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| By Behindwoods News Bureau. |
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September 22, 2007 |
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Today is the day that we all knew would surely come.
It was done and decided that such a day would happen
and it would be celebrated in a fitting fashion.
Even before June 15th we knew that September 22
would be special. Today Sivaji completes 100 days
in theaters and without much argument the past 100
days have been the best in the history of Tamil
cinema. Close to 500 theaters, more than 7 states
in India and more than 7 foreign countries- neighbors,
Asian, European and American.
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was the number of theaters that showed Sivaji on June 15th
and today 100 days from that date nearly 200 theaters are
still showing the movie. Some of them are in Kerala, in Karnataka,
some others are in Canada and Britain. Rarely does a movie
have such a wide reach, rarely are so many tickets sold for
a single movie, rarely do so man people go crazy over one
man, rarely do cinema and history go hand in hand. |
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But when it is Superstar in action
we know that history is in the making. It is much
like Sachin Tendulkar batting; when he bats he has
only one record to break- his own. When a Rajinikanth
movie releases it has to get better of only the previous
Rajini movie. Everything else is a foregone conclusion.
It was the same with Sivaji. The only thing everyone
wanted to know was whether it would do better than
Chandramukhi and today we have the answer for you-
very easy to guess.
Yes. Sivaji is Rajini’s-Tamil cinema’s
biggest ever in terms of, well….. everything
that you can think of. The biggest and best combination
of sheer talent, star power and tradition that Tamil
cinema has seen.
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biggest budget, the biggest release and of course the biggest
hit… it doesn’t get any bigger and there is only
one man who can make things bigger- Superstar himself, when
he chooses to do so. If Shankar and Rahman are amongst the
greatest in their chosen fields of expertise and AVM is the
production house most steeped in tradition. That was the stage
that was set for the Superstar effect to unleash; this was
the only stage that could do justice to awesome potential
that a Superstar movie has to offer. And what was done was
more than just justice. Sivaji is not about the creation of
a hit, it is about the creation of new frontiers, new benchmarks
which will spur others in Tamil cinema to work harder, to
go higher and expect more out of themselves. |
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What this Superstar movie has proved is that “Success
is a journey, not a destination”. The pursuit
of excellence never stops and there is no place for
complacency, no matter how big a star you are, no
matter how sure of success you may be.
We all might think that Rajinikanth has nothing to
prove to anyone; he’s been there and done that,
given the biggest hits Indian cinema has known, reached
the pinnacles of stardom, become the idol of crores
and yet in each frame of Sivaji you can see the efforts
that he has taken, the hard work he has put in, the
new things he has tried and done to make the movie
an unforgettable one for all of us as if he is a newcomer
who still has to prove his mettle to everyone.
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They say, ‘only a retired actor has nothing to prove
to anyone’ and that’s what Superstar seems to
be following and thank God he has not shown any inclination
towards retirement, in fact the next Superstar movie is
almost sure to happen (at least we like to believe in that)
quite soon.
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It would be sacrilege to not give
special mention to everyone involved in the creation
of this movie. Shankar, we need not tell you how good
he is at doing what he did in Sivaji. Painting larger
than life characters on a larger than life canvas
is his bread and butter but in Sivaji he gave new
dimensions to the term ‘larger than life’.
Rahman might indisputably be the best music director
in India at the moment but the efforts that he put
into this project are obvious to all music lovers;
its one thing to give good tunes but it takes a lot
of dedication to travel around the world in search
of new sounds, new kinds of music and put them together
to create a great album. K.V. Anandh grabbed the opportunity
to be part of such a great team and gave his best
work yet and AVM was always there to provide everything
that the team needed to enable them create a product
that would be yet another feather in the cap of this
haloed production house. It was as if everyone realized
that they were not working on just another movie.
Sivaji is the result of that realization.
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Sivaji
is not ‘great cinema’ in the context in which
critics use the quote. But then no one pretended it is.
Neither the director nor producer ever said that it was
going to be one. What they set out to make was a Superstar
movie, for the countless Superstar fans (me and you) to
enjoy and cherish. They set out to create a thing of beauty
that will remain a joy forever and they achieved everything
they set out to and more. They created history and today
history is in its 100th day and we know that it is just
the beginning.
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