Superstar Rajinikanth began his career in 1975 with a relatively small role as an abusive husband with director K Balachander's 'Apoorva Raagangal' starring Kamal Haasan in the lead. Rajinikanth gradually rose to become a star actor after initially playing the role of an antagonist in his early films. The growth of the star has been phenomenal. With just a few days more to celebrate the star's birthday, here is a list of few of Rajinikanth's top movies over the years. Moondru Mudichu (1976) During the initial days of his career, Rajinikanth often donned the role of a negative lead and he made a mark with 'Moondru Mudichu', directed by his mentor K Balachander. The movie revolves around three people, a college going girl (Sridevi) and two men who fall in love with her (Kamal Haasan and Rajnikanth). Both Kamal Haasan and Rajnikanth are room-mates where Rajinikanth pretends to back Kamal's love while secretly hoping to create a divide between them. 16 Vayathinile (1977) Rajnikanth played a village rogue called Parattai in the film and the audiences were left spellbound with his teasing line, 'ithu eppadi irukku?' (How is it?). The film starred Kamal Haasan, Rajinikanth and Sridevi in the lead once again and went on to win four state awards. Bairavi (1978) Rajini gained the superstar title from the movie Bairavi, which had Sripriya, Geetha, Sreekanth, Manorama and Suruli Rajan in important roles. After this, Rajini's successful career took off and it was also the first Tamil film to cast Rajinikanth as the main hero. Mullum Malarum (1978) Not only did Rajinikanth win a special prize for Best Actor at the Tamil Nadu State Film Awards for the film but he also won over a huge female fan following. He played a winch operator Kali, who loved his sister and with this film, the talented actor dispelled whatever doubts remained about his acting ability. Ninaithale Inikkum (1979) Directed by K Balachander, like many other popular Rajini films, this too starred Kamal Haasan. Rajni plays the guitarist in a music troupe where Kamal Haasan is the lead singer with Jayapradha as the female lead. It is in this youthful entertainer, the superstar is challenged to flip his cigarette 10 times or lose a finger. Thillu Mullu (1981) Rajini plays the carefree graduate named Ayyampettai Arivudainambi Kaliyaperumal Chandran and he pulls of clean jokes effortlessly making this movie a classic laugh-a-thon. Rajinikanth had to shave his moustache for the film, making it the first film which featured him without a moustache. Sri Raghavendrar (1985) Having completed 99 movies, Rajinikanth played the role of the Hindu saint Raghavendra, who is his spiritual guru. Though the performance of Rajinikanth was much appreciated the movie flopped at the box office due to the fact that the fans couldn't accept their star ending in a tomb. But when Rajini was recently asked to list his favourite movies, this was on number one. Muthu (1995) The film was a blockbuster and completed a 175-day run at the box office. It was later released in Japanese as Muthu Odoru Maharaja which means Muthu - The Dancing Maharaja. The film grossed a record US$ 1.6 million in Japan in 1998 and was responsible for creating a large Japanese fan-base for the actor. Muthu's success in Japan led American news magazine Newsweek to comment in a 1999 article that Rajinikanth had "supplanted Leonardo DiCaprio as Japan's trendiest heartthrob." Baasaha (1995) Baashha is an action thriller film starring Rajinikanth, Nagma, and Raghuvaran in which he played the role of a protagonist, who takes revenge for his friend's murder. Not only did the film enjoy a highly positive box office response but also catapulted Rajini into the stratosphere of super stardom. The punch dialogues and the mannerisms of Rajini were extremely well received. Enthiran (2010) Director Shankar and Rajinikanth combination was back after a few years after their successful 'Sivaji' in 2007. Rajinikanth was seen in the dual roles, as a scientist and a robot with Bollywood diva Aishwarya Rai paired opposite him. The superstar's role as a robot that turns into a villain was loved by the fans more than his role as the scientist who creates the robot. If you feel we missed out a movie that deserves a spot on this list, feel free to share it with us.
