The suspense is agonising. Fans have been on tenterhooks for several months now. With the release date of Sivaji getting delayed, the media is being constantly fed tidbits and juicy stories on the film with a few stills of the lead stars being thrown in for good measure.
The audio has become a major hit with A R Rahman chipping in with a feet tapping score and his music has been the mainstay of most of director Shankar’s films right from his debut film Gentleman.
While the marketing skills of the producers of the film AVM is the stuff of legend in Kollywood, the man who should bring in the audiences is none other than superstar Rajnikant and maybe to a lesser extent director Shankar, who but for a highly revolting film Boys has an impeccable track record of hits Heroine Shreya, villain Suman and others can only be expected to be also rans in a movie in which Rajni is certain to monopolise the frames.
The million dollar question now is whether the film will justify the hype and turn out to be a colossal hit or whether it will meet the fate of another hyped up film, Rajni’s home production Baba which sank without a trace.
The odds however seem to favour the superstar who has already made amends for the Baba flop with a super duper hit Chandramukhi which was a remake of the Malayalam film Manichithrathazhu which came via Kannada (Aptha Mithra) where it was a thumping success.
Apart from the mercurial presence of the superstar the film’s other main strengths apart from the music that is could be the grandoise sets, the exotic locations all of which cost a pretty penny but succeed in effectively pulling the wool over the frontbencher’s eyes, ensuring in the process a repeat audience.
Although his fans have stuck to him loyally for decades now, Rajni still continues to fascinate audiences more by his stock mannerisms than any great acting skills or histrionic displays for which of course he can’t be wholly blamed for the scripts require him to do little else.
In fact in his entire career (Sivaji is his hundredth Tamil film) there are only a handful of films like Engeyo Ketta Kural, Aarilirunthu Arupathu Varai’ and Sri Raghavendra where the actor has really strained himself and put to use the lessons learnt at the Madras Film Institute where he picked up the nuances of acting.
Over the years however Rajni has perfected the art of attracting fans with his electrifying presence, stylishly executed stunt sequences and sheer charisma, something which only the legendary MGR possessed.
One has only to hark back to Bharathiraaja’s maiden film Pathinaru Vayadhinile where although Kamal Haasan had the meatier role and appeared in most of the frames, Rajni had just to mutter a catch line and gesticulate a little bit and the audiences were swept off their feet.
Sivaji where Shankar and Rajni have teamed up for the first time could be a treat for Rajni fans worldwide and logic and meaningful cinema be damned.
Sivaji will repeat the tried and tested AVM commercial formula that has characterised their earlier Rajni films like Paayum Puli and Pokkiri Raja which saw them laughing all the way to the bank.
Atleast for Rajni and Shankar fans if not for the discerning audiences it would well be worth the wait.