Monday, April 18, 2005

The Chandramukhi episode

Its not fair that I keep complaining about it all the time!Afterall, it is 'Namma Bangalooru' city. So I should be telling about things that makes me feel good at this place. One such thing is: I can see all the latest Tamizh movies eventhough am staying away from TN. I can never fancy my chances of getting tickets to a Super Star movie within four days of its release.But,We, that is me and PnPn(that is how his colleagues at his previous workplace used to call him sometimes), wanted to go to Chandramukhi desperately. For Pnpn, he said that he had been a great Super Star fan himself, so its as expected. And for me, who is not so crazy about Super Star, I just wanted a change from the drab weekend it was turning out. And boy o boy, we did get tickets for the Fourth Day Fourth Show!

We had no idea about the movie, what was it all about. In TN, before release of every super star movie, there is always euphoria surrounding it, and so much of expectations. But, I have not heard any song from the movie, never did I watch a single trailor of the movie and I was not even aware of the heroine's name. "Machi. You should watch a movie like this da. With no idea about the story. Then only its fun", pnpn would tell me. Yeah, and it would be more fun to watch it in an 'enthu' theatre with enthu people all around you instead of watching it in a Multiplex, where you know how the crowd would behave. "There is no use watching thalaivar movie in a Multiplex", I would say to which pnpn would agree. So we would start calling all the 'enthu' theatres one by one yesterday morning. And both of us would get the same reply. "Only night show available. Every other show house full". We always avoid night shows on Sunday. That is because, it becomes real late when we come back home and it would have a direct impact on the work Monday morning. So when all other oppurtunities dried out, pnpn would call Innovative Multiplex (what to do? we have to see the movie today!). And telebooking was available and to our surprise we got tickets easily."Six o'clock, show", pnpn would confirm,"Yeah for four people. My name and contact number, please note it down". "Ask him if its the Tamil version, you never know. it might be a dubbed version", I would warn him. "Yeah its the Tamil version. And your tele booking number is 67, please quote this number. And come by 5.30, thats half an hour before the show", would be the reply. At this time, we were both more than happy to get the tickets. Pnpn was jumping with joy. "Machi. It should be like this da. I should be given so many options like 4.30, 6, 7.30, 9 o'clock shows and I should be picking the one which I wish". I just listened. We both had no idea of what was really in store for us when we were at the Multiplex at 5.20 PM . More on that later. Now back to Super star and Chandramukhi.

What do you typically expect from a Super Star movie these days?. I listed all the things that came into my mind and Chandramukhi proved me wrong in most of the things, for:

- The movie title was not that of what character Rajni plays

- There was no 'punch' dialogue in the movie, which has become an integral part of Rajni movie

- Rajni was not at all showing any style for which hes so famous for, except for may be tossing the gum in the intro scene

- It was not all the way Rajni show from the first scene till the last scene. In fact Rajni didnt appear at all for a good length of the movie

- There were no spiritual discourses


4:55 PM. we started and reached the Multiplex by 5.20 PM. The first surprise came at the Advance Booking counter. When we got our tickets, it was mentioned, "Screen 3: 7.30 PM". Now the hero of he day, pnpn would start fighting with the theatre management, "We did tele booking at 10.00 AM and we were told that we had tickets for 6.00 PM show and what does this all mean?". For all the queries we posed, we would get the same answer. "Sir. Tickets are all sold out for 6 PM show". After our repeated shouts we would be told that the guy at the tele-booking counter had sold more than what he was supposed to sell for the tele-booking quota. "But thats not our fault. You should have known it before confirming it for us". We realised that this was going no where and got the tickets and started planning the next 2 hours. In the mean time, SunD and Sujam had come to join us,(Woodworm could not come though he wanted to see the movie). I proposed Pool. We have started liking playing pool a lot, so all agreed, but the table wont be free till 6.30! So without nothing to do, we roamed around Marathahalli and when we came back to pool table, next kela was in the offering: Pool table was not free. Instead we had the snooker table alone free. Ok, me, pnpn and SunD agreed that we would play Snooker this time, though we dont have experience playing snooker. 9 ball pool was much easier and snooker with so many reds and balls of all sorts of colours, baap re baap! We started at 6.30 and I have to admit, we were pathetic! Doubts started lingering as to whether we would finish one table atleast or not!? I am OK sorts when I have to play it soft and gentle, I can do delicate cuts properly, but when it comes to hitting hard from the other side of the table, I am pathetic boss! I am ! I guess thats the aspect which I have to concentrate on, from now on. But, it was all about pnpn day, isnt it? He won here as well ! I wont forget the pace with which he hit the cue ball and the pink ball disappeared into the pocket in no time! We just had time to finish one board and it was 7.25 PM

We enter the theatre and the next kela awaits us: Screen 3, they dont show Chandramukhi at 7.30. Only at Screen 2 and 4, we have a 7.30 show. Ha ha..Does that mean we have to wait for 1.30 hours more? No way! We barged into the counter and the fight started again. I mean, how can these people get so stupid, yaar? The people who come to watch can get confused with Screen names, but how can the theatre management get confused? We demanded seats for us NOW. We cant wait for 1.30 hours more! What nonsense? And yeah, our shouting did have an effect. We got our tickets changed to Screen 4, C row, 12 - 15. I wonder, if its all house full, how can this guy suddenly find place for 4 people in a new screen? May be he would have reserved it for some VIPs, who knows? Anyway, by this time it was 7.40 PM and we started moving fast towards our Screen 4. Thankfully, the movie hadnt started. We all got seated.And from now its all about the movie...

Trisha would welcome us all to the movie on behalf of Tata Indicom. ("Oh my God! Is she in the picture as well? How stupid of me in not knowing that?"). But I bet, Tata Indicom might in all possibilities, conduct a competition of sort in TN to count the number of times their boards appear in the movie. Countless, I would say. Every now and then one would appear. Rajni's intro scene,where his fans would in all possibility show aarthi, shower flowers and what not, was not that dramatic to the likes of Baatshaa, no pumpkins shattered, it was just fine for me. The story of the movie, I was told was that of a Mallu movie and I sort of remembered the Mallu movie name. I guessed that this was the movie that won Shobhana her National Award. And my guess turned right. Though I havent seen the original Mallu version, I would like to see it though. I am stopping it here wrt story of the movie goes for the benefit of those who havent seen the movie yet, but reading this post.

As far as Rajni goes, I felt that his voice has changed a lot man. May be his age is reflecting on him? Remember the old MGR movies, the ones he did after he was shot in his throat. You remember that voice of MGR? The same I could see in Rajni's voice here.Poor chap! And as far as comedy is concerned, Vadivelu - Rajni combo has worked remarkably well. Have seen Rajni doing it with Goundamani and Senthil so many times... Good to see his comedy work with Vadivelu as well. They have rocked! Good job done and there are lot of lewd jokes in the offering as well.Dont miss on those.

Heroine: I found out her name only when the titles flashed. Good homely face. All of us liked her. But should she be called the heroine 'cos she gets to romance Rajni is a debatable question. Jothika has performed remarkably well. Kudos to you Jo, you steal the show. Two characters who were majorly wasted I felt was : a) Vijayakumar and b) If my guess is right, 'Chemmeen' Sheela. As far as Music goes, "Repeatu.." song is solely for Rajni fans I guess. There would be requests in TN for this song to be repeated so many times again and again, I am sure. "Kokku para para, Kozhi para para" was one other song. Not that impressive.. The pick of the songs for me would be "Athindhom". That song made me hum for some time and of course one more good song was "Raa Raa". And if you know Telugu, it would be a good advantage while watching this movie, but its not a must though as those Telugu dialogues get told in Tamizh as well. One place where i thought it has not changed much from a typical Rajni movie, were in the song lyrics. Man, with all those preachy stuff: "Believe in your self. If you work hard, nothing can stop you" stuff. And all those, "I am here, because of you all people" stuff. But nothing with a political tone though, as far as I noticed the lyrics.And as far as action goes, there are not much of fights in the movie, only 2 and that too the one at the later part of the movie could have been avoided.

It was little strange to expect a thriller movie from Rajni and I was totally taken by surprise. And I imagine how it would have been in the Mallu original version, it would have been even more better! But I guess Rajni had learnt from his mistakes of Baba and how it flopped and concentrated more on a good story and forgot all other unnecessary stuff. It was good to see Rajni back as a villain as well in the movie. Rajni was the hero, he was the comedian and he played a villain's part as well and he has excelled in all the three categories and especially the villain part. Reminded me of the old villain roles he played and Man, hes good when it comes to those roles. And one thing we would laugh at again and again was at Prabhu. Watch out for the dialogue in the later stages of the movie, "Enna Kashtam daa idhu", or "Enna karumam daa idhu". Mind you it is a very serious scene and he says it sadly banging his hands against his head. But the way he said it, made me and pnpn laugh and laugh

In short, Chandramukhi is a very good family entertainer.. People would definitely like it and its surely gonna run for more than 100 days successfully. Good to see Rajni back and back with a bang. Both me and pnpn didnt bother spending 120 rupees on the movie, we felt like it was worth it. If you get a chance, do go and see it. Cant you hear Chandramukhi beckoning you to the theatre? Hear her: "Raa Raa. Sarasukku Raa Raa".

At the end, I thought Trisha would re-appear and ask us how the movie was, ask to come back again and also ask us if we had taken a Tata Indicom connection yet!? But sadly, those didnt happen. Yet, went out of the Multiplex with a sense of happiness after watching a good entertaining movie, even after what we had to do to get the tickets. And who says people dont shout and whistle inside a Multiplex? When it comes to a Rajni movie, things can become really different.

3 Comments:

Blogger Woodworm said...

I have but one objection - I didn't want to see the movie.., I only said I didn't mind watching this...

And about your ...

So I should be telling about things that makes me feel good at this place. One such thing is: I can see all the latest Tamizh movies eventhough am staying away from TN.

Unfortunately, I saw the uglier side of that too.. I was passing by Urvashi yesterday evening, and there was this ruffian Rajni fan club, who spontaneously without any warning blocked the road for fifteen minutes with their paraphernalia unfurled just for the heck of it..

The police couldnt do a thing - coz I guess they realised, it could very soon turn out a Tamil-Kannada thing...

We are like this only :(

April 18, 2005 5:52 AM  
Blogger Chaosrules said...

Ok, that means i have Woody for company !! Hope the movie stays in Bangalore screens ;-)

btw, from when did u guys learn the difference between Pool/Snooker/Billiards ?? Is this due to the presence of SunD ?

April 18, 2005 10:52 PM  
Blogger Chaosrules said...

@Woody: Sorry, i have dicthed you ! I watched it yesterday with Gmad, PK and a whole enthu gang and it rocked man !! After a long time, i watched a movie in theatre with so much enthu !

April 23, 2005 4:48 AM  

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