The true Chandramukhi review

I got to see the movie in a Chicago suburb with a good friend of mine from college. We reached the theater just in time, and standing in line to enter, I felt I was in Madras, right in the middle of Devi Paradise! The whistles, "uh-ah-uh-ah" chants, and "thalaivarukku savalaaa?" chorus started right outside the theater (surprisingly the mall security didnt bother us!). Someone even managed to bring an auto rickshaw horn in tribute to the immortal Badsha.

The movie started with the classic "SUPERSTAR R-A-J-I-N-I" title, and the crowd turned hysterical! Rajini single handedly fights 20 men, defying gravity and every law of physics and all of us went hoarse cheering for our thalaivaaa! All the madras pasanga and local girls (like me!) tore ticket stubs and threw it up in the air (the peter-girls gave us disgusted glances and said "cha, too much yaa") and a group of die-hard thambis ran up to the screen and put a big kumbudu. With the stunt scene done, the main movie started.

The story:
Chandramukhi is the legend of a beautiful dancer who was killed (along with her lover) by a cruel king. 150 years later, Prabhu, his wife Jyothika, and a big extended family move into the palace and they start believing that someone is tormenting them . Needless to say, our superstar saves the day!

The review:
This is the remake of Manichithathazhu - regarded as one of the best malayalam movies ever made. Shobana won the national award for her performance. However, you cannot have a female oriented Rajini movie (especially a positive female character at that). So, P.Vasu condenses the great original into the final 30 minutes of the movie and fills the first 2.5 hours with a lot of brightly colored candy fluff, with the pretext that that is what Rajini fans want.

He got it all wrong. We wanted the super star title in the beginning, and a racy introduction song. Once we got that, we were done with our cheering, and we were ready to watch a good movie, which didnt start till 2.5 hours later.

A little cotton candy is nice, but there is only so much you can eat before you start feeling sick. Its pretty for the first 10 minutes and then becomes a soggy mess. The same applies for the movie too. There are constant references to the mysterious Chandramukhi, with snatches of a beautiful telugu song. Just when you hope to see more, the scene is cut short, followed by some meaningless comedy or a big song. 10 minutes after the interval, the crowd was completely subdued. By the time the annanoda paatu song came, there was not a single whistle or cheer. Believe me, if a 1000 homesick tamilians could not muster up enthusiasm for what was supposed to be the superhit song of the movie.. you can imagine..

The lows:
* Nayantara - Shes very pretty, but the audience was positively squirming because she is younger than Rajini's younger daughter! In the next Rajini movie --- please please show him with a WIFE, played by an actress atleast more than 30 years old. Nayantara also stammers now and then, no one knew why. The height of overacting!
* Athindhom song - No one could understand why this song was there in the movie and the dialogue Nayantara says at the end didnt make any sense at all
* The Rajini-Vadivelu comedy - some of it was funny, but most of it was double-meaning stuff. I've never seen (or atleast dont remember) vulgarity in a Rajini movie, and this was pretty bad. The verdict of the loyal Madras fans behind me was "this really is too much"
* Prabhu crying - That was the last straw. Anyway, I'm worried about his heart risk, he really needs to do something about himself
* Rajini's gray makeup - Seriously, who came up with that idea?
* The 100 skimpily clad bombay dancers in the annanoda paatu song ... the biggest low point of the movie
* A lot of out-of-work actresses with white paint and bad wigs were telling Rajini how he is the greatest man in the planet

The highs!
And just when the audience started giving up, the real movie started - and its brilliant! (no credit to P.Vasu, The original was Faazil i think). Vidyasagar's ra-ra song is fantastic. The screenplay captures the essence of Chandramukhi's spirit and it makes the first 2 hours of crap really worthwhile. Rajini takes the backseat, doesnt act like a superstar, and instead takes on the role of the villain...and hes fanstastic! I'm not going to give away any more of the story, but you have to see the movie for Rajini in this scene, and Jyothika's make up for her two kinds of appearances.

The script requires Jyothika to give an over-the-top performance in the end. Unfortunately for her, that is how she usually performs in all her movies anyway, so there were some sniggers from the audience. But, if you forget her past kushi type tortures and look just at this film, her performance is really really good, especially in the yellow costume.

The verdict:
This movie is already a superhit. Rajini is the biggest superstar in the world (no exaggeration) and we love him too much to let his movie flop . In the last 30 minutes, you also see Rajini's potential as an actor and remember his old classics. I wish there are more movies where Rajini actually plays different characters, without worrying about his image. He doesnt have to paint his face a weird gray (he should stick to his new wig though, its pretty neat!) Ok, maybe for his hard core fans, the movies can have the mandatory Rajini intro song and a what-a-man stunt sequence. But, we really dont need contrived Rajini propping scenes all through his movies. We know him, we love him, and the supporting characters need NOT reiterate this to us.

Rajini's sheer charisma is mind blowing enough to prop himself and the script. He is a brilliantly stylish actor and in fact, he's lots more fun when he is being sarcastic and as an anti-hero (remember paratai of 16 vayadhinile?).

In Chandramukhi however, the real Rajini gets lost amidst all the graphics and colorful songs and stunts. Walking out of the theater, the entire first two hours of the movie fade away almost immediately, and the most memorable image of Rajini is him dressed as the king and his taunting "lakalakalaka...". That was the paisa vasool scene of the movie. Dhool machi!!!

You know better than to expect great cinema, when you go to see a Rajini movie. But Chandramukhi's climax brings you tantalizingly close to the idea of a Rajini movie that is also a good movie......and then falls short. And that is a tragedy.

P.Vasu misses his one golden chance. Chandramukhi is certainly no Baba, but, with everyone playing safe, unfortunately, its no Badsha either. What a waste!