The man…The movie…The Boss…

The most expected and hyped movie of the tamil film industry was out last friday and it created waves across the globe. With almost every news channel giving special coverage for this movie (some had live coverage from theatres across the country) the excitement increased multifold. I was not interested to go to office at all on that Friday but had no other option. Once I reached I just could not manage to hold my excitement and did not work much for the entire day. I had tickets to watch the movie next day. The pantry in my office had a TV and we just switched on the news channels and kept watching the coverage to hear any latest updates. By noon there were mails coming in giving official reviews about the movie and the excitement went out of control. I was calling all of my friends who had gone to the theatre to watch the first day first show and was getting hourly updates.

Next day the show was at 10.30 at Mayajaal (some 20 KMs outside the city on the ECR). The journey would take some 30 mins only but I started from my home at 8 itself, picked up my friend and reached the theatre early to catch up the festival…:) At 10.30 sharp we were inside the screen 5 of the multiplex and the movie started immediately. They showed the trailer of “Sultan – the warrior”, an animated movie produced by Soundarya Rajinikanth where thalaivar lends his voice for the animated hero. Then came the “S..U..P..E..R….S..T..A..R..” letters in the screen and people went crazy from there on. It was a special show for one of the IT companies in Chennai and it was full of “decent” IT crowd and hence there wasnt too much of shouting in the theatre. My row had more girls than guys and they were quietly watching the movie. The row behind and in front of me had people shouting and I was equally shouting as well whenever there was some dialog or for that matter anything on screen. I am sure the girl who sat next to me would have got pissed off. But who cares?

It was awesome to see thalaivar on screen with different getups. Thalaivar’s intro and the song (Ballaelaka) that followed was not that impressive and didn’t make quite an impact. His intro in CM, Muthu and Baasha were lot better. The first half was a bit slow but it was fun to watch thalaivar’s comedy and romance with shreya. Thalaivar and vivek combination was good and it was hilarious till the interval. Thalaivar and Vivek ottified vadivelu and many others in the first half. There were three songs in total and the “Style…” song was the best among them. Thalaivar came in different looks and his style was awesome in that. With Computer Generated Imagery which made thalaivar as a European with blonde hair and white skin it was a visual treat. In one scene the frame had 6 different getups of thalaivar and it was a wow…truely shankar is the most creative director in tamil.

After the interval the movie was like the high speed mag lev train loaded with crackers. It was a wholesome extravaganza where thalaivars screen presense sent a clear message across the board…He is the ONE and ONLY super star…And then comes the “Adhiradi…” song and it was the best song of the movie. The style, the set, the choreography, thalaivar, shreya, everything was just great in that song. It was total domination by Rajini in the second half where he starts with one rupee and goes to make crores of rupees. Just when you think you are reaching the climax and you feel all the fun is over, the “mottai” boss comes in…Yeah clean shaven thalaivar in “Morpheus” style with a long coat, frenchie and coolers. The next 15 minutes “mottai” just rocked…The way he gets out of the copter, taps his head and with a cunning smile, the way he sends his coolers to the backside of his head…no one can match thalaivar’s style…

The credit goes to Shankar for taking rajini to the next gen audience. Truly shankar has thought about the current generation of audience who are spread across the globe and are adopted to different life styles. He has projected the super star image of rajini to them. Every song is a visual treat…With a full glass pyramid set and a romanian set it clearly shows where most of the money has been spent on…And the Style song shows the star in a blonde hair european look with white skin. The secret behind white super star is a Computer Generated Imagery where they made a white skin lady dance the same steps of super star and then each frame is embossed with the lady’s skin tone. The news said it took one year to finish the job which comes as a 5 minutes song in the movie.

And then Shreya…she looks damn sexy in the movie and unlike other rajini movies she gets a bigger role to play and some importance in the plot. With Sim’s and Jo’s exit, Asin moving to bollywood, shreya has got the right kind of break in her career. Her costumes in the movie are too good and she fits in perfectly except the traditional ones like saree and half saree…:D

Definitely the music and back ground score needs a mention. ARR has done a wonderful job in both. All the songs are good, they did not take the risk of keeping away SPB. For thalaivar SPB needs to sing the opening song and he does it well. The Style song which is a rap, adhiradi which is sung by ARR himself just rocks in the theatre. The punch dialogue song which comes in the background during fight scenes creates the right kind of build up for thalaivar. Sahana sung by udit narayanan, vaaji vaaji by hariharan are on the softer side. The BGM during the fight scenes and during the “mottais” entry are just awesome and adds fuel to the fire.

On the flip side, the stunts could have been better. Anyday “Anniyan” matrix style fight, “Mudhalvan” fight scenes are better than this one. Also shankar’s previous movies had a better plot and there were a lot of substantial reasoning behind his plot. To project super star’s image he has let down the plot. In 60 seconds the entire black money becomes white. Sure this wouldn’t have been the case in his previous movies. He would have shown enough scenes which would explain how it is possible. Probably he could have cut down a bit on the first half with all those “Pazhagalam” scenes and taken the story more seriously.

Over all its a unusual festival season for tamil nadu and a treat for all rajini fans and rajini movie lovers. Though it doesnt look like a shankar film, all the credit goes to him for showing the star some 20 years younger and taking him to the next gen audience. The movie has broken many records in terms of box office collection and it satisfies everyone…needless to mention AVM too with an estimated total collection of 150Cr.