Pongal’s Laddu makes 'Biryani' cautious

Before going to the writeup-part of this, I simply have to point a fact out about the title of this article – it has three dishes – Pongal, Laddu and Biryani!

Now, read on…

The poster of 'Alex Pandian'

The mere recovering of costs and making a decent profit does not make the film a blockbuster success or even a ‘big hit’. It requires something more. The victory at the box office has to be a very clear one with no elements of doubts. The film is a bigger hit if all the other films released that season fails. It removes the doubt factor. The hero has to be the reason why the audience came to the theatre to watch the film (and not because of excellent music or comedy).

The problem with ‘Alex Pandian’ was that within a few shows, crowds began to flock to KLTA. So, even if it recovers its costs and posts a decent profit, it is going to be very difficult to count this film as one of Karthi’s big hits.

So, what went wrong with the film? The usual factors, actually.

·         The Rajnikanth factor – Probably Dhanush and Ajith are the only actors who have had success at the box office with films named after a Rajni-starrer or a character played by the Superstar (Ajith failed when he starred in the sequel to ‘Billa’, but that was due to chronically bad direction and script). The safest bet is to stay away from those titles.

Rajni’s Alex Pandian is easily one of the most unforgettable characters that Tamil cinema had ever seen. Was the risk worth taking?

The Rajni factor is also one of the reasons why a lot of curiosity was created about ‘Kannaa Laddu Thinna Aasaiya’. How often do you have an actor who shoots his mouth claiming that the Superstar is his real competition? That was a brilliant publicity stunt and luckily KLTA got away with it.

Moviecrow’s box office report of Pongal releases in the US sums it up best. Remove the common Santhanam factor from both these films and the competition was between Karthi and Dr Srinivasan (I’m a fan of Pawan Kalyan and it irks me to call Srinivasan as Power Star, so I’m refraining from using the tag).

·         Excessive hype: I’m more and more convinced that the easiest way to ensure perfect failure for a film at the box office is to talk non-stop about it.

·         Choice of heroine – Anushka looks fabulous, gorgeous and very attractive in a wholesome way. But how comfortable is the audience going to feel about watching Karthi romance the heroine, who was, only a few months ago, perfectly romanced by his elder sibling Suriya in a blockbuster hit?

Karthi’s next film is going to be ‘Biryani’, with director Venkat Prabhu.

Now Venkat Prabhu is a filmmaker with a perfect record at the box office. What does anyone know about ‘Biryani’ other than the title and the names of the lead actors? Nothing much at all.

Smart move indeed.