Seeing "thalaivar's" movie after two weeks of release is something not quite acceptable by any standards. But it was definitely not worth the wait. It wasnt the typical Rajni movie that one looks forward to - it was actually a three hour Tata Indicom commercial.
Setting aside the talk of Chandramukhi grossing huge money at the BO, I strongly feel that the biggest winner has been from this giant victory is Tata Indicom with its strategic placements of Saurav Ganguly ads in most of the frames in the film. With news of the film grossing more than Padayappa in less than three weeks of release, is something definitely quite surprising.But it could be more due to the exorbitant costs of tickets rather than from viewership.
One thing is clear...the movie just provokes you to watch the original Malayalam version which would have definitely handled the split personality concept in a far more classy style.
What was intended to be a thriller proved to be hilarious in most parts..like..
- how does Jyothika deliver her spiel in fluent Telugu when she is possessed by the "so called spirit of Chandramukhi" - when in the end it clearly emerges that it is just a case of split personality and not the existence of ghosts as imagined
- the scene wheere the priest says "In Ramayana, Ravana had the heads of ten persons. But Saravanan (thats Rajni's character) has a head with the brains of ten persons"...hilarious
- snake slithers in and out of the room...one is made to wonder till the end of the film what it actually means (only in the end does it dawn that it refers to the ghost of Chandramukhi entering and then exiting from Jyothika's mind)
- the purpose of most characters in the film including Nayantara, Vijayakumar and not to forget Vineeth and Prabhu..they were probably there to fill the screen
- the Michael Jacksonish look of Rajni with a thick layer of white coating on his face.
- Matrix-style loaded stunts..probably Keanu Reeves would swear not to ever replicate such stunts if he ever gets to see Chandramukhi.
- "laka laka laka" spouting Vettayapuram Raja with dogs all around him..truly hilarious
and much more...
But the best part was that my 11 year old niece who accompanied me along with friends actually found it frightening and hence had to stand out of the Sathyan cine hall and watch the latter part of the second half from outside.
But thalaiva..i am eagerly awaiting your next film..which is rumoured to be with Editor Mohan (father of Jeyam Ravi and rumoured to become a relative of Rajni...how???)
