Well I was waiting for the dust to settle ..Pronouncing the word 'Kabali' brings in lot of exhilaration !! In the
last two weeks the term I searched most in Google as well as Youtube was ‘Kabali’;
For no movie I have read so many articles and I thoroughly enjoyed reading
everything since I got to know what each one things from their own perspective.
First I would like to talk about the businessman called ‘Thanu’ ..Man …this is
how brand marketing should be The awareness it created which both a software
engineer as well as milk man can relate to. I came to know that people in North
did Case study on his marketing skills. Basically
it had to start from the grass root level and one of his interviews I came to
know that Thanu travels with poster man to supervise placement of posters. His
hunger and patience to do a Rajini film is very well seen as he had to wait 30
plus years to produce a Rajini movie and when he got a chance he made use of
all possible ways to showcase his publicity skills. This is commendable since
if you look at any tamil speaking human being (atleast 8 out of 10) around the
globe during July 21-25 timeframe either they talked about Kabali or listened
to people talking about Kabali.
Let us talk about Economics..It was released in record
number of screens with many showing premiere shows too, we had Air asia as
airline partner, Amazon as online partner, VS hospitals as Hospital partner,
Muthoot finance group, PVR cinemas as multiplex partner, Airtel as telecom
partner, Cadbury as food and beverage partner etc., All the media (Satellite
channels, paper,online) had tremendous readership/viewership during Kabali
release time and also they earn lot of moolah through advertisements. Right
from guy who sells Rajini embossed T-shirt, parking vendor, canteen vendors, Toilet
cleaners, poster boys everyone get to earn more money around release of Rajini
movie and this time it just got bit more.
It was my very first experience watching the movie First day
First show (FDFS) and was definitely looking forward for the movie. The
expectations the teaser has set and the hype that surrounded the movie on top
of the new technicians that was invloved made me sketch a completely different
picture. Once the movie ended I felt the movie was average. It was great move
for Rajinikanth to move away from his cliché mass masala movies and give a
break to a promising team – a director who is two films old, an upcoming music
director, relatively new stunt master, cinematographer, editor etc., He even
came out of his sentiment of having SPB sing the intro song, no larger than
life scenes, no scope for BGM score, no duets with heroines, no comedian etc.,
All these are welcome changes and thus shows the confidence he has on the
director and his team.
On the downside screenplay is very predictable and the plot
was neither cinematic nor realistic and it fell in between which was the major
problem. With so many shootings it is hard to imagine how come the movie is
given ‘U/A’ certificate and I am curious to know the norm for censor
certification. Also dialogues are not very power packed for the audience to
feel the emotional quotient and also I felt atleast one song could have been
shot in a racy way to fill the thirst of rajini fans. Well super star tried an
animation movie and also went back to ace director in the likes of K.S
Ravikumar and since both those attempts did not give him favorable results he
had no choice but to go back to a promising new comer like P.Ranjith. There is
a notion that foreign locates, blazers, action scenes fetches more moolah and
often times story is overlooked. Also I believe there is a law which says only
so many number of shows to be played on a weekday with exception being on
festival days like Diwali or Pongal and also there are restrictions as far as ticket
prices but we all know how much was the tickets sold by theatres and also how
many shows they ran during the opening weekend (tickets sold at black market is
a different story). Well I am just pointing out this to reiterate the fact when
all rules are broken then obviously all records are to be broken. It is true we
spend 20 or 25$ to watch the movie but this is mere greedyness making use of
the charisma and demand. Just imagine top hollywood films are sold 15$ per head
on the opening day where they have spent more money on the making of the movie.
In the end people may argue we buy the tickets anyway but all I mean to say is
that is not the right way to make money and boast about the phenomenal box
office records. Rajini film both help cinema industry as well as kill small
film producers since a new Rajini movie means theatres pull off movies running
on the theatre though it may do good business.
Logistics of how a Rajini movie business work should change
..when Rajini offers a production house to do a project they take this as a
once in a lifetime opportunity and do everything to make it grand and do
business based on his previous release..this is where problem starts …Greedyness
takes over and people pay much more than how much it is worth for …ok now
people may ask how to determine ‘worth’ of a movie since sky is the limit for
Rajini movie …well there is no certain formula to come up with a number but if
Rajinikanth does movies based on his age and open to character roles where
story takes precedence then craze for Rajini movie will be at optimum level and everyone involved in the
supply chain will stand to gain.
Also one other thing I noticed in Kabali was clash of
opinions …Everyone had an opinion and what is discouraging is when people voice
out non favorable reviews then fans get angry ..well this act is very childish
and even makers of the movie when they get appreciation from 99% of the crowd
it is very natural to get 1% negative reviews and I personally feel they should
be open about that since it is nothing but law of nature. I believe the fans
get angry because they love the person more than the movie and that is the
problem ..the review is just about the movie and not about the man. Who else in
this earth can roam around in a street with a headset when the entire Tamil
speaking community is going mad over his movie. In my entire blog I have talked
about the movie but not about the man ..Yes after all I am a fan of superstar
too …மகிழ்ச்சி
