This is not a new thing for actors. Over there in non-Indian cinema forum, Thilak and I discussed about old Hollywood stars who are just doing it for money, or to fund their other projects. I think the same applies here except Kamal and Rajini. Kamal is still pushing himself. Rajini is at least involved in interesting projects (not for me, they aren't) and I do see that fire in him still. Sathyaraj, whatever his limitation is, is still very much in love with his career and is occasionally reminding us that if pushed he can be damned good too. Karthik is, to borrow words from NOV, "a spent force". Good actor for that time, but seeing that he can hardly translate into character roles shows his limitation. Ithula comparison with Prabhu vera :banghead: You may bring Ravanan role, but I suspect it will be where he would hardly smile or move his muscle as per contemporary description for "natural acting" and folks would applaud.
Anyway, Prabhu is still in his 50s, there are lots of interesting stuff and roles for that age, if you ask me, which are far more challenging than the roles that require the actor to be "youth". Aana, appadipatta script kidaikalayee? If such scripts and scriptwriters are around, they got themselves a fantastic character actor who can carry the film on his huge shoulder :P . Seeing glimpse of brilliance in mediocre roles just hurts my feeling. What a waste! I repeat, what a waste!!!! :(