Kabali da...!

Note: This post is not a review of the movie

Its been a week since Kabali fever gripped the country. Just as expectations soared right into the sky prior to the release, there have been mixed reviews the past 2 days, after it hit the theatres. There are people who've showered the movie with praises on the bold departure from the popular Rajni genre. While, there are others who've come out with punishing criticism and have even gone to the extent of talking about an impending end of the ageing actor's career. Yet again. 

For a couple of decades now, release of every Rajnikanth movie is marked with the frenzy and celebrations that merit a festival. There are fans who worship him, critics who write him off, people who are drawn-in with interest, while media keeps playing to the gallery. For every movie, as people outside Tamil Nadu struggle to fathom the build up with disbelief, the analysts yet again try to dissect what routinely sets off such a craze time and again: whether its his style on-screen, or his personality off-screen or whether all of this is some irrational, maniacal following that defies any sane logic. 

Love him or hate him, but you can never ignore Rajnikanth. 

Having blocked tickets for Kabali through several friends, I ended up booking 17 tickets - across 2 theatres and for 3 different timings! There were also colleagues planning to join in for the Tamil version of the movie, just to partake in the Rajni craze, though they didn't understand the language. Our preference was to watch the movie with the Hyderabad hackers, the good folks who had organized a special 'Kabali bus' from IIIT to watch the first-day-first-show of the movie at PVR. Having booked tickets for the event through them as well, I had given away all the other tickets for the FDFS show at Prasads. It didn't take too long to find takers for those tickets, and surprisingly long after the tickets were given away, I kept getting requests for tickets based on my facebook post. 

However, PVR made a last minute change in plan and decided to screen the movie in its Telugu version instead of the planned Tamil one, for an already booked show. With this, I was pushed into a last-minute, mad scramble to get back a few tickets on the night prior to the movie release. With some magnanimous friends agreeing to return a few tickets, we kept our date with the first-day-first-show. We had ample fan-crazy moments in the show and it was pure fun. 

With the Boss!	Pre-movie selfie in front of Prasads

At the end of it all, the story of watching the movie was perhaps, no lesser than a short-movie script! Finally, if you're looking for my take on the movie, I'd just say that I liked the movie and enjoyed its detour from a prescribed, formulaic script. But, I'd have to warn that this is a fan speaking! I'm sure, the debates in the media will continue for a while and more 'final verdicts' will be passed. All said and done, 'Rajnikanth - the phenomenon' will continue to both baffle and entertain people for some more time!