India Masala
Bollywood and culture in an emerging India
Happy Birthday Rajnikanth
Blame it on “Robot“. Last year, when Rajnikanth’s film opened in cinemas, not only did it become a huge hit, it also unleashed another pop culture phenomenon on the rest of India — Rajnikanth jokes.
Soon, it was all you would hear — in local trains, on your Facebook feed, over lunch in the office cafeteria and in your SMS inbox — each instance starting with: this is the best Rajnikanth joke ever.
You have to hand it to them though, most of them were pretty funny, even though they were copied from the Chuck Norris brand of jokes. And what they did is reinforce to a whole lot of people who don’t live in south India — what a phenomenon Rajnikanth is, if you didn’t know it already.
My favourite one is: Rajnikanth wanted to play cricket, so the rain was delayed due to start of play (or something to that effect).
And of course, today, on Rajnikanth’s birthday, the one doing the rounds is “Happy Rajnikanth, Birthday”.
Which is your favourite Rajnikanth joke?
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The Wall
NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander has successfully drilled into the rock-hard ice layer below the Martian surface and collected the frozen shavings which included the Butt-ends of the cigarettess smoked by Superstar RajiniKant.