Aathaa..naan ‘sivaji’ paathuten !

As of today, I am 23 years and 1 day old. Celebrated my birthday yesterday. And what a way to celebrate it:

12 AM: Call from parents and friends.

9 AM: Call from chitthi. My8 year old cousin played “happy bday” on his keyboard and let me know that the next Rahman is on the way 😉

5 30 PM: Thalaivar Padam 😀 😀 😀

After standing for around 2 hours in the queue, got tickets for Sivaji :D. Thalaivar padam, first day first show 🙂 .Missed the opening scene 😦  (Dammit…!) The movie seriously rocks if you forgive the director’s “Anniyan” hangover and Peter Hein’s stunts (especially the KingKong fight…wtf was that about x-( ).

The movie is an out and out entertainer and masala mix. Yes it is preachy but not Ambi’s “Flush the toilet after use or else I will kill you” preachy. Shankar let us watch happily by directing his ire at the politicians and bureaucrats (thank God for that). Yes it has scenes that remind you of Gilli, Saami and a whole lot of other movies. But I strongly believe it was all included with a motive. Lots of one movie wonders and other bufoons have cropped up in Rajni’s absence and claim to be the next superstar. This movie puts them in their place. For instance, the scene where Vivek stops Rajni from mouthing a punch dialogue and sighs that almost every hero mouths one in their movie and asks “six kapparom seven da. Sivaji kapparom yevan da?“.

As usual, Sankar has paid attention to every detail.As usual, the songs have been picturised beautifully. As usual, Rahman’s music rocks . Rahman reminds us yet again that script alone was not the reason for Anniyan’s failure. Shriya ( or Shreya) looks great throughout the movie. Surprisingly, she acts well. And dances amazingly. Suman does full justice to his role. A good comeback.

However, Shankar’s magic touch has began to wane. If Anniyan despite Vikram was bad, this one minus Rajni would have been a disaster. The story is a huge letdown to all Sankar’s fans. For sometime, I did wonder, whatever happened to the guy who gave us Indian and Mudhalvan? But the image of Rajni (esp the mottai BOSS!) with  all those designer clothes and the Ray Ban takes care of everything. Substance gives way to Style. Who cares! Its the BOSS after all. 😉