In Sri Lanka, popular South Indian hero“Superstar”aka Rajinikanth’s comeback movie, “Jailer, directed by Nelson Dilip Kumar, was released on 10th August 2023 to excited audiences and a full house in most major cinemas in Colombo and islandwide. The maiden show in Colombo was screened at 6 am in the luxury cinema multiplex, PVR Lanka, located inside the popular shopping mall,”One Galle Face”. While Rajinikanth is loved by all in Sri Lanka, the Tamil community were eagerly awaiting the release of Jailer and had made advanced bookings for the movie with much enthusiasm. The craze for Rajinikanth movies amongst the Tamil language cinema goers is phenomenal and is cause for celebration bringing much excitement and happiness into their lives.
Rajnikanth’s Jailer is being screened by all major cinemas in Sri Lanka including Ceylon Theatres: Majestic Cineplex Colombo; Regal Cinema Dematagoda; Regal Cinema Gampaha; Regal Cinema Nuwara Eliya; Regal Cinema Jaffna; and Regal Cinema Katubedde and also by the Indian owned PVR Lanka Cinemas at One Galle Face Mall Colombo. The Scope Cinemas chain is also screening Jailer at the Scope Cinemas Multiplex – Colombo City Centre, Liberty By Scope Cinemas – Colombo
3 and Liberty By Scope Cinemas – Kiribathgoda. EAP Films & Theatres, a popular cinema chain has opened to full house at their cinema halls at Savoy 3D Dolby ATMOS – Wellawatte, Savoy Premiere (Roxy Cinema) – Wellawatte,Savoy Premier Rajagiriya – Rajagiriya, Concord Dehiwala, Samantha 2D – Dematagoda, Cinemax 3D – Jaela, Savoy Metro Gampaha – Gampaha, and at Savoy Metro Maharagama – Maharagama. The success of the movie in Colombo can be seen by the massive crowds of Superstar fans lining up to witness their hero in action.
Directed by Nelson, ‘Jailer’, is a 2 hour 48 minute movie starring Rajinikanth in the lead role with Vinayakan, Tamannaah, Shivrajkumar, Mohanlal, Yogi Babu, Sunil, and Jackie Shroff amongst others in supporting roles. The story revolves around retired jailer Muthuvel Pandiyan (Rajinikanth) who goes on a bloodthirsty manhunt to find his son’s (Vasanth Ravi) murderers. But the road takes him on a familiar, somewhat darker path. The end climax will leave viewers shocked. The movie is packed with action, humour and violent scenes, and movie goers in Sri Lankan cinemas applause the Superstar’s grand entries with much excitement! Rajinikanth delivers a powerful performance as expected – playing to perfection the role of a ‘retired’ husband and grandpa, while the younger ‘Pandiyan’, with the ‘Superstar style’ and the famous laughter brings back memories of Rajinikanth from his heyday.
The megastar of the South Indian cinema industry is undoubtedly Rajinikanth. He is the most renowned and successful South Indian actor in history. Shivaji Rao Gaekwad popularly known as “Rajinikanth” has been ruling the Tamil film industry for the past four decades. Born on December 12th, 1950 (age 72 years), Bengaluru, Mysore State (now Karnataka), India, Rajinikanth was brought up speaking Marathi and Kannada. He learnt Tamil while pursuing a diploma in acting from the Madras Film Institute. The actor has done more than 170 films that includes films in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali, and Malayalam. Rajinikanth considered his idol and inspiration, the Bollywood megastar, Amitabh Bachchan and because of this, he acted in Tamil remakes of Amitabh Bachchan films, such as ”Amar Akbar Anthony” and “Don”. “Bairavi”, directed by M.Bhaskar, was the first Tamil film in 1978 to cast Rajinikanth as a solo hero. It was for this film that he earned the sobriquet “Superstar. Many younger film goers will recall Superstar as “Chitti”, the humanoid robot, in “Robot” made in 2010 starring opposite Aishwarya Rai and its sequel “2.0” starring opposite Bollywood actor, Akshay Kumar. The Superstar’s image was reinvented with the Chitti avatar.
Rajinikanth’s massive popularity locally can be clearly seen as he was recently invited by Sri Lanka to explore the newly-arranged ‘Ramayana Trail’ that is exclusive to the island and also other unique Buddhist sites in Sri Lanka. The Deputy High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to India, Dr. D. Venkateshwaran, invited Rajinikanth to visit Sri Lanka “as his presence will enhance cinema induced tourism as well as spiritual and wellness tourism”. The Deputy High Commissioner of Sri Lanka met the Padma Bhushan ‘Superstar’ Rajinikanth, at his residence on 29 May 2023. The DHC stated : “As an iconic personality, Mr. Rajinikanth’s charisma will enrich historical relations and reinforce the bridge between the destinations.” Whatever the Superstar does is eagerly followed by his fans in Sri Lanka and worldwide, and the local crowds rushing to watch their celluloid “God“ in the action packed thriller “Jailer”, will not be decreasing any time soon in Colombo as Superstar fever rages on!
ARTICLE BY NELUM BUDDHADASA