The buzz before a Rajinikanth movie is nothing new. As sure as night follows day, the excitement among the Superstar fans is always at a fever pitch in the days leading up to the release. Massive cut-outs, queues outside theaters to buy that coveted first-day-first-show ticket, companies declaring holidays -- we have seen all that before. But, as someone who has grown up around all that buzz, I can definitively say that the expectations have never been as high for a Rajini movie as it has been for Kabali -- his latest movie which will hit the theaters on Friday, 22 July. Ever since he announced the movie with a crew that did not have any of the familiar big names associated with his movies, his fans -- old and new -- have not been able to stop talking about how Kabali could mark a return to the era of Rajini, the actor who K. Balachander introduced to the world, and not just Rajini, the superhero who could do anything on a screen and the man who inadvertently became the butt of Chuck Norris-type jokes. This one promised to be different. He was going to play a role where he would play his age (at least for the majority of the movie). And the moment the teaser came out, the buzz reached previously unseen levels -- just a matter of million views within a week and it now stands at a phenomenal 26 million! "Hope this movie would put to rest the gross generalisation that Rajini is just about style, punch-dialogues and romancing actors half his age and that he can't *actually* act." This was the sentiment among fans who have followed him all through his meteoric rise from a bus-conductor to the greatest star of southern cinema, perhaps even Indian cinema. And there is a good reason for that, because Rajini is a man who can act, a man who can make characters come to life just with his eyes and voice modulation. For those who are thinking "Oh come on, that's such a fan-boy statement," here's a list of five movies where Rajini showed what a good actor he is. It was not always about flipping cigarettes in air and catching grenades, y'know? Thillu Mullu - 1981 By 1981, Rajini had already developed an image of being a bad-ass action hero. Which is what makes Thillu Mullu, remake of the cult comedy Golmaal starring Amol Palekar, an unique movie in Rajini's filmography. Rajini's comic sense has always stood out but this remains the only out and out comedy Rajini has done till date and for that, Tamil cinema is poorer. While remaining faithful to the Amol Palekar original, Rajini charisma shines through the movie. The younger brother role is essayed with a brash arrogance that he had inculcated over his initial years of playing the villain. Forbes included the performances of Rajini and Thengai Sreenivasan, the man Rajini dupes on its list, "25 Greatest Acting Performances of Indian Cinema" -- the list that includes Gabbar from Sholay and Amitabh Bachchan from Deewar.