Do fans of George Clooney, Vincent Cassel, Jackie Chan or Song Kang-ho-or even the Badshah or Sultan of Bollywood threaten theatre managers in order to get tickets for an FDFS (first day first show), resulting in shows at 3 am or 6 am?
Do fans of George Clooney, Vincent Cassel, Jackie Chan or Song Kang-ho-or even the Badshah or Sultan of Bollywood threaten theatre managers in order to get tickets for an FDFS (first day first show), resulting in shows at 3 am or 6 am? Do their fans organise a procession from the nearest temple to the theatre, with their film prints — or DCPs — and have pal abhishekam (bathing idols in milk) for giant cutouts of the stars? Do their fans organise free eye and blood donation camps in theatres at their premieres? Bah, no way! Wonly Tamil film star Rajinikanth’s fans do that. “You take yenny Khan — Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan — our Rajini K(h)anth is the best,” Kabali fans at Aurora Cinema in Matunga insisted on Friday.
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Musicians play the kombu and chenda drums at Rajinikanth's Kabali premiere at Aurora Cinema’s 6 am show on Friday. Pic/Meenakshi Shedde
While that’s not fully kosher for me, the truth is, no Khan will get me out of bed at 4.30 am to be at Aurora in time for the action preceding the FDFS at 6 am. A septet of musicians played the kombu, an elegant C-shaped brass trumpet, and included chenda-drummers who could wake up the dead. Coconuts were smashed at the feet of Rajinikanth’s 30 feet cutout, and of posters by the Dharavi and Maharashtra Rajinikanth fan clubs.
Watching a Rajinikanth film at Aurora is an extraordinary experience. The last time, it was like getting married in the dark — you are constantly showered with flowers by fans in the rows behind. This time, fans erupted in roars or wolf whistles, and danced onstage. It’s also very liberating to watch a Tamil film at Aurora. My knowledge of Tamil begins with Dey! (Hey) and Ni loosa? (are you crazy?) and ends with romba nalla irukku (it’s great). So I relax and let my other senses take over: screen gestures, voices, music and ambient fan SFX. Thank God they don’t have English sub-titles at single screener Aurora, or the Dharavi rowdies might rightly clobber the manager. Begone to the multiplexes, you!
The film is mainly enjoyable for the Aurora experience; otherwise it is underwhelming. I’m unlikely to see the Hindi dubbed version: I fear I might understand it more and like it even less. Kabali (Rajinikanth) plays a mafia don in Malaysia, just released from prison, who had earlier unionized Tamilian indentured labourers there, when not bumping off rival gangs. He comes to Chennai with his ultra-cool daughter (Dhansika), finds his wife (the lovely Radhika Apte) and returns to become, ho-hum, mafia don of Malaysia. There’s some fun rap music amid the biff-bam-bam, and that was basically it for me.
I imagine a Tamil film set in Malaysia aims to additionally tap non-resident Tamilians. It is a peculiar genre mash of action and family drama — a mafia don as a family man; romance is minimal. I loved Kollywood’s deserved swipes at Bollywood. In the Hindi trailer, Rajinikanth describes a Hindi film villain, calling a guy in a lungi, “Oy Kabali!”; the latter responds with a bowed head and ‘Ji, malik!’ ‘Kabali hai yeh’, Rajinikanth snorts, before soaring to the rafters and kicking a minion into a pool. Contrast this with Shah Rukh Khan’s Chennai Express and its Lungi Dance tribute to the Thalaivar (leader) Rajinikanth: “Moochhon ko thoda round ghumake, Anna ke jaisa chashma lagake…”
Aurora’s owner Mr Nambi Rajan says, “Salman Khan’s Sultan managed only two shows a day at Aurora since opening weekend, but Rajinikanth’s Kabali has six shows a day.” Besides, anything that revives the kombu is good enough for me.
Meenakshi Shedde is South Asia Consultant to the Berlin Film Festival, award-winning critic, curator to festivals worldwide and journalist. Reach her at meenakshishedde@gmail.com.
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