BENGALURU: It is said that more people watch Sun TV here than they do Udaya TV- there are probably more Tamil speaking people in the Ulsoor Lake area than any other part of Bengaluru. With the Tamil Sangam at Ulsoor Lake, every second shop manned (or womaned) by a Tamilian, a visitor may often mistake this part of ‘Namma Bengaluru’ (Our Bangalore) with any other city in Tamil Nadu. There is one theatre that is the ultimate destination of most Tamil film aficionados in the area – Lavyana.
Every new Tamil movie release has a festive air around. Huge cutouts of the hero are placed everywhere in the vicinity of the theatre and it is a common sight to see some prominent leader of the area arrive with huge garlands that cost more than a month’s wages for most, perform a pooja with the traditional oil lamp and the umpteen number of incense stick. And if the lead actor is a prominent one like Rajinikanth, well he too finds a place with the gods and is worshipped like a deity. This is followed by the bursting of crackers and a general confusion for office gores stuck in a traffic jam.
All that, except for the last, has not happened at the time of filing of this report at Lavyana. The opening of the movie Kochadaiiyaan – The Legend has been sedate here until now, but there is no dearth of people waiting in queues to buy the first day first show ticket to spend a few hours with their hero, their idol and God with a capital G.
What caused a mini traffic jam was the arrival of a Rajni clone dressed in the traditional white lungi and displaying more gold than a jewellery shop in Shivajinagar to the theatre. Immediately a crowd collected around the man as soon as he dismounted from his ‘oh so very long car’. Mobile phones from the cheap Chinese smuggled ones to the most expensive iphones and Samsung Galaxy models were whipped out and people sprang to the chance of getting clicked with a human image of their GOD! People rushed to shake the man’s hand, get photographed with him, while traffic slowed, stopped, crawled, stopped during the 10-15 minutes that the supposed Rajni was there for.
How the movie will fare and whether the people concerned have other plans for a big bang is another matter altogether, only time will tell.
