Wikipedia:Peer review/Rajinikanth/archive1

Rajinikanth

This peer review discussion has been closed.
I've listed this article for peer review because I would like to make this article an FA. I would be grateful if somebody could provide a more detailed review.

Thanks, —Commander _{(Ping me)} 09:17, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

• I'm afraid this isn't a detailed peer review (I am not a movie buff...), but I can say a few things:
  • Try using the automated checker; it found several problems.
  • I skimmed over the lead and noted some infelicitous phrases ("He was bestowed {such-and-such an honor}", for instance; it should be "{such-and-such an honor} was bestowed on him", or even better "he won {such-and-such an honor}"); perhaps the Guild of Copy-Editors could help? Their request pages are at WP:GOCE/FA for FA nominees, and WP:GOCE/REQ for more general requests.
  • You might check with the film peer review people.
• Allens (talk) 17:10, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

• Thanks very much for your comments. —Vensatry _{(Ping me)} 18:28, 25 January 2012 (UTC)
• Brianboulton has advised that you may wish to check for peer reviewers with an interest in this particular area and specifically ask them if they would go over the article in question. Allens (talk | contribs) 19:00, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

I'm no expert in this area, but I can advise on Manual of Style issues, layout, and prose. I'll do this today (perhaps extending into tomorrow). For starters, the link checker in the toolbox at the top of this review page finds four dead URLs in the citations and a couple of others that look suspicious. See here. Finetooth (talk) 22:07, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Finetooth comments: Thanks for your work on this article. The prose is generally clear, and the article seems comprehensive to me, an outsider with no special knowledge of the subject. However, it is far from FA-worthy. I have concerns about the sourcing; a spot check indicates to me that in some cases the supporting citations do not support the claims they are attached to. This is a big problem that will have to be fixed. I'm also concerned that some of the sections include what I consider unnecessary detail; celebrity news generally has a short half-life, and much of it has little encyclopedic value, in my opinion. What follows is not a complete line-by-line review, which I think would be premature. However, I think it should give you plenty to think about. Good luck with improving the article.

Lead

• Claims do not usually need supporting citations in the lead if the lead is a summary of the main text sections, as it should be. If the lead is a summary, the claims should appear in the main text, and the supporting citations should go there.
• "Within a few years of his career... - Tighten by deleting "of his career"?
• "He is one of the most influential actors in the film industry due to his overwhelming back-driven influence on politics in the state and also many columnist suggest it reportedly." - This is awkward and ungrammatical. Also, I'm not sure what "back-driven influence" might mean. In addition, do you mean "repeatedly" rather than "reportedly"?
• "He was bestowed the Padma Bhushan... " - Tighten to "He won the Padma Bhushan... "?

Early life

• "where he had his elementary education in Kannada" - What is Kannada? Unless you link it here on first use, many readers will have no idea.
• "out of which the most notable role performed by him" - Tighten to "in which his most notable role was"?
• "the film was directed by K. Balachander" - Is there a special reason to include the initial on any but the first reference to Balachander? If not, I'd change all but the first to "Balachander".

Experimentation

• "The success of Bhuvana Oru Kelvikkuri prompted Muthuraman to make a mushy melodrama with Rajinikanth as a hero sacrificing everything for his siblings in Aarilirunthu Arubathu Varai (1979)." - The phrase "mushy melodrama" caught my eye here, but it turns out that the source does not seem to support the claim. Although Aarilinthu Aarupathuvarai is mentioned near the end of the supporting document, the film is not described as a melodrama, and the article says nothing about a hero who makes sacrifices. Where do the claims come from? Who says the film is a "mushy melodrama"?
• "In 1982, he starred in Pokkiri Raja and Thanikattu Raja. Moondru Mugam had Rajinikanth playing three roles for the first time." - Needs a source.

Commercial stardom

• I would break the huge first paragraph into two or three smaller paragraphs if only to give the readers a rest now and then. Beyond that, I'm wondering if it's really necessary to comment on so many of Rajini's minor films. I would think about trimming some of the material. Here's an example: "Annamalai, which released in 1992, was yet another friendship eccentric film and was loosely based on the 1987 Bollywood film Khudgarz." Here's another: "He made a cameo in Peddarayudu for his friend Mohan Babu and also helped him in obtaining the remake rights." Foreign readers may well be interested in this actor, but I'm not sure they will want this level of detail.

• "as his films began to take on a whole new dimension in terms of expectations, hype and revenue. His political clout... " - The words "hype" and "clout" probably qualify as slang. Better might be "advertising" and "power".

• "It was also during this time that he started taking active participation in politics as his films began to take on a whole new dimension in terms of expectations, hype and revenue. His political clout also steadily rose with the cinematic tide, a trend which actually began with the release of Annamalai in 1992 and arguably climaxed during the time of Padayappa's release in 1999. Being his 150th film, Padayappa, directed by Ravikumar, turned out to be the largest blockbuster in his career at that time." - These claims do not seem to be supported in any way by the cited source, which is an article about Muthu.

Health scare

• I would break the huge first paragraph into two or three smaller ones. Here too I wonder whether readers need this much detail. Here is an example: "The hospital restricted unauthorised visitors and Latha requested media and the public to not crowd outside the hospital in order to allow Rajinikanth to rest." A good deal of this section includes detail that had news value for a short time, but it's doubtful that these details have lasting importance or encyclopedic value.

Popularity

• "Many also cite reasons for Rajinikanth's popularity as coming from his larger-than-life super-hero appearance in many films, supported by gravity-defying stunts and charismatic expressions, all while attempting to maintain modesty in real-life." - The citation for these claims does not support the claims. The given URL links to a general Slate page with a "sorry" message.

Religious views

• "He considers his Guru Swami Satchidananda to be his role model." - Needs a source.

Influence in politics

• "Rajinikanth said, "Even God cannot save Tamil Nadu if AIADMK returns to power." - Direct quotations need a source. The inline citation for a direct quotation should be placed right after the end of the quotation and its punctuation.

Images

• File:Billa Rajini.jpg has a fair-use rationale for its use in another article but not in this one. If you use it in this article, you must provide a reasonable rationale. Since the article has other images of Rajini, I doubt that a reasonable rationale exists.

• File:Chitti Evil.jpg has the same problem, no fair-use rationale for its use in this article.

• File:Rajinikanth at Soundarya's reception.jpg is tagged for deletion.

References

• Citation 2 is malformed.

• If you take this to FAC at some point, every citation will be checked. To make things go smoothly, it's best to make every citation perfect before FAC, if possible. One of the questions that often arises is "What makes this a reliable source"? Newspapers and books are generally reliable sources per WP:RS, and many web sites qualify as reliable. However, fan sites, blogs, some dot-coms, and some articles with no named author may not be reliable. You need to be sure that behindwoods.com, Bharatwaves.com, rediff.com, Tamilomovie.com, and others meet the WP:RS guidelines. I don't know if they do or not, but you need to consider each of these and make sure.

• Quite a few of the citations are incomplete. For example, citation 14 should include the author, Manisha Lakhe, and the date of publication. In general, citations to web sites should include author, title, publisher, URL, date of publication, and date of most recent access, if all of those are known or can be found.

• Please make sure that the existing text includes no copyright violations, plagiarism, or close paraphrasing. For more information on this please see Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2009-04-13/Dispatches. (This is a general warning given in view of previous problems that have risen over copyvios.)

I hope these suggestions prove helpful. If so, please consider commenting on any other article at WP:PR. I don't usually watch the PR archives or make follow-up comments. If my suggestions are unclear, please ping me on my talk page. Finetooth (talk) 00:55, 25 February 2012 (UTC)