India, May 23 -- Indian politics is about personality and not policy. We are a people driven by blind emotion and some of us hope that our heroes can deliver in the real world what they perform in the reel world.

Nowhere is this hope more visible than in Tamil Nadu, where cinema and politics have long shared a revolving door.

The recent ascent of Joseph Vijay, whose party, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), which means 'Tamil Nadu Victory Party', vaulted from formation to power in just two years.

While it has surprised outsiders, Tamilians and observers of Dravidian politics are not. In Tamil Nadu, screen mythology easily slides into political reality.

Tamil Nadu political history reads like a filmography. C.N. Annadurai used theatre and...