UlagaNayagan KAMALHAASAN in ||"UthamaVillan"|| Directed by Ramesh Aravind

[radiochandra1977]

Thanks Mappi. Here goes.

I was in 2nd standard. I used to love watching Kamal and Rajni movies. My dad was an engineer in Public works at Pondicherry ... so We had access to day one tickets for big movies.
And when I say big ...... 80s were real big. Kamal or Rajni movies used to release in Balaji or Ananda theatre. Kakki was at Anandaa. As is the norm, police force arrives previous day afternoon when the fans throng the theatre and the bars and wine shops surrounding. The roads are blocked for traffic for the whole of first weekend. Color paintings on the road. Huge kamal portraits get painted on the road.
I enter the theater with family. A music band which usually plays for death rally is playing katta vandi katta vandi, varuthu varuthu etc.
Black ticket dealers are making hay while the Kamal shines with 20 rs tickets going for 100 rs.
Police comws in between to take mamool.
Selected stills from the movie are kept in the theater corridor and there is mass rush to see those stills. ( dont forget .... there was no fb or whatsap or cable tv to show trailers or movie stills .)
Movie starts ........ theatre deafened by claps and shouts for the CBFC certificate and some one loudly murmurs ...... dei .... 15 reels da ( ya .... that was a time when wikipedia wouldnt give u running time and u had to count the number of reels to get an estimation )