Rajini fever is everywhere as the much-anticipated Kabali storms into theatres today. Here in the city too, which has a long tradition of celebrating Tamil cinema, theatres and viewers are going all out to roll out the red carpet for Kabali and its star, Rajinikanth. Posters and flex boards of the dapper superstar, suit, white beard, salt n’ pepper hair et. al. have already sprung up all around the city. On release day morning members of fans associations have said that they will perform paal abhishekam on larger-than-life flex cut outs of Rajini, sing, dance, burst firecrackers, cut cake and distribute sweets, all for their beloved larger-than-life star.
Several fans have already arrived in the city from the other metros, just to watch the show. Shikha R., an IT professional in Chennai, for example. “I have a family function to attend in the city on Sunday. As I couldn’t get a release day ticket in Chennai, I bunked a couple of days work to watch the film here, in my hometown,” she says.
Girish Chandran, proprietor, Sree Padmanabha, says that Kabali is getting an unprecedented release in the city. “Never has there been such a phenomenal opening for a film in the city, not even for Malayalam films,” he says. “Rajini films have always had a good opening here and now that internet access to trailers, previews and reviews is more widespread and movie ticket booking has gone online, expectations have more or less doubled,” he adds. Filmmaker B. Unnikrishnan, who runs AriesPlex SL Cinemas, reckons that only Baahubali last year had anything close to this big a hype. “Tickets for Kabali have already been sold out days in advance. I’m being deluged with desperate calls asking for tickets!” he says.
Kabali , a gangster flick, directed by Pa. Ranjith, which tells a tale of indigenous Tamils in Malaysia, is releasing in a record 306 screens in Kerala. In the heart of the city, the film is being screened in multiple screens in nine theatres, namely, New, Sree Kumar, Sreevisakh, Sree Padmanabha, AriesPlex, Dhanya, Kairali, Kalabhavan and Ajanta; technically 15, if you count A-class theatres in the city’s immediate suburbs! “City Theatres, which operates New, Sree Kumar and Sreevisakh, will be setting a record with 18 screenings a day on opening weekend. We’re smashing our previous record of 15 screenings a day for Vijay-starrer Theri ,” says Visakh Subramaniam, one of the owners.
In several theatres there are to be six screenings a day on the ‘opening weekend’ (Friday, Saturday and Sunday), beginning with ‘fan shows’ at 5.30 a.m.! Die-hard fan Ijaz Khan, 25, who works at an MNC in the city, and six of his friends are travelling all the way, on a working day, to Thameens Max theatre in Kaliyikkavila on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border, just to watch the fan show. “To us Rajini is not just an actor, a star or a superstar; he is a phenomenon. Only for him would we take so much of effort to see a first day, first show. There’s something extraordinary about watching a Rajini movie on release day, even though you would not be able to hear or see a thing, thanks to all the cheering, clapping and dancing and with all the confetti in the air. Nowadays most theatres frown upon such behaviour but the rules are relaxed for fan shows and first day screenings,” he says.
Another fan, Ganesh Kumar, from Chembakassery, East Fort, an admin executive at a newspaper, is going for the fan show at New Theatre, along with 30 of his friends and acquaintances. “It’s a carnival like atmosphere on the release day of a Rajini film and we’re going for the thrill of it,” he says.
Kabali , however, is more than about numbers or die-hard fans. Unnikrishnan says that there has been a seismic shift in the profile of the audience for the opening weekend. It’s no longer only comprises die-hard fans, especially those from neighbouring districts of Tamil Nadu. “We’re seeing a lot of family bookings this time, particularly for the night shows. It’s attracted the elite crowd too,” he says. S. Murugan of City Theatres agrees and adds: “We’ve had a lot of group booking from organisations like ISRO and quite a number of North Indians too have evinced interest in the film. Interestingly, it’s not only Rajini fans who come to watch Rajini films. Fans of Vijay, Surya, Mohanlal, Mammootty...all turn up. That’s the mark of a true superstar.”
As Kabali says, “Neruppu da!”
