Been to my first Rajini movie here in Singapore and I am absolutely thrilled. While I have always been an ardent fan of Rajini, his First Day shows have never been anything less than being blessed by the almighty. I was quite lucky to get the tickets without any sweat for tonight's show from a well-wisher.
Having been through the crowd-packed, smelly, noisy first day shows in Chennai and elsewhere, I had a pleasant surprise with a neat entry into the theatre and comforting ourselves (better half + kid) in a row of 8, all for us. A pity the one's who were supposed to have sat besides could not turn up for the movie :-)
The movie began quietly and for about 30 minutes there were hardly any signs of the superstar. Infact my wife doubted if it was a Rajini movie. The truth, at the end, it wasn't just his... While the storyline of the movie has been blogged enough about, to summarize in 13 short lines goes like this;
Barber Balu (Pasupathi) lives with his beautiful wife Sridevi (Meena, a comeback?) and 3 kids in Maraiyur, a small town, supposedly in the border of Andhra. A straightforward and a honest man, Balu, finds the going difficult in vying against Saloon Shanmugham's (Vadivelu) cheap tactics. Finding it difficult even to pay his children's school fees, Balu still manages to keep his family happy until he hears of his schoolmate Ashok Kumar (Super Star) arriving at their town for a 40 day shooting. Having spent his childhood school days with his best friend Ashok, Balu turns out to be one worried person, feeling inferior of his current condition in renewing his friendship with Ashok.
Even with his wife knowing very little of their friendship, their childhood days friendship reach out to the mass and Balu turns out to be the man of the moment to the villagers, each of them having an ulterior motive to help Balu in order to link up with the Super Star.
Despite numerous attempts, Balu is unable to catch up with the Super Star to renew their friendship and at the end of 40 days of shooting, the Super Star accepts an invitation from a local school to preside over their 25th anniversary in which he recalls his childhood days spent with Balu who had helped him in all ways and finally providing financial assistance to excel in what he aspired, Cinema. Balu and his family listening to this break down listening to it and the Super Star finally lands up at Balu's house and relives every moment of their friendship with his family...
While no doubting it is a Rajini film, remarkable, emotional and power packed performances by Pasupathi and Meena with splendid support by Vadivelu, Santhanam, Manobala, Livingston, MS Basker and Santhanabarathi had indeed enkindled the movie. Nayantara had nothing serious to do in the movie but for a steamy number which could have definitely been ignored. The songs were okay, though not having created waves like earlier Rajini movies seem to have been picturized pretty well. Unlike Chandramukhi, Prabhu's role was a real misfit and seemed to have been either under utilized or probably even unutilised. Maybe Vasu just wanted to ensure that he had all the ingredients he had in Chandramukhi to make this one a an equal success. I'd say he definitely did a better job here than in Chandramukhi despite both being remakes. Infact my home ministry too approved the film as a good one especially this being her first "First Day" Rajini film, it just can't get any bigger or better...
Final verdict: A thorough family entertainer with loads of comedy, emotion and warmth.
