BEHINDWOODS ARTICLES

Tamil cinema buffs are in for a real treat in the coming weeks as biggie after biggie is set for release. Kamal’s Vishwaroopam opens the floodgates on January 25^th and enough has been said and discussed about the movie’s technical brilliance and grandeur. The initial opening buzz has been fantastic and the first week is assured of top-notch collection results across all the release centers.

Mani Ratnam’s Kadal is also waiting for release after being censored with a clean U certificate. The lead pair of Gautham Karthik and Thulasi Nair has earned the eyeballs of the press and public alike, thanks to their confidence and youthful charm. Rahman and Rajiv Menon have also wowed audiences with their work, on the evidence of the response to the music and trailers. Arjun and Aravind Swamy have been talking points as well, on an almost equal footing as the film’s lead pair. With so much going for the movie, people are eager to see the movie and looks like February 1^st would be the D-Date.

But will enough theaters be there to accommodate such a big movie just a week after Vishwaroopam which is another monstrous biggie? This being the case, another highly anticipated movie in the form of David is also targeting the February 1^st release slot. David has Vikram, Jiiva, Tabu, Isha Sherwani and more in one of the most exciting casts in recent times. The response to the music and trailer has also been encouraging to say the least. David has already come out with theater listings but the same question asked of Kadal applies to David too. Will theaters be in a position to relieve Vishwaroopam in just a week’s time?

There aren’t many functional screens particularly outside the big centers and accommodating three big releases within a span of a week’s time is hard to imagine. In an ideal situation, each of these movies deserves a couple of weeks’ solo run. All the stakeholders involved need to recover their costs, keeping the industry’s overall health in mind. After all, movies featuring names like Mani Ratnam and Kamal Haasan don’t come every year. These are all event movies and they deserve more space and time to breathe.

Looking at the other movies set for release in February, we have names like Aadhi Bhagavan and Paradesi cropping up. The hype and names involved in these movies are well known and even these movies look to be in for a similar fate as the above mentioned movies. There is such a crowd of releases waiting in the queue and that too big marquee ones at that.

But, not much can be done about this as so many movies are being made by all kinds of makers with all kinds of budgets. Everyone wants his share of the pie and getting even a week’s run without any competition is becoming a luxury in such a scenario. This is a definite flip side to the increasing number of movies being made in the industry every year. Thankfully with multiplexes burgeoning with many screens, at least such new movies can be shifted across screens in the same complex based on the demand.

Alas, one wishes that each of these movies mentioned has a good run and manages to make their own niche space in the market as they are not your run-of-the-mill movie releases. When such movies do well, the entire industry gets a push for the better. Award committees as well as box-office trade pundits would be watching these movies with a keen eye. Let’s get geared for the film fiesta that is ahead of us.