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Rajni re-affirms his superstardom with a brilliant Chandramukhi

BY JACOB PAUL

Three years back Tamil Cinema industry saw its biggest pre-release hype for a movie in its history. Superstar Rajnikanth’s Baba was to hit the silverscreen. The style-king was returning to the theatres again after a hiatus. Everyone expected Baba to do a Baasha, a phenomenal-hit, which was a remake of Amitabh’s Hum.

And according to whispering campaigns and gravepine that are integral parts of the Tamil film industry, Baba’s presumed success was to be followed by a padayatra by the superstar en route to capture the glory of Fort St. George – The seat of power, where Amma alias Dr J Jayalalithaa was firmly on saddle. Rajni, his countless nameless fans believed, was destined to take on the political might of Jayalalitha on the Dravida turf.

So everything associated with the run-up to Baba was larger-than life. The cola majors and all and sundry in business jumped on to the Baba bandwagon. There was Baba mechandise. There were gigantic cuttings, hoardings and promotional gimmicks. The mood was upbeat. Buoyant.

There was controversy also with the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) coming out against the superstar for misleading the youth through the silver screen (Read smoking and drinking in movies!). The open call by PMK to boycott Baba, many thought, would inadvertently give more publicity to Baba and thereby ensure its box-office success. It didn’t. Baba bombed in the box-office.

It was more than a box-office office set back for Rajni, for Baba was to pitchfork him to the political arena. Rajni went incommunicado. This was in 2002.

Three years later, carefully avoiding any hype-associated with his omnipotent movies releases, Rajni again hit the silver screen with Sivaji productions’ 50th movie, Chandramukhi.

Perhaps, for the first time in his career after being labeled superstar, a Rajni movie was dubbed a do-or-die effort of the star. Perform or perish was the unheard but loud message doing the rounds.

Like the innumerable superhuman characters which have catapulted him to box-office glory and unflinching loyalty of fans even in far-off places like the US and Japan, Rajni performed his magic once again. Chandramukhi rewrote box-office initials and is tipped to be a mega hit. The superstar is back. In style.

Chandramukhi is remake of Kannada Movie Apta Mitra, which in turn is a lift of Malayalam movie Manichitratazhu, starring Mohan Lal and Shobhana. Shobana walked away with the national award for the best actress for Manichitratazhu.

It is all about a supposedly haunted house, which is bought by a couple played by the late Shivaji Ganeshan’s son Prabhu and Jyothika. Prabhu incidentally is also the producer of the movie along with his brother Ramkumar.

The haunted house has a legend in the form of danseuse Chandramukhi. The cruel king forces the voluptuous Chandramukhi to be his mistress. Chandramukhi continues her affair with her lover. The jealous king beheads her lover and burns Chandramukhi alive.