Aurora Talkies in Mumbai has a special place in the hearts
of the city’s Tamil population. Not because of its cheap
tickets or the cheaper canteen fare ( for the price of one
ticket at PVR a small family can catch a film here and maybe
eat something, too) , but because it is the only cinema in the
city that runs full shows of Tamil films.
For the rest of the city’s population, too, Aurora is special.
That is the one where Tamils go crazy over Rajnikanth films,
right? asked a friend who was visiting from Chennai, and he
was right.
The theatre’s fame has indeed spread far and wide, thanks to
one, and only one, man. Rajinikanth. Each release of his sees
greater frenzy among his fans .
Watching a Rajnikanth - or Thalaiva, as his fans call him -
film in Aurora can only be compared to watching a Salman
Khan film in Bandra’s Gaiety-Galaxy, but multiplied 100 times
over.
This Friday saw me tick another item off my bucket list of
things to do before I die - which was to watch a Rajni film in
Aurora on the day of its release, for the ‘ experience’.
My Uber driver who dropped me off at the theatre asked me
innocently: ‘ Kya ho raha hai yahaan, sablog kyu nach rahe hain
( what’s going on here, why are people dancing on the roads ) ?’
It’s a Rajni film, I told him.
Nothing else I tell him will explain the Superstar phenomenon
to him - or to millions of Indians like him who are puzzling
over why a man pushing 70, who looks so ordinary off
screen, and who to them only means funny mannerisms and
staccato dialogue delivery - can evoke such frenzy, such
adulation, such craze across age groups, but among typically
boy-men in their late teens to mid-30s.
