Chandramukhi - First day, First show and a superstar

Yesterday was the release of 'Chandramukhi'. Being one of the longtime fan of Rajni, I wanted to see the movie on the first day. Seeing Rajni's movie on first day was one of the routines that I went through till the end of the college days. After that, job and the long stint in US and it means I missed the excitement of the first-day shows.

So, yesterday was a way of re-living the excitement and fun of those old days. It was the Tamil new year and the release of 'Chandramukhi'. We were in the theater by 1.30PM for the 2.30PM show(which didn't start till 3.10PM anyway!). The fans were there in full throng or as one of my brother's friend pointed out they are the 'veriyans'(of course he himself is one!). There were poojas to the cut-outs, abhishekams with milk,lathi-charges by police and the anxiety of hearing the verdict on the movie itself.

The movie started aroung 3.10PM and the theater was in uproar for the first 10 minutes. But there was police presence inside the theater and so it was very controlled and surprisingly, everyone was able to watch the movie.

Chandramukhi is the re-make of Manichitrathazhu (by Fazil). I saw Manichitrathazhu when it was released in Madurai some 10-12 years back. I think the movie ran for 50 days in Madurai itself. Chandramukhi's basic premise is same as the original, but ofcourse with Rajni as hero, you cannot introduce him just before interval (Mohanlal appears only before interval in Manichitrathazhu). So there are masala items like songs, a heroine and some comedy added. And the centric piece of story is the story of Chandramukhi and the influence on Ganga(Jo). Again, being a Rajni-centric film, the ghost of Chandramukhi has to take a side-stage while Rajni takes the centerstage.

As for performances, I was fondly recalling the spine-chilling performance of Shobana in the original with the above-average performance of Jo. Ofcourse, Manichitrathazhu sits there as the best ever thriller in the Indian cinema (cannot think of another one that even comes near that!). And Rajni is Rajni and there is no way to compare his performance with Mohanlal's(whom I would rate as a better actor than anyone in Indian cinema except probably Mammooty) in the original also. But Chandramukhi is probably a different Rajni movie which has less action and relies on the story telling to pace up.

Overall, the film will be a hit and ofcourse, will bring the families to theaters like all Rajni films do.