In a scene in his epic comedy flick Jigarthanda, filmmaker Karthik Subbaraj promises a producer about making a ‘ratham therikka therikka’ violent and mass movie. But, no one would have expected then that he will do that film with the Asian Superstar Rajinikanth in the lead.
When watching the trailer of much-awaited Petta that opened up in YouTube today, one would feel that Karthik has kept his promise and also brought back vintage Rajini to screen with all his spirit. With this, Kollywood and film freaks in town are gearing up to get Rajinified for Pongal 2019, when the movie hits the screens.
The entire 2.21 minutes of the trailer is filled with Rajinifying moments. Some even trigger nostalgia, especially when Kaali (Rajinikanth) opens a royal gate like from his first frame in Apoorva Ragangal. For the first few cuts, we just see and hear Rajini’s co-stars like Vijay Sethupathi, Bobby Simha and Ramachandran Durairaj describing Kaali. Until then, the protagonist is shown either in out-of-focus or silhouette frames. All their descriptions about Kaali convey the same context – ‘Avan Oruthan Thaan’.
Suddenly Kaali walks out of the darkness with his handlebar moustache and in the very next frame, in a different look with a dense beard, he opens the gate, probably in a hill station.
As we already know, the movie takes place in two timelines – where a Madurai don travels to this college in a hill-top hamlet and works as hostel warden for some reason. From the frames in the trailer, we can learn that Kaali is on a revenge mission who wants justice for the loss of his bestie Maalik, played by Sasikumar, and the love of his life Saro, played by Trisha. The people who caused their deaths should be in this hill station.
However, Saro is not the only girl in Kaali’s life as we see him romancing another woman character, played by Simran. It is, indeed, a return of this crush of the masses during the ’90s. With Simran’s role, we see this angry, rustic and violent ‘thani oruthan’ Kaali turning naughty. When she says if you’re uncomfortable you can close your eyes, he flirts, ‘Aiyayo nee nalla irukka’.