'Sivaji' in London....

Hi all,
My 'Sivaji' experience in London was a totally unforgettable one ... even better than 'chandramukhi'. I convinced evangeline to come to the movie by lying that it has got subtitles (ennadhu thala padathukku subtitlessa ... good joke! .. avaru pesaru speedukku subtitles poda mudiyadhunga). Anyways, we met in eastham with my other friends and after a nice lunch went to cineworld in Ilford. I have been going to the same theatre complex almost every week for four years .. but to be honest, i have very rarely seen such a crowd (last time was for 'dhoom 2'). When it was started, they showed it in 2 theaters in the same multiplex but seeing the crowd, they started showing in 4 screens simultaneously!! In fact, would you believe they cancelled shows of 'spiderman 3' and 'cheeni kum' to accomodate thala's fans!
We managed to get decent seats. They started with a 'vodafone' ad .. even for that people started screaming and shouting .. and i think even the theatre owners and staff were surprised by the crowd response. Evangeline was surprised (?embarassed) as well. As there were no subtitles, my job was to interpret key dialogue to evangeline .. which was very tricky .. imagine interpreting ... 'dei..panni than da kootama varum, singam thaniya than varum'. I wanted to enjoy this movie without any expectation, the only song i listened before the movie was 'balalaika'. Normally I like ARR's songs only after hearing atleast 4=5 times, but this movie was an exception. I loved all the songs the very first time itself. It was great to see my fave artist 'mama' vivek .. always on form. Great credit to thala and shankar!
Till the end of the movie, the fans never stopped, which is unheard of in any other movie in any other language with any other star. I think it was the first time in cineworld's history, they had paper rockets hitting the screen!! We left the theatre really happy and satisfied. It is worth noting that most of the audience were repeat viewers. Few highlights we liked...
1 - thala's dresses
2 - visuals and songs were awesome
3 - comedy (its been a long time since i rolled around laughing)
Will be seeing it again sometime soon...


Ranjit