For the most part of his career, Vijay is known for playing protagonists who are idealised and heroic. After a string of romantic hero roles early in his career, he cemented his status as a major action hero with films such as Ghilli. However, the actor has also punctuated his career with some unconventional characters, some of which you may not usually associate with his larger-than-life star persona.
One such experimentation came quite early in his career with 1998's Priyamudan, directed by Vincent Selva. In the film, Vijay plays Vasanth, a man who becomes obsessed with the idea of making the woman he loves his own. In his quest, Vasanth takes extreme measures to ensure that Priya (Kausalya) does not become someone else's woman. It is an outright villain role that Vijay embraces by playing the character unapologetically. There is no last-minute twist giving Vasanth a major redemptive arc. He is who is—an obsessive stalker who does not hesitate to eliminate anyone who stands in the way of his love, and the beauty of the film is that it recognises this.
In many ways, Priyamudan is reminiscent of Shah Rukh Khan's Darr. Although there are differences between both films and their protagonists, they represent the leaps of faith from two big stars of the 1990s and beyond. For example, Darr stars Shah Rukh Khan as Rahul Mehra, who is also an obsessive unrequited lover and stalker, similar to Vasanth from Priyamudan. While both cross the line way too often to win over the woman they desire, their core motivations differ in some distinct ways.
For example, Vasanth becomes a direct part of Priya's life by assuming the name and identity of his friend, Vasanth Kumar (Sujith Sagar). Priya thinks that he is the same Vasanth who helped save her life through blood donation after meeting with an accident. Vasanth operates with a sense of callousness that makes him more dangerous than Rahul. He builds a carefully constructed life, where he impersonates his friend, lies with the smoothness of a seasoned thief, and conducts violent deeds while remaining rather calm and composed. At a fundamental level, Vasanth believes that what he is doing is right and he loves Priya to no end, and she loves him back. However, his instincts often get the better of him.
On the other hand, Rahul is a classic stalker, who is far less stoic than Vasanth and who operates more on emotions. His frantic stuttering and self infliction of wounds serve as a manic manifestation of his obsessive quest for Kiran (Juhi Chawla). Rahul's broken psyche is indicative of a greater sense of desperation in him than Vasanth. At some level, Rahul is scared whether Kiran would embrace him and is not as confident as Vasanth when it comes to winning over his lover. This explains why he operates from the shadows of a mysterious stalker who threatens Kiran from afar.
Vasanth, meanwhile, engages directly with Priya's life under the guise of someone else. He builds trust with her with his sheer charm and by indulging in conversations with her in broad daylight. This is what makes Vasanth's actions—such as letting those close to him die and causing brutal accidents—seem much more deceptive, ruthless and cold-blooded in comparison to Rahul's.
Vijay delivers an assured performance in Priyamudan, marrying Vasanth's charm and aggressive streak with a sense of innocence that helps sell the love angle with conviction.
Priyamudan was just as much a gamble for Vijay soon in his early career, after the release of Kadhalukku Mariyadhai, as Darr and Baazigar were for Shah Rukh Khan. The role of a deceitful and vengeful killer, who receives the ultimate form of punishment for his sins, underscores a boldness that showed early flashes of Vijay's willingness to experiment. In fact, Vijay himself cited Darr as inspiration for the film.
In the late 2010s, Vijay had expressed his hesitation around villainous characters, but he explicitly cited Shah Rukh Khan's anti-hero roles as his standard for doing dark roles. During Thuppakki promotions, he said that he was not against such roles and that he would consider doing films similar to Darr and Baazigar if those scripts came his way. While these roles never came from him again, he did not stop experimenting on occasion.
In his first dual role, for example, Vijay plays both the protagonist and the antagonist in Azhagiya Tamil Magan. Prasad is a greedy, ruthless, and unabashedly selfish man who would go to any lengths for financial gain. Years later in GOAT, Vijay portrays another dual role as father and son. The son is brainwashed by a villain from a young age and grows up to be a cold, psychopathic, and vengeful antagonist. Vijay's performance as an unhinged villain in the second half—characterised by his erratic energy and maniacal laughter—is one of the major highlights of the film.
Between Azhagiya Tamil Magan and GOAT came numerous films from Vijay where he plays variations of the 'saviour of the masses,' some of which tease his grand political entry. The actor occasionally showed his willingness to enter previously uncharted territory even in the 2020s, such as with the role of an alcoholic who initially turns a blind eye to social injustice in Master. Even in the 2000s, he showed a similar tendency to invest in slightly unconventional roles, such as with Kannukkul Nilavu, where he plays a man with a serious psychological issue who becomes obsessive and dangerous towards those who he feels has harmed his lover. However, Priyamudan still remains his finest hour in a career that spanned three decades. Will there be a second coming post Jana Nayagan? We will have to wait and watch.