TO BRING THE HOUSE DOWN

No, my wife and I could not watch ‘Vishwaroop’ last evening. The show had already started, and the next was too late. So, we booked our tickets for the morning show today. A blessing in disguise… We saved money, you see!

We loved the movie… essentially because of the action, the stunning visuals and of course, Kamal Haasan. I, particularly, loved this movie for one more reason. It is Sunday, today… The movie had caused a lot of noise in Tamilnadu. So, maybe for that reason, or maybe it is a Kamal Haasan ‘filam’ – the multiplex where we watched this movie had plenty of Tamilians – the young, the middle-aged and even the elderly. Next to me, was a young Tamilian-couple. They reminded me of the way we watched our Raj Kumar Kannada-movies in Mangalore! There was this theatre by the name ‘Ramakanti’… which screened exclusively ‘Tamil’ films. I have some explosive memories of watching here some Tamil blockbusters – starred by MGR and Shivaji Ganeshan. They were the Gods of Tamil cinema… A Rajni and a Haasan were kids when these Gods ruled!

So, if you ever wanted to know the meaning of – rather, experience it – the English phrase, ‘To bring the house down’, the shortest way was to watch a MGR or Shivaj Ganeshan Tamil filam in our ‘Ramakanti’!

Now, you can imagine, how it would be watching them in very land-of-Gods itself – yes, in Tamilnadu!

Today, this young educated-couple reminded me as to why we should not watch a movie as if we are at a relative’s funeral! The girl sat, merrily, with her both legs folded on her multiplex chair… and was continuously airing her commentary along with her hubby. “Before you become a ‘Tansen’, you should be a  ‘Kansen’,” in one scene, the dance teacher, Kamal Haasan, was heard telling his young girl-students. Now, before the dialogue ended, the next-seat girl was jumping on her seat, and her man was laughing in a manner, Haasan would be able to hear it even from Chennai!

Then came a scene, where the audience, for the first time, comes to know, that this ‘sissy’-kinda dance-teacher is, in deed, a steely-Tamil ‘hero’… Ghosh! That scene was the quintessential Tamil-filam-action-scene – so breathtakingly captured… it threw me off my seat… If that was my condition, you can imagine, what my neighbor in the cinema hall was doing: he was standing, clapping… screaming… and, in the process, reminding the rest of us (the mourners!):  

  

“You fools, watch a ‘filam’ like this… I say!”

I wish I could watch ‘Vishwaroopam' – with all its uncut scenes and dialogues – in a Chennai cinema hall… and, yes, could not only understand the meaning of the English phrase – ‘To bring the house down’… but, also, ‘experience' it, the Madras way!

Go watch it… Pray, you will get to sit next to some authentic movie-buffs… Like I got, today!

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: Bhushan Thakkar