Sri Lanka
The Rajnikanth mania has
gripped Sri Lanka too. His blockbuster Sivaji:The
boss is on show 41 times a day in seven theatres
across the island, with all shows running to full
houses, Hindustan Times learns.
"People
forget the war and queue up for tickets at the Monohara
theatre. It's booked for a week now," said K Nathan, a
resident of Jaffna, in north Sri Lanka. The film
transports the viewer to a world of fantasy, a far cry
from the grim reality of Jaffna where disappearances and
killings carried out with impunity by unidentified
warlords are the order of the day.
The
film is running to full houses in Trincomalee in the
East and also in the plantation areas in Central Sri
Lanka, which is home to lakhs of Tamil labourers of
Indian origin.
"It's
house fill. No tickets for another week," said the
manager of Midland cinema in Nawalapitya in Central Sri
Lanka, when asked if tickets were available.
Colombo, of course, is seeing the biggest draw, because
40% of its population is Tamil-speaking, and it has four
theatres showing the film four times a day,
simultaneously. The Cine City multiplex in downtown
Maradana has 20 shows a day.
"Except
for the 10.30 am show on weekdays, all the other three
shows are booked for the next two weeks," an official of
Concorde theatre in south Colombo said.
Serpentine queues form outside the theatres hours before
a show. "Disappointed fans who fail to get tickets
extensively damage the cut outs and the police
barricades. Police were sometimes compelled to baton
charge the unruly fans," The Island daily said in a
front page story with a picture on June 19.
The
demand is so high that the Cine City management has
raised ticket prices to LKR.250 and 300, reports
Virakesari a Tamil daily with the largest circulation
in the island.
"There
is such an anxiety about getting a seat that crowds rush
into the hall even before patrons of the previous show
had filed out. All seats get refilled even before the
end of a show!" the paper reports.
"I am
eager to see the film, but it will be a month before I
can hope to get a ticket," said Tamil film buff, Minna
Ahmad.
"It
can't get bigger than this - Rajnikanth, the superstar
and style king, and Shankar the showman of Tamil cinema,
are coming together for the first time in Sivaji.
The good news is that this awesome combo is able to whip
up an entertainment extravaganza that is deliciously
good to savour," says Daily Mirror in its review.
"The
comedy in the first half is rollicking. Go for it - its
entertainment guaranteed," the reviewer urges.
http://www.hindustantimes.com
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