Rajnikanth whose fans refer to him as God, is back with a bang in his new film Kabali, an action-packed gangster drama, which opened on Friday.
Kabali has all the elements you’re looking for: heroics, smoking guns, bloody fight series, Malay and Tamil hip hop and rap music, lots of Tamil local arrogance and romance. It also has the angry superstar carrying cliché in his trademark sarcastic style.
Appearing with a grey beard, Rajinikanth plays Kabali, a rubber agricultural estate worker who walks out of jail in Malaysia after a 25-year. He then fights against a group of mobsters who put him in prison in the first place.
The movie made $30m (£20m) in film rights sales before the movie was even released.
The film is being shown on more than 12,000 screens in India alone from Friday. The term “smash hit” doesn’t even come close. Watching a Rajinikanth film is another experience. Only he can light cigarettes with his pistol, catches grenades with his eyes closed, leaps to impracticable heights and knocks out rooms full of bad guys in mere seconds. His crazy fans cheer, clap, whistle and stomp their feet every time he comes on-screen.
Kabali is being released in a number of countries including Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the US, France and Japan, where tickets are said to be selling out fast.
Let me mention how his fans are showing their love to Rajnikanth:
People are repainting their vehicles in Kabali body paint:
Sports cars, buses and even India’s omnipresent rickshaws are driving down the streets with Kabali poster decorated all over them.
A jet has been repainted with Kabali graphics:
airline Air Asia started a special Kabali flight from Bangalore to Chennai, offering Rajinikanth’s favourite food. The special flight carried 180 Rajinikanth fans to watch the film.
Employers in south India have declared Friday a holiday:
In Chennai and Bangalore, some offices have declared a holiday on Friday and given their employees free tickets for the film.
Fans are crossing countries to watch the film:
A group of Japanese fans have flown all the way to Chennai to catch the first day first show of the movie.
This is just insane. People are actually crazy after this Superstar. Actresses are dying to work with him. And look how crazy his fans are after him. They are willing to do anything possible. Even when once Rajnikanth was ill and had serious consequences, one of his fans attempted to overdose on sleeping pills and later told doctors that he had been trying to end his life and bestow his kidneys to the actor.
