After a long number of days, especially on a weekend, people finally decided to switch to some other channel that did not have a big house and some irritated inmates. Though Zee bagged the satellite rights for Mersal, Sun TV live telecasted the film’s audio launch Sunday evening.
And man, this audio launch made many people feel many things, from giving reaffirmation on the crazy fan following that Ilayathalapathy has to the fact that a live telecast can not be right no matter how hard one tries.
Timing and engagement matters in a live, right? Audience’s reaction is captured instantly and nothing can go wrong. However, for Mersal, though it had the amazing crew and cast a film can ever have, the audio launch did not go right. No, we are not talking about the lengthy, wrong-almost-all-the-time recital of Vijay’s films by an individual, or about the ‘somewhat okay singing’ of the young boy.
The brilliance that is Parthiban
The show was going well until Parthiban stepped in. In addition, they decided to have him at the beginning of the show, what were they thinking? It was an audio launch, but somehow Parthiban misunderstood it and started making puns about Donald Trump tweeting. For some reason, everyone but Vijay thinks he is going to enter politics. Of course, Parthiban brought this out with his CM pun.
It is Collection Mannar he explains, which apparently Trump will tweet about calling Vijay the best CM the state has ever had. (See that? CM- Chief Minister, Collection Mannar). If all this was not enough, he repeated everything twice because of the crazy fans who had to shout every time he said Ilayathalapathy, I think after a point of time it was done only to frustrate him. Anyway, he was then interrupted by Dhanush’s arrival, followed by Vijay’s parents, and since it was live, they could do nothing but telecast it all.
Never ever important
This might seem like a usual point, but just because something wrong goes on repeatedly, it does not become right. Mersal has three gorgeous and talented female leads. Kajal, Samantha, and Nithya each have their own success stories and have made a mark in the industry.
Somehow, in Mersal’s audio launch, they became invisible and in those small moments when they did become visible, they were addressed as nothing but extra treats in the movie. It was as though they are useful only because they look pretty. It was Kajal’s 50th film, but no one took an interest. Kajal and Sam looked like the kids who try hard to be noticeable in a gang of bigger children, but no one ever cared.
When Audio launch turned into Story discussion
Of all things that went bad in Mersal’s Audio launch, this is something that everyone will agree with, for sure. So, the Audio Launch had a theme running yesterday. “Talk about anything but the audio” nice, isn’t? Everyone followed this, even Samantha. For some reason, they decided to tell us the story of the movie in the audio launch. Even Game of Thrones had fewer spoilers this season than Mersal.
We now know that there are three Vijay’s to look for, that he plays a magician. There are 1970’s flashback portion and a special magic workshop sequence. One of the major selling points in Theri was that we had no idea about the story. The first look made us think that there is Vijay in double-action, which turned out differently. I was personally so looking forward to the surprises in store, but thanks to the audio launch, I now know about a fight sequence in detail.
Sanjeev and Ramya
Hosting is a difficult job, hosting a live show is even more difficult. But given the responsibility shouldn’t they be doing a good job? It is in the hands of the host as to how the show runs. Though Sanjeev and Ramya are good hosts, they got a place in this list after yesterday. From mediocre researching to ‘not so great’ questioning, they did everything. They did not know that not only Samantha but also Kajal has teamed with Vijay for the third time.
It was not just the audience but the hosts also seemed to forget that this is an audio launch. It was obvious when Ramya asked A.R.R what he felt about Vijay’s 25th year and he chose not to answer but made her reframe the question.
Though the audio launch had all these mishaps, we did get good things like the A.R.R live performance and Vijay’s astounding speech. And we are thankful!