‘Vaaranam Aayiram’ to ‘3’: Theatres turn into concerts as the re-release trend grips Tamil cinema
As a series of re-releases emerge in theatres in Tamil Nadu, theatre owners and industry sources tell us what this means to Tamil cinema and its audience who are celebrating this fascinating micro trend
(Originally published in The Hindu on February 13, 2024; written along with Ms. Sangita Rajan)
A dimly-lit theatre suddenly drowned in light revealed hundreds of fans crowding the aisles. Chatter and hooting reverberated through the hall as the film paused, only to replay a song that had just made the audience sing and dance in the dark. With the lights on, you could see it all — phones recording the unruly audience, friends dancing in nostalgia, women singing at the top of their lungs, a coy couple making eyes at each other. A celebration ensued.
‘Ava Enna’ (popularly known as ‘Anjala’) from actor Suriya’s 2008 film Vaaranam Aayiram, a kuththu song about a heartbroken man singing out of remorse and despair, had made audiences move their feet. The weight of the plot point faded away for a brief moment, as people celebrated their memories.
“Back when we made ‘Anjala,’ we did feel that this was the kind of song that would make people dance,” says director Gautham Vasudev Menon, whose Vaaranam Aayiram re-released recently to much fanfare in Tamil Nadu, along with its Telugu dubbed version Surya S/O Krishnan in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. “Harris (composer Harris Jayaraj) was intrigued with the descriptions of how I wanted the song to be — I wanted a folksy beat; the saavu melam one to be precise. I am happy that we tried to do something different and that it has worked,” he adds.
Vaaranam Aayiram is one among the many other Tamil films — like 3,Aalavandhan, Muthu, Baba, Siva Manasula Sakthi, Vallavan, Minnale, Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa, and Vettaiyaadu Vilayaadu — that saw a re-release in theatres in the last one year. Four of these are directed by Gautham, and he is elated that audiences are choosing to re-live his films more than 15 years after they were released. “One day, I got a call from someone who asked me to arrange some tickets for them. This was just days before the release of Leo, in which I acted, and so I assumed they were talking about Leo, but it turned out they wanted tickets for….
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