed by Maharajan, followed by Vanchinathan, helmed by Malayalam cinema hotshot Shaji Kailas.

Vijaykanth himself doesn't seem to believe there is anything magical about the letter V, though -- given that he has chosen Narasimha as the title of his latest.

He co-produces the film -- being made on a humongous budget -- along with L K Satish, for the Captain Cine Creations banner.