VISITOR COLUMN

Anbulla new generation Rajinikanth Fans,

If you think you are a Rajini fan and your standard for Rajinikanth film is Sivajii or Endhiran and if you think that Lingaa is bad, I can only feel sorry for that, you are not even as gifted as some Japanese and French people who started experiencing Rajini from Muthu and hope you u read this and understand that you are minority.

There is a revolution taking place in criticism of films because of social network. I remember the old days when we wait 1 or 2 weeks to read the reviews of films in Kumudam or Ananda Vikatan and guessing what marks they will give, even getting 45 marks from Vikatan was considered prestigious, then came the internet age and we used to get reviews in one or two days, and then the raise of social networking sites and everyone became reviewers and there exists the biggest problem.

There is nothing wrong in expressing your views about the film which might be that "you like it or hate it or its kind of average"; that kind of opinion is ok but reviewing a film is another new level.

The reviews in magazines were used to be done by a professional group not by an individual, because an individual’s opinion can be affected by expectations and personal mood swings but we all know that's not the case anymore; anyone can be reviewer of any film if they have internet and seen some French or Korean films to compare it with world cinema. And they also launch personal attacks against the director or hero of the movie they are reviewing. These reviewers are so intelligent that they will promote some films as world-class cinema just because there is no commercial scene in it and will dump Lingaa as garbage because it had some unbelievable scenes. And most of the new age fans are influenced by these reviews.

I am a Rajini fan and usually I don't care about them because it’s been always your choice to read those or not; I did that for Sivaji, Endhiran and for Lingaa too. I always have my judgment and check some authentic sites for reviews only after seeing the film or if I have a dilemma to watch a film, then I read a letter by a so-called Rajinikanth fan in which he says that Lingaa is bad and he hope that Rajini will come back. I was surprised to see that a Rajini fan can say that because I know for ardent Rajini fans it’s kind of comeback film for him after Padayappa.

Then I kind of understand that he probably became Rajini fan after seeing Sivaji, Endhiran and what I would call new age Rajini fans who don't realize that they are actually more of Shankar fans than Rajini fans and I am sure that they never experienced the magic of Rajini in theatre before Sivaji and sorry guys Lingaa was never intended for you.

I am one of the Rajini fans (also as a Shankar fan) who were disappointed to see Sivaji for the first time because it was neither a Rajini film nor a Shankar film; it’s kind of half-baked but making and dialogues were awesome and gathered new age fans for Rajini and we were just happy about that.

Then came Endhiran. I just loved it's an out-and-out Shankar film (I was expecting it to be) and Rajini took it to a whole new level and still sure this too never was a Rajini film and sure Rajini fans would have satisfied by that and I will leave Kochadaiyaan out of the equation (it's a good film nevertheless).

Leave the fans, I am sure even Rajinikanth would not have been personally satisfied with that film and after his health issues he wanted to give a film that his fans were waiting for and story of Lingaa was perfect for that who other than K.S. Ravikumar to execute that and bang we got Lingaa a perfect Rajinikanth film completely satisfying his fans, women, children and moreover the THALAIVAR himself.

The only disappointment we had was that rocking Rajini background score was missing (may be Rahman was busy with other things) which let down some mass scenes. And to the new age fans, I perfectly understand why you didn't like Lingaa; it’s because you didn't get what you expected, hope you will be satisfied with "I" else you should wait for another Shankar-Rajini outing.