Wednesday, August 3, 2016

K-A-B-A-L-I

     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

No comments: