The release of
Kabali, starring Superstar Rajnikant had created unprecedented waves across
Tamil Nadu and many parts of the country. Many companies had declared a
holiday, well knowing that employees would avail of a leave even if it hadn’t
been declared. A college had postponed its examination so that it won’t be a
hindrance for the students to catch up with the action. Meanwhile, five
students race against time to complete their work at college and also catch up
with the movie, before leaving the city on their respective trips.
22nd
June 2016. The college was buzzing with almost everyone in class having
purchased the tickets for Kabali, scheduled to release the next day. Being a
Marwari, despite being born and brought up in Chennai, Tamil movies seldom fascinate
me. However, the teaser of Kabali had induced excitement in me to watch the
movie at any cost. With Saaluvesh in the squad, an ardent fan of “Thalaivar”,
it was all the more important that we catch up with the movie on the first day.
We, despite the
frenzy, hadn’t got the tickets as we didn’t feel like standing in the scorching
sun just to get measly tickets. By afternoon, we realized that Mayajaal had
still not opened the booking. We rushed to Mayajaal despite our indifference
for the horrible screen quality there. Nikhil, Pranoy and Guru decided to stay
at Mayajaal under the pretext of watching some horrible movie to get the
tickets. Three hours later at college, we were cursing our luck as we had to
stay back and receive our racing team’s car from the transporters who were
bringing it from Delhi. Pranoy and Guru had got tickets at a theatre near their
house, courtesy their school friends and we five were stranded.
By 7PM, we were
at Vandalur, sitting on Saaluvesh’s car wondering if the day could get any
worse. The truck driver was from Nagaland. He wasn’t ready to deliver the car
by the night as the trailer had developed a technical snag near Madurantakam.
Ragu and Vinay were trying to contact the travels dealer from the college while
we were counting the number of cars crossing Vandalur signal. Utkarsh, a friend
of Saaluvesh, studying in SRM, came as a God sent, as he welcomed us to his
room at Potheri. While the phone calls were being exchanged between Ragu and
the truck driver, we were trying our level best to understand the “Railfan”
talks of Utkarsh and Saaluvesh, to no avail though.
With our phones
charged and information received that we had to drive up to Madurantakam to get
our project car, we dreaded at the sight of a long dreary night ahead.
Meanwhile Nikhil and Saaluvesh were trying to find tickets in theatres far away
from the city such as Vaniyambadi and Ambur. The very thought of watching a
movie sitting in broken chairs and without AC was nauseating and Prateek was
frowning at the very thought of spending on such a long trip. Thankfully,
Saaluvesh had to leave for Trichy in 24 hours and this wasn’t to be executed.
Four hours
later, we were sitting in the car, near Madurantakam, in the truck parking bay.
The local truck driver from Kelambakkam, who was to shift our car to college
was yet to arrive. The rain, thankfully, kept us awake as we waited like
vagabonds in the middle of nowhere and cursing our luck. Meanwhile, Ragu and
Vinay broke the news that they had got the tickets for Kabali at a theatre in
TIruporur. That was the reason, they had been late to start from college. I
could just visualize our gang as the goats for the night’s sacrifice to the
Almighty, for say, the sake a successful box office run for Kabali.
The truck driver
arrived at half past one and then began the humongous ask of shifting our race
car from a huge Nagaland registered trailer to a mini truck. The hydraulics of
the trailer caught my attention though. It was interesting to see the huge door
open as the hydraulic pumps were being activated electronically from the
truck’s battery. It included some technical “jugaad” but let’s have that story
for another time. After about thirty minutes of work, the car was loaded on to
the smaller truck and we were all set to leave.
Our group is
full of vegetarians although some eat egg at times. The sight of non veg is
nauseating to me but I could still see the sacrificial goats getting
slaughtered and the names Sandip, Prateek, Nikhil and Saaluvesh engraved in
bold on them. Ragu and Vinay drove off under the pretext of getting a smoke
while we had to trail the mini truck to ensure the safety of the car. It also
included explaining to officials that the car was ours and it was not being
stolen, if stopped and queried. The only luck that went our way was the lack of
any such untoward incident. Untoward incidents could also mean a hungry
Saaluvesh getting pissed off in the middle of the road and refusing to drive
further. His stomach however decided that we had had enough and didn’t disturb
us.
At college, it
wasn’t the best of works as the lab was locked and the key was with the HoD who
was more than a hundred kilometres away. However, as the negotiations were on
to decide where the car was to be parked until the morning, Saaluvesh realized
that tickets were available for Kabali at C3 cinemas, Chengalpattu and Nikhil
rammed Saaluvesh’s car into Vinay’s. It’s not every day that someone rams a car
from behind into the only other car parked in over hundred metres long and
twenty metres wide parking lot. Damages were nil as the speed was about that of
a sloth but it was enough for Nikhil to never drive Saaluvesh’s car again.
Five tickets
were booked for the afternoon show that begins three hours after noon.
Saaluvesh decided to board his train from Tambaram instead of Egmore and Nikhil
believed that he could convince his dad to take his Fiesta. To be frank,
Nikhil’s fiesta has a better AC than Saaluvesh’s dZire but despite being a good
driver, Nikhil was yet to obtain his license, which meant he never brought his
car. He believed, using Saaluvesh’s name would be good enough to get his car. I
was fine with going by train, but the theatre was a good eight kilometres from
Chengalpattu railway station and on the highway, which translated into poor
connectivity.
The security
guards let us park our race car next to the automobile department, but only
upto nine in the morning after which, it would be seized or dismantled if not
removed. I didn’t believe they’d do that but it wasn’t my headache. We had
suffered enough for the night and the lack of sleep was immense. We drove to
Besant Nagar beach. It was about to be four in the morning and Saaluvesh felt
we could spend an hour at the beach rather than disturb his parents’ sleep.
Halfway towards the
sea, we heard the police siren and a warning was issued that we report to the
patrol vehicle immediately. We were asked not to venture towards the sea until
five, which meant Saaluvesh preferred dropping us at Broadway. He dropped me
near my house and Prateek somewhere near his house. I know for sure Saaluvesh
would never visit Prateek’s house even in a life and death situation. He’d
invite Prateek over but would never return the visit. Reasons unknown but I
just know he won’t.
A sound sleep
and eleven hours after midnight, I was calling Saaluvesh but he was snoring
away in glory. Akshay, instead of Prateek, was coming for the movie. It was an
hour since noon when Saaluvesh finally turned up at Nikhil’s house in Tambaram.
Being late is something he doesn’t like but somehow ends up late every time. It
was a shock to me that Nikhil’s father asked Saaluvesh to drive. He himself
expected Nikhil to drive. However, the lack of a license, or loss of a license
as claimed by Nikhil, meant Saaluvesh was to drive. Saaluvesh is good enough a
driver to drive any vehicle without much fuss. His claim of not being to adapt
to different vehicles seems a lame excuse to me. We reached the theatre with
five minutes to spare. The melee meant we got to our seats five minutes late
but it also meant the movie would begin ten minutes late.
“Naa vandhutten
nu sollu. Thirumbi vandhutten nu. Epdi ponaaro, Kabali apdiye thirumbi
vandhutaar nu poyi sollu”, the charisma of Rajnikant is just unassailable. It
was one of the best entry scenes I had seen in any Tamil movie. I haven’t
watched many, so I suppose that’s the best. The movie wasn’t what we expected.
The teaser had shown us a mass movie that would be loved by the masses. It
turned out to be a class movie loved by people of all classes. The interval had
us waiting for more as Rajnikant had been shot and rumours had been rife that
Rajnikant dies in the movie. Given that it’s a slow movie, the thrill levels
had just reached the zenith just before the interval. The second half was slightly
faster. There was some of the usual Rajni effect. The climax was left open as
the audience only here a gun shot and don’t know the fate of the don,
Kabaleeswaran.
The movie had
not lived up to its expectations. It had been way more than that. Walking in to
a movie expecting action and ending up with one of the most poignant tales of a
don searching for his long lost wife had made our struggle worthwhile. The fact
that we travelled nearly seventy kilometres from Broadway, just to watch
Thalaivar showed his enormous appeal in the silver screen.
We drove up to
Vandalur where we caught a train to Beach. Saaluvesh drove upto Tambaram
station and handed the reins of the car to Nikhil as he caught his train to
Tiruchy. Nikhil, thankfully, drove his car home without any untoward incident
and the sleep that night was satisfying after thirty six hours of work and fun.
