Pongal lessons : -Pullikuthi Pandi is a game changer- Rajini is still at the top

 

Pullikuthi Pandi with Vikram Prabhu – Lakshmi Menon in the lead and directed by Muthiah is the most talked about film in social media and trade circles of Kodambakkam. With Suriya, Jeyam Ravi,Vijay Sethupathi coming with premiere films on TV, a much repeated Darbar too comes and guess what ?, It is third in TRP rating. Superstar is no pushover.

The film Pullikuthi Pandi when announced by Sun as premiere on Nxt app and Sun TV for Pongal, nobody batted an eyelid. Theater lobby did not threaten to ban Sivaji clan from films. No critic was in a hurry to  review  it on YouTube. A Vikram Prabhu with a long history of flops, a heroine who showed promise but seen nowhere and a director who is as archaic as cinema is what Pandi offered. Film had a quiet release. After the TRP meters reading comes in, it turns out that entire rural regions and parts of city was hooked to this movie. Other channels showed a huge drop in these timings.

Critics saw it on Nxt and wrote about it a polished way saying, things could have been better. Other said that last one hour made all the difference. They began to see Vikram in a new light and Lakshmi as cute. This rustic village drama is yet another typical Muthiah film with a ruffian who is a do gooder and so on. The success of Pandi on TV ,  shows  that these kind of movies still have an audience that is in the homes and not coming to the multiplexes. It is just that they have given way to the new age hamburger- coke swigging crowd.

Like OTT has opened up for films with subjects that were not considered worth screening by exhibitors, Pandi shows that the rustic subjects are still a draw and that they can still draw eyeballs. When Kadaikutty Singham ran it was said that the draw of Karthi and a huge star cast was responsible to get audience to theaters. Now the Sun TV -Sun NXt route could pave for other channels to tap it. Just like OTT gave the city centric and working couples a new outlet to see films of different genre, Pandi could signal a new avenue to reach rural folk. The basic fact for Pandi being a hit is that Sun TV is the only one that has the most reach in the rural areas of Tamil Nadu. Often when a reality show of a channel hits a high TRP  it’s daily soaps are  not able to maintain a steady TRP ould like Sun . Sometimes, a daily soap is a hit in urban pockets for a channel but a combined TRP of urban and rural of Sun pushes it out of top 5.

Pongal movies on TV list

·         Adithya Varma (KTV)

·         11:00 AM - Pattas (Sun TV)

·         1:00 PM - Mersal (Zee Thirai)

·         1:30 PM - Seeru (Zee Tamil)

·         3:00 PM - Poojai (Sun TV)

·         4:00 PM - Ka Pae Ranasingam (Zee Tamil)

·         6:00 PM - Soorarai Pottru (Sun TV)

 

When talk is about Rajini fans deserting him and going away and the scenario looked like that when Annaatthe would be  released, there would be nobody to even tie a festoon. Take the list of films that came on Pongal. Forget the OTT release and Master theater release. Much acclaimed Soorarai Pottru of Suriya and which got rave reviews after release only on OTT gets second spot after Pandi. See the irony. Director of Pandi is  Muthiah and Soorarai  Pottru director is Sudha Kongara, the most celebrated in thing happening director . Now beaten to death by Sun itself ,Darbar too comes. TRP says that boy only three movies was seen the most and guess what you have Darbar in the third spot.  Mind you, Darbar is on Amazon, Netflix too.Thalaivar is no pushover.