The BOSS
In the altar of idol worshipÂ
This is the story of a miss of a lifetime — missing the First Day First Show of the costliest Indian movie ever starring India’s biggest star. Sorry, it ain’t Big B we are talking about, but a certain Shivaji Rao Gaekwad, alias Rajni.
This is also the story of hitting Day 2 of Sivaji — The Boss, at Aurora in Matunga on Day 2. And the hype witnessed during the first day of Rajni’s last movie Chandramukhi. This is a story of adulation.
Hopefully, that roar, that joyous chaos, that festoons adorning the altar of hero worship will come back to life. Last time that magic happened in Tiruchy, a landlocked district on the banks of Cauvery — the flow of Tamil Nadu.
Chandramukhi was a “second-rate adaptation of a third party originalâ€. That is a Tamil movie inspired from a Kannada movie, Aapta Mitra, which, in turn, was remake of a gem of a Malayalam entertainer Manichitratazhu. But the original and its immediate off-shoot lacked a unique selling proposition, though both did fare well at the box-office.
So here we were, after a night-long drunken revelry that bursts into the day of reckoning — First Day First Show. Such celebrations are only associated with few festivals, leave alone film releases. Except in Tamil Nadu. And that too only when this ageless wonder named Sivaji Rao Gaekwad assumes the pseudonym Rajnikanth.
Welcome to the real box-office magic. Here we have a wand that converts euphoria to astronomical collection figures.
Cut to 2007, and Shivaji Rao’s real name and reel name converge in over 600 prints and in roughly 100-odd prints abroad — UK, US, Japan and this time, in Hong Kong too. No official figures dude, the veil of secrecy is dropped only on Day 1. Everything else is hearsay.
That’s why when leaked tapes of Sivaji did the rounds on the Net, AR Rahman was asked to tweak it — again a hearsay. Now, that secrecy is one aspect of the stylish aura that weaves magic on screen.
So, the faceless figurehead who mans the counter at Aurora in Matunga be pardoned for having a bland ticket. It would have been unpardonable if that were to happen in Albert or Satyam in Chennai. Or for that matter, anywhere in the vast tracts of land breathing the rustic fragrance of Tamil.
Nothing less than a glossy texture with the icon himself on it would do — It’s a celebration and not a slip of paper which assures an entry to a cinema. Don’t you dare fiddle with it!
Many crores later and after many intriguing plots and one liners were given a decent burial, The Boss assumed his stylish screen persona to assured applauses on Friday — that was the aforementioned missing USP.
But for this star-struck soul, it doesn’t matter if the rendezvous is only on Day 2. Awaiting the moment frozen in time, when the punch dialogue unleashes a riot of claps, itself is a celebration.
No one is waiting, but this is to inform the stray visitor, the faceless blogger or the unknown netizen that this space is to witness some activity in the days to come. Welcome to those who have nothing worthwhile to do, no horizons to conquer, no goals to work for and no energy worth boasting.