Film reviewer S Saraswathi was disappointed as the screenings of Kamal Haasan's Uttama Villain were cancelled at the last minute due to some financial problems between the producers and financiers.
I reached the jam-packed theatre and rushed through the crowds, not wanting to miss the opening scene of Kamal Haasan’s Uttama Villain. I arrived panting and sweating only to find the watchman blocking the way, even after showing him the ticket. He was trying to simultaneously communicate to over a dozen people, all trying to enter the theatre through the small glass door.
It took me a while, but I finally understood that the show had been cancelled. The theatre helpfully agreed to refund the money or get it exchanged for Vai Raja Vai, the Aishwarya Dhanush movie, which also released today. Since the theatre was supposed to have back-to-back shows of Uttama Villain starting from 7 in the morning to 11:55 at night, the crowd was increasing by the minute.
There was anger, with confused fans not understanding what was happening. The harassed, but polite, youngsters at the ticket counter repeated that only the morning shows were cancelled and they had no intimation about the later shows. It was not to be.
The shows were allegedly cancelled due to financial issues between the producers and financiers.
"Why does this always happen to a Kamal Haasan film?", cried out an angry fan. His friends and several others joined in protest. Several of them blamed the VHP, who they believed was responsible for all this confusion.
Many of the hardcore Kamal fans insisted they would not go back without watching the film. "We will wait here till they release the film", they said.
There were several families with children. One family who stood near me was quarrelling. The wife grumbled to her husband, ‘I told you we should have relaxed at home. The one holiday I get and you had to drag me to the theatre waking up the cranky children, preparing breakfast and rushing out to this theatre 20 kilometres away from the city. And all for nothing’. The husband had nothing to say, but the children seemed excited with all the chaos around them arguing whether they will get to eat ice cream or popcorn.
A majority of the people who had come for the first day first show of the film grudgingly chose to watch Aishwarya’s film. After all, they had travelled far out of the city in the morning.
The management had just delayed the Vai Raja Vai show by 15 minutes and with no change in the screen or seat numbers, they let everyone in. The theatre was quite empty initially, but slowly started filling in with the undecided Kamal fans choosing to watch Vai Raja Vai.
Disappointed, angry and frustrated, the crowds eventually settled down.
Unfortunately the film turned out to be an ordinary fare and ended up agitating the Kamal fans even more.
The only person smiling today would probably be Aishwarya Dhanush. The theatre that was supposed to screen just 5 shows of her film was now screening over 50.
