The Boss… Ulle Po*

Well.. its pretty late in the night (3:00AM) for me to be writing a blog. Those who know me, know that I love my sleep. And sleepless nights are usually a by-product of “falling” in love. Yes. I fell in love today. With the B-to-the-A-to-the-B-to-A (Known is a drop, unknown is an ocean) – BABA… Thalaivar… Dalpati… Sivaji… The Boss.. Rajni… yet again.. today!

Every time I have watched or discussed Gunda in the recent times, I have felt a certain emptiness in modern Indian cinema. Can any other movie really touch the standards set by movies such as Gunda? Or, can any other star beat the imagination with such consummate ease as Mithunda [ These links are proof that I don’t find too many people apart from GreatBong doing justice to Mithunda’s histrionics] . Lo and behold… The Boss is here!

Now, the experience of watching the movie was a great one! Just like the movie. We landed at G-7 in bandra (galaxy, gaiety, gem etc etc) only to realize that the movie did not do too well and was taken off the screen. Shootout at Lokhandwala got the better of Sivaji at Bandra. Pity! What a loser crowd!! But Juhu, the suburb of the rich and the famous, stars, starlets and wanna be stars, was still running the movie. We had about 90 minutes to go. Religiously, we decided to celebrate our team outing at PVR Juhu’s late night show with the Boss. The night started off well. Not much traffic. No sign of the forecasted heavy rains either (having heard the prediction from Met deptt., we were anyway quite sure of their being not much of rain problem). No problems in getting the tickets of the biggest blockbuster of recent times. A nice bit of Pasta and Sandwiches at Brio (they are quite delectable). And oh yes! The star attraction – Sonali Bendre! at Brio, first.. and in the theater later. Ever since I started at Diamond/Mumbai, I have been hoping to catch a glimpse of beautiful people like Madhuri Dixit, Sonali Bendre, Aishwarya Rai, etc etc. Aishwarya from up close was quite disappointing. And so is Sonali. She looked quite old and frail! Though I still maintain that she is gorgeous! Its just that I had higher expectations!

With Sonali in tow (how I wish!), we landed at PVR and watched 2 interesting trailers – first was of Gandhi, My Father! And second was of Sultan – Hooaa Haaa haaaa… The potential Rajni blockbuster of 2008. Though I read that its an animation movie directed by Rajni’s daughter Soundarya. That said, I have already marked these two movies on my planner!

Back to the movie – The movie was exactly what I/we had expected. No subtitles meant that we could enjoy the movie to the fullest. No distractions of having to understand the (non-existent) storyline, dialogues with higher morals, and romance of unimaginable proportions. For me, the movie was about 3 things – Rajni, fight sequences, and songs. And it was totally worth the time and money. Fulltoo mindless entertainment.

Rajni – rocks! Thalaivar is God. Right from the chewing gum trick (even though I don’t agree with the hygienic aspect of bouncing the gum off any damn surface (including the villain’s face) for popping it in) to the coin flip (in comparison, the coin trick of Le Chiffre in Casino Royale looked petty) to the climax sunglass flip from front to back and back to front. The movie has style written all over it.

Fight sequences – mind-blowing! Fight at the music store (the first sequence) was exciting, but as the movie unfolded the Rajni brand of action sequences, I realized that first sequence was just the first layer of the onion being peeled. Well, onions are quite troublesome with their smell and sting. No such problems with the sequences. Nothing to think about. Sit back.. and relax. Let The Boss take over- the control of your senses, gravity, aerodynamics, and what have you! The fight sequence in the middle of the movie (at a farmhouse kinda place) and towards the end are just too good. True passion. You can be anything! There are some things human beings cannot do. For everything else, there is Thalaivar. Epitome – In an imaginary song sequence, the gun is used as a boomerang. Just that it kinda holds its own once it spots the villain, shoots him down, and goes back to the Boss! And people hate me for watching too much of Naruto!

Songs- they definitely deserve a mention. I have never been proud of the perfectly illogical way songs are inserted in Indian movies. But this movie lets you explore the avenues you can only dream of. Come to think of it, how many people do you know who can sing and dance around a tree to patao a girl? Not even one I guess! Songs are nothing but an imaginary and artistic way of expressing your deepest emotions (including lust). This movie lets this spirit soar. None of the songs have anything to do with reality. Its all about imagination and creative expression. The girl switches between multiple avatars (long-choti thoroughbred, deeply immersed in Tamil culture, traditional girl, the straight out of Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayana princess with lots of jewellery and princessly clothes, tomboy cuts, mini skirts, etc etc.) and dances all that she wants. Rajni dresses up as a warrior, king, with a blond wig, with tonnes of lipstick (wonder what kinda fantasy is that), in multicolored suits, five packs of facial powder to look fair (with due credits to fair and lovely). They move between modern India, western world, historical places, palaces, with such ease that you wonder whether their desire to showcase their wardrobe is higher, or the director’s access to these locations too inexpensive. Every song is unpredictable, expensively and expansively shot, giving Rajni a good shot at a girl (probably his daughter’s age)

I tell you people. You must watch the movie. Don’t take a tamil knowing friend along. They will spoil the fun in their enthusiasm by explaining everything. There is no need to understand anything.

Final verdict – Even though Gunda had a much better poetic appeal (Humara naam hai Potey, jo apne baap ke bhee nahi hotey kinds), Sivaji has style! I leave it to your sensibilities.

* Ulle Po is the famous dialogue from Baasha!