Irrational Exuberance
I wish Malcolm Gladwell visits Chennai coming Friday to witness the social epidemic that is Shivaji. To my mind, this is nothing about the release of a movie and everything about mass hysteria. I think the idea that its a movie and that it too can fail as it can succeed is totally lost on the people.
It’s not just the film-crazy fans but even the so called intellectuals like Sujatha who have stoked the insanity with their weekly columns in leading magazines. I did see the trailer of Shivaji and to be diplomatic, i’ve seen better trailers. To say that this movie will be an industry-defining hit is as reasonable as saying that the BSE sensex will cross 100,000 in 3 months. Ennamo!
I think people have forgotten the fact that the reason for Chandrmukhi’s success was the story base of the original and it had very little of Rajinisms. I think the era of Rajinisms [Punch dialogues, innuendos about his entry to politics] are all but over. Going by Shankar’s earlier movies, I do not expect anything from him anymore. It’s a different matter that some folks think he is very creative (Enna Koduma Sir Idhu!!)
We all know the emperor is walking without any clothes but are afraid to admit the facts.I think it’s going to take a child to say in public that the emperor has no clothes after all.
Till then, I am amused by all this irrational exuberance.
PS: Even my close friends and team mates are going to kill me for this post but life wouldn’t be fun othewise 
June 13th, 2007 at 12:22 am
looks like you are already the kid that is calling the emperor naked!
do you know the price of the movie ticket in the US of A ?
20 freaking $ , the normal tamizh movie is 9 or 10 bucks (5 bucks on tuesday nights!)
and of course the shows are all sold out in spite of 20 buck tickets..
June 14th, 2007 at 10:22 am
sundar narayanan
I dont know
Rajini plain looks old in the trailers…
i heard/read the following info. i assume its true..
apparently abhirami ramanthan has coughed up 6.5 croroes for chennai territory alone which is from mint to kathipara excluding thiruvanmiyur, mayajaal..
there is another statistic that chandramukhi in all these yrs in chennai has made abt 3.5 crores.
Today i hear another news item that sivaji will make 1.7 croroes in the first 10 days in chennai. That still leaves 4.8 crores to break even and not many thatres willbe running the movie once the initial hyper is over…
i liked whenever rajini tried to act (like mullum malarum, thalapathi). thalapathi ku aprom the movies ran because of his probably entry into politics. he knew how to cash in on the weakness of his fans with his innuendoes…but now? it does not make sense to me frankly.
its movies like sivaji which bring down tamil cinema by a few notches.. ennamo..
June 15th, 2007 at 4:43 am
Hello karthi..
sandhadi saakula nalla vaari vittudareenga
paravaillai… irukattum….vandhu gavanichikaren
The whole drama stinks. Idhu enna appadiye India voda thala ezhutha maatha pora vishayama ? Kedakaraanga vidunga ! vera velai illai.