India, May 9 -- When director Atlee put Vijay in a tracksuit and asked him to assemble a dysfunctional football team in the 2019 Tamil blockbuster 'Bigil' (whistle), few imagined it would double as a political instruction manual.

This week, C Joseph Vijay - now chief of the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) - has been running the same drill on a different pitch, chasing not a national championship but the chief minister's oath, and finding that coalition politics is every bit as chaotic as Atlee's plot for the movie.

The arithmetic looks deceptively simple.

In 'Bigil', coach Michael's recruits arrive with baggage - some with a grievance, a demand, a wound she must be talked through before she laces her boots. The government formation dram...