Originally Posted by saradhaa_sn
From the very begining of 50s, MGR planned very well to use his cinema fame to his lift in politics. He decided Cinema is the correct way to approach people to get success in politics. Thatswhy he acted only POSITIVE rolls which will give more effect among the people. So, he carefully choosed his rolls, and made some changes wherever necessary to keep up his image.
He was very careful in maitained his image by acting in movies with:
non-drinking
non-smoking
not in villain charectors
not acting as bad man
always helping poors
mother sentiments
praising diologues by others (like "neengathaan thalaivar')
praising dialogues by old ladies (like' mavaraasaa nee nalla irukkanum')
Thus he planned well to use his cine fame as a ladder for his success in his political carreer, and kept the same formula until his last movie, without taking care about the criticisms by educated people, because his main aim is to cover the illeterates in remote areas throughout Tamil Nadu, who started to beleive cinema is a real one.
When he found himself that he is lack of acting skill, he put his full concentration in other aspects, mainly in songs, camera views, dream scenes with richness, stunt scenes etc. Particularly he gave more importance for the songs in his movies, with the farmola of one 'thaththuva paadal', one song praising about him (like 'naan aanaiyittal' and 'naan alavodu rasipavan..edhaiyum alavindri koduppavan' etc), duet songs with vareities of tunes (thatswhy still we can hear his songs as fresh ones).
The main difference between MGR and Shivaji is:
Shivaji always think that people should see him as charectors as Kattabomman, V.O.C, Prestige Padmanabhan, Barristor Rajinikanth, S.P.Choudhry like that, and they should not see him as Ganesan in the screen.
But regarding MGR always think, whether he plays King roll or Begger role, but people should see him as MGR only and not as charectors.
In politics Shivaji did not take it as serious, just used it as pickle, whereas it was the main food for MGR.
Shivaji always took wrong decitions in wrong times in politics, and he did not aimed any big posts and he never planned for that. Thatswhy he faded in politics, when MGR became a successful leader.