Once again, we talk about Superstar Rajnikant. The cooooolest dude in the south, no matter what anyone else says. This scene we are gonna talk about is usually done in action films where the protagonist is wounded by a bullet (you know, one of the thousands of bullets that were fired by expert marksmen that somehow missed him and went through the holes in the script instead) in a different way. I mean, the usual situation is this:

You are shot while on the run, either by the cops (in which case you either wrongly accused of some crime or are just a good bad guy), or by some bad guys. You can't show up at any hospital ER because if they find you, your goose is cooked anyway. So you resort to some local doctor-esque person instead. Indian movies and Hollywood movies have not-too-different perspectives on bullet removal. For example, in a Hindi movie, you would have the hero bite down on some sort of keychain (wait, that's for epilepsy) while the (female) doctor tries to remove the bullet with a heated knife. The doctor of course has learnt in the course of her medical study that bullet removal in secrecy is best done with a sharp knife heated with the help of a candle. Hema Malini does this in some Shatrughan Sinha movie, I think. I vaguely remember some scene like this. Anyways, the actual removal happens as the hero grits his teeth and loudly groans as the knife enters his skin and the immediate next scene shows a small piece of blood-stained metal falling into a bedpan (clink!)

In the Hollywood movie Ronin - which, by the way, was one of the cooolest movies (I'm talking liquid Helium here) of the 90s, even though it was kind of slow, and also featured the longest car-chase sequence, longer than the one in The French Connection - Robert DeNiro is shot in the stomach, and needs immediate medical attention. Of course, Jean Reno is glad to help. He heats up the knife, and follows instructions from DeNiro. I think DeNiro even has him hold a mirror so he can do the actual removal. The whole scene is done with a minimum of screaming, but you can still see the standard grimace on DeNiro's face... and, of course, after the procedure is done with, he excuses himself and faints.

Well, none of that sissy fainting stuff happens with Rajnikant! I am talking about this Tamil movie called Manithan (human being), early or mid-80s, I'm not too sure. May or may not be a ripoff of a Hindi flick. Rajnikant plays this honest Robin-Hood style character who of course gets into trouble with the cops. Some IG (Inspector General) of Madras decides enough is enough, Robin has to be caught. Said IG is played by Major Sunderrajan (before you ask, no, no relation, also note that its spelt with an `e' and not with an `a' like my name, and I HATE it when people can't spell it right!). You might say he was the Jagdish Raaj or Iftekhar of Tamil movies for a while. Little does IG Major Sunderrajan know that Rajnikant's daytime alter ego is respected in his own house: he is the mooh-bola brother of IG's wife, played by the errreeeetayting Sree Vidya, who happens to be a doctor.

Anyway, in due course, the police actually catches Rajni red-handed, and chases him for a while on the streets of Madras (these scenes involve unbelievable stunts by stunt doubles where Rajni puts on some kid's skates and skates along Mount Road, in heavy traffic, and actually SKIDS UNDER A TRUCK ON SKATES). Eventually, Rajni gets shot by the cops but manages to escape arrest by sneaking into a house... surprise, surprise! It happens to be the IG's house with Sree Vidya inside, asking him what went wrong, whats going on, and when she sees that he's been shot (he took a bullet in the left arm, by the way), she starts bawling madly.... Oooo my brother and whatnaught. *He* calms *her* down, asks her to take him down to the basement and remove his bullet - and she (remember, she's a doctor!) freaks out and says no! No! Thats gonna hurt! I can't do that! We need to take you to the hospital, waaaaah!!!! Rajni says nothing doing, sis, we are gonna do it, you and me, so bring me a knife and a candle....

Noooo!!! I can't do this!!! Please!

Aw come on, sis!

So, anyway, Rajni is of course cool through the whole scene, all quiet except for *his* trademark grimace on his face, and his early 80s hair falling on his face once in a while, his black leather getup making him sweat in the Madras heat. Sree Vidya finally manages to heat up the knife with the candle, but chickens out totally when it comes to actually doing anything removal-wise. Rajni says, alright what the hell, and picks up the knife with his right hand. This is where you expect, based on experience of watching tens of thousands of similar films, that Sree Vidya should place some sort of cloth or even her hand in Rajni's mouth to stifle his screams. But no, this is a Rajni movie we are talking about, and Abbas clearly exclaimed in Padayappa about Rajni: What a man!

So pay attention, cos the topology of this shot is sort of complicated. Rajni is removing the bullet lodged in his upper arm (left) with his right hand, and Sree Vidya begins to scream (all that Rajni does is give his standard grimace), and Rajni shoves *HIS* left palm into *HER* mouth! With two hands, this dude not only removes the bullet, but also makes sure that his sister doesn't give him away!

Is this dude awesome or is this dude awesome? You be the judge!