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Chandramukhi - The Thalaivar Magic

Thalaivar Super Star

I'm just sharing what my relative told me about his experience of watching the movie in a theatre in Manhattan, NY. This would explain how crazy Rajni fans are. First of all if you think giant size cut-outs are found only in India, change your mind - for they paid a HUGE rent to NY Administration to hold a RajniKant cutout outside a theatre in NY. This is Day1 of Chandramukhi's release - 7PM (NY Local Time). About 900 people mostly the Indian Techie with family have already crowded outside the theatre for a 8PM show. The die-hard fans leading the proceedings starting with Milk Abishekam of the Rajni cut-out. Then a Hindu panditji invited from the Murugan Temple in Washington DC after ablution’ing himself publicly in front of a clueless American public, started with the Kumb Abishekam of the Rajni Cutout (remember, this privilege is usually given to only the Gods and Goddesses).

This ritual was followed by a Karpur Aarti by some chosen Rajni Maniacs. This was taken along the queue for people to receive his holiness Shri. RajniKant's blessings for bearing the impending shit inside the theatre. Then the whole of Lincoln Square reverberated with Thalaivaaaaa and SuperStar Valga hoots by Rajni Cheerleaders. Half hour to go for the ultimate moment - and the next ritual starts.

A Techie who had flown all the way from Richmond to NY emerged from the sea of core RajniFanClub members. He is the Chief RajniFanClub Architect (his not-so-important other profession is Chief Research Architect for one of Microsoft's premier products in their HQ at Richmond) who is bestowed with the honor of breaking the huge Pumpkin with a camphor lit top making the hitherto clean motor way leading to the famous Armory Square full of broken pumpkin pieces. This was followed by the 108 Coconut Breaks right outside the Loews Theatre. You must have noticed the literally shocked security men trying their best to protect the Glass Doors od Loews with their shield - which they till date have made use of only during terrorist threats or potentially dangerous uprisings. Thankfully, NYPD didn't change the security alert indicator from Green to Red.

Phew, that was the grand entry into the hall that premiered Chandramukhi. Inside the madness knows no bounds. Bits and pieces of instances that happened inside the Audi are as follows:

• Rajni introduction scene: Usually men of valor dust their hands after doing some bravo acts. But our Super Star dusts his feet staying in air for almost 30 seconds. He dodges chain attacks supposedly quicker than Neo managed to dodge the bullets, 6 men around and He defies gravity to hit all of them in one go and lands on the ground smoother than a Boeing 707 could. And you must have been there to see the crowd uproar who were speechless for a moment struck by His heroics, which is supposed to be 3.7 times quicker than a Jackie Chan stunt.
• But He is also a human being. "To Err is human" - so Rajni gets a small hit when he was busy shooing the other villains. About 50 people rose from their seats and moved to the screen to help Rajni out and hit the Rajni offenders. God knows how the well-literate Indian Techie for a moment thought they could go inside the screen and help Him out.
• His youthful romance: When out Hero, who obviously knows every other musical instrument in the world starts singing and dancing to coax out 20 yr old heroine in style, the middle aged Techies (hold your breadth), stood on the leather dressed seats and whistled - much to the agony of their helpless wives. The wives' complains was: I've trained my kid to behave well and this is live demonstration by Dad on how not to behave. Magic Struck Dad smiles and tells his wife and kid that this is Thalaivar Movie and you have to be another Rajni Fan to understand this feeling.
• Saravanan (Rajni's name in the movie) - his friend introduces as a psychologist who got a gold medal and some prestigious American Scholarship in the USA. And one Chief Technology Officer of a Silicon Valley Embedded Systems start-up shouts Thalaiva, we're nothing in front of you. Nee Valga (Long live Rajni). Would you rate this heights of Simplicity OR Madness?
• The Most Learned and famous mandira vaathi (ghost buster) in India tells this I see a shining light on your eyes and it immediately struck to me that You're no ordinary person. I respect you a lot. Without You, I cannot drive this Chandramukhi's spirit from this house and a couple of RajnioManiacs discuss "Thalaivar thalaivar than pa. Even I could see the greatness in his eyes!" and the other gives a nod.

The typical Indian Wife and the ABCD (American Born Confused Desi) kid sat clueless till the end of the movie which they hardly made sense out of for 2 reasons a) The ho-hum of the fans made the State-of-the-Art DTS Dolby Sound Technology look like a stone age voice processing tool b) the story wasn't normal either. Thus the great movie came to a great ending. Watch the movie for yourself to relive the Rajni Magic that I have tried to portray in words.