Is Salman Khan Bollywood’s answer to ultimate superhero - Rajinikanth?

If you are a devout fan of Rajinikanth, stop reading now because according to a new theory, it wasn’t the superstar who put a halt to the Mayan doomsday on 12/12/12, but a certain cop called Chulbul Pandey who swept in on December 21st and saved mankind from certain annihilation.

This is the cult status now demanded by Salman Khan, whose ‘Dabangg 2’ released on the day of doom as per the ancient Mayans, and went on to spark a frenzy that has gone down in history books at the Bollywood box office.

But it’s not just the Dh1.4 million the film made on Friday in UAE cinemas alone that has Salman’s name up in the bright lights, but rather his larger than life on-screen characters of late that see gravity defying feats that would appear cheesy on anyone but Rajnikanth, until Salman flew in to steal his thunder.

Emirates 24|7 reels in three of the best of Salman and Rajnikanth for readers to be the judge, which actor is the real superstar.

Salman’s top scenes

Salman saves the day

A child is kidnapped. The goons are menacing.

Suddenly the ground starts to shake; is it an earthquake? A herd of wild elephants maybe?

“Oh no, it’s Chulbul Pandey,” says head goon, right before the man in question slams through a brick wall, then lunges out of an airborne car onto a suspended one, which then crashes to the ground in a haze of splintered glass.

Seeing is believing this opening scene of ‘Dabangg 2’, which personifies Salman’s rising cult status to place him on a mantle with Rajinikanth himself.

Salman stops sound

A chiselled, bare-chested Salman flies through the air, twisted 360 degrees mid-flight and lands a right-angle kick on baddie Prakash Raj in ‘Wanted’ climax.

Such power is in that one leg thrust that the sound goes static for the next one minute, aping Prakash’s condition, who has turned deaf with Salman’s powerful impact.

When the sound does return in our baddie’s ears, he loses control of his bowels.

Oh dear. Such is the wrath of Salman indeed.

Salman plays blind man’s bluff

The damsel in distress has been captured by goons and is trapped in some ancient ruins.

Salman, her trusted ‘Bodyguard’ flies to her rescue, only to be blinded by dust in his eyes.

Naturally, the film wouldn’t be iconic if the macho hero simply bent down in the water he was standing in and flushed out his eyes.

No siree.

The blinded, wounded warrior takes out the baddies with just the power of his supersonic ears, as they all drop like flies.

However, the makers wanted a bare chested scene, so Salman is finally hosed down with a water pipe, that perfectly unbuttons his shirt and cleans his eyes.
Let there be light.

Rajinikanth’s top scenes

Superstar rewrites Newton’s laws of gravity

A man flies through the air, crashing through a car’s windshield and smashes through the window in the back. All we see first is a lone shoe, could it be a Nike we wonder? Possible an Adidas, which may have inspired its famous tagline: Impossible is Nothing”.

But clearly, impossible is not a word that exists in the dictionary of the man whose foot is encased in that trainer. Did we mention he is Superstar Rajinikanth?

A chewing gum flies plops faithfully into his mouth, a mini cyclone is conjured by the mere twirling of his toe and goons fly through the air performing somersaults that would make a trapeze artiste proud.

Which movie is this? Who cares. This is Rajinikanth at his best!

Superstar redefines The Matrix

The film is ‘Sivaji – The Boss’, the premise is a climax, the weapons of choice are Samurai swords and battleaxes. Oh boy! This is going to get ugly very fast.

With billions of rupees raining down from the sky, an angered Rajinikanth leaps, flies, dances and spins in a circle while airborne as he takes out baddie after baddie with his action adventure on a rooftop.

Did we mention its raining billions? Indeed, in his bald eagle avatar and a trenchcoat to boot, Rajini Sir takes on a lungi-clad head honcho while hanging upside down from a metal beam, wielding battleaxes and leaving dead bodies in his wake.

Seeing is believing we tell you.

Superstar: The Saviour of the Supressed

A man goes flying through the air and takes out a streetlamp. The municipality commission would not be pleased, but the damsel in distress most certainly is in ‘Basha’.

Superstar Rajinikanth is angry and he means serious business as bodies fly and blood is spilled while the damsel squeals in glee or is it despair; we still haven’t quite figured it out. But this is the superstar at his raw best.