‘Star’ 2024 Movie Ending Explained & Recap: Did Kalaiarasan Get A Chance To Act In A Film?

Rags to riches stories are always inspiring. The most popular one has to be The Pursuit of Happyness, starring Will Smith. Rocket Singh, Rocky, and Guru are some of the many examples of movies that tackle this subject and allow people to be inspired to follow their passion, whatever obstacles they may find in their way. Star, directed by Elan, is the story of a young man who wants to become an actor and his journey to become one.

Spoilers Ahead

How did Kalaiarasan’s father encourage him to be the best?

Kalaiarasan, from childhood, had a cheerleader in his father, who was a photographer by profession. Pandian encouraged his son to be the best at the school fancy dress, where he had to act like the great leader Bharathiar but without the historical figure’s prominent mustache. Kalairasan’s father advised him to create an aura and presence and perform with conviction so that people would remember his acting and not the fact that he never wore a mustache. This advice stuck with him. The father and son’s only goal was to make Kalaiarasan an actor in the film industry. 

Why did Kalaiarasan join engineering?

Kalaiarasan’s mother was a practical woman who wanted to escape their modest existence and make her son pursue engineering in the hope he would have a secure future. On joining an engineering course, he falls in love with a girl named Meera, whom he met through some altercations with her brother. Both eventually fall in love. Her love for him grew when he stood up for her when the school principal banned women from participating in the college festival. Kalaiarasan ridiculed the principal on the stage and encouraged women to follow their dreams instead of bowing down to the male figures in their lives. As he encouraged her to be a biker and travel, she encouraged him to take up an acting workshop in Mumbai, which would be his first step towards pursuing his career in cinema.

Was the Mumbai trip successful?

On reaching Mumbai, he did not gel well with the acting coach, who had asked him to gain some life experience before getting into acting. For the next six months, Kalaiarasan lived on the streets, carried out many odd jobs, and then returned to the acting institute. The coach was kind enough to accommodate and offer him training after hearing how life in Mumbai humbled the young man, and it allowed him to see things in a different light. This experience he took with him to Chennai in the hope he would be eligible for acting gigs.

What happened to him on the way to the shoot?

Kalaiarasan finally got his first role in a major production, and he was excited about the job. On the way to the shoot, the unit car met with an accident, and Kalaiarasan, as a result, was hospitalized for days. He had a visible scar on his face, which he felt was not an appealing factor for being an actor. Growing up, his father had advised him to never get into fights because his face would be damaged, which was not right for an aspiring actor. Destiny had other plans, and ever since the accident, Kalaiarasan became a different man. Kalaiarasan was petty and angry and refused to move on from the fact that his life took a cruel turn. He was wallowing in self-pity, which angered his father and Meera the most. Meera eventually broke up with him as he pushed her away when all she was trying was to be there for him as a partner. The breakup was too much for him to take, and he refused to meet anyone. 

How did Kalaiarasan meet Surabhi?

Kalaiarasan’s best friend dragged him to a college reunion when Surabhi asked him to meet her. He didn’t remember her, but she was happy to have seen him on the college campus for the first time in years. She began to pursue him and be a friend, as he was wasting his time at home. Slowly and steadily, they began to bond, and soon he learned Surabhi had an abusive father and was on the verge of killing herself when she heard him speak about how women should take charge of their lives in college. This changed her worldview, and it made her want to help him as well. Surabhi brought a steady change in Kalaiarasan’s life, and his family was happy to see him take his life seriously. Both fell in love, got married, and moved out to start their lives as a married couple. He realized he needed to find a purpose and money to contribute to making the marriage work. After years of contemplating and avoiding a proper job, he took one up. 

What made Kalaiarasan pursue acting after several years?

However, Kalaiarasan’s acting bug tickled him, and eventually he concluded that his happiness lay in cinema. Kalaiarasan, just like his father, was a passionate man, and this made him go after acting in the movies. An ad film shoot at his office gave him hope to showcase his acting prowess, but his boss disregarded him for the scar on his face, which had been his trigger point for many years. Kalaiarasan relapsed into his old self and was rude to Surabhi as well, who was excited to share the news of her pregnancy. 

Kalaiarasa’, however, asked her to move out and slapped her, which was very out of character for him. He was aware she loved him because he was not an abusive man, but his slap proved otherwise, and she decided to move away. She refused to go back and managed to be on her own during the entire pregnancy because she had been alone all her life, and this wasn’t new. Kalaiarasan manifested his insecurity by physically assaulting his wife. Since he had no one else to vent to, he figured physically hurting his wife would give him the power to channel his anger. His insecurity over a scar not only ended his relationship with Meera, but it could prove to be the end of his marriage as well. Instead of channeling the anger positively, he had to resort to physical violence that may have triggered his wife too, who had a troublesome childhood, unlike Kalaiarasan, who had a sheltered upbringing. She turned her life upside down, but Kalaiarasan was ungrateful for it.

Did Kalaiarasan get a chance to act in a movie?

Kalaiarasan’s father admonished his son for pushing Surabhi away, as she was the best thing that had happened to him. He also called him a failure for not being able to keep things intact in his life. His father wanted him to be humble in success and failure, but Kalaiarasan was neither, and he soon realized he needed to pull himself back and make things right. 

Kalaiarasan began to find happiness in several imperfections, and this landed him a role in a famed Tamil director Vetrimaaran’s film. He noticed people around him and hoped he could get inspired by them to lead a positive life instead of letting the negativity fester him into a ball of nothing. This changed attitude helped him ace the audition, and his scar was a non-issue for Vetrimaaran, who was known to make realistic social films. Surabhi, however, was informed she would have a difficult pregnancy, and Kalaiarasan initially was not informed about it. She kept him away from her life, and at that moment, she was unhappy with the way everything ended. Kalaiarasan also never pursued her, and that could be because he wanted to be someone and make himself worthy of her time.

On the day of his final meeting with Vetrimaaran, as fate had it, Surabhi’s labor was not going well, as per the phone call he received. As a man of righteous conscience, he went to the hospital to be near Surabhi in the hope of being there for her in her hour of need. The man was overwhelmed by the procedure at the hospital and was close to losing his mind. He realized he was supposed to be a responsible husband. His father was a responsible man while Surabhi had never had a responsible father. Kalaiarasan did not want to become another male figure in her life she despised.

Star movie ended with Kalaiarasan being informed his wife had passed away due to heavy bleeding after labor while his daughter survived. This was a cathartic moment in his life, as he lost the woman he’d wronged, and he could never apologize to her. He broke down upon seeing her lifeless body. There was nothing left to do but cry, as Kalaiarasan had done the most sinful thing, which was to not be with his wife in her final moments. It turns out the last scene was a shot from his film with Vetrimaaran, as the director was happy with Kalaiarasan’s acting in it. We believe Kalaiarasan did visit the hospital for his child’s birth, but the shooting for the film by the director began from the point he entered the hospital. The giveaway was that his family was not seen anywhere on the hospital premises. There were a lot of meta elements that were used in the end. Inspired by Vinnaithaandi Vaaruvaaya’s ending, Kalaiarasan in the movie probably took inspiration from his real-life ordeal in the hospital scene.

The last shot of Star had several people approaching Pandian, Kalaiarasan’s father, for a selfie. Surabhi was alive and had given birth to a healthy child. The shot also included the line of cutouts of all popular actors of Tamil cinema at the beach, and Kalaiarasan was also placed there. This was a call back to Kalaiarasan and his father spending time taking pictures with these cutouts, showcasing their love for cinema. It was surreal to find Kalaiarasan’s cutout amongst them who was finally doing what he was passionate about.