Photographs by Dani Charles
While most Audio Launches are film promotion events where the lead actor hogs the limelight, the Rekka Audio Launch was different in that it was the star’s fans who stole the show. Vijay Sethupathi had to stop talking as the fans kept interrupting him!
The event started with the screening of the trailer and two songs from the film. The trailer was proof that this was going to be Vijay Sethupathi’s most commercial film so far with a lot of action, powerful dialogues and crowd pleasing ‘mass’ scenes.
The song Virru Virru had a very familiar feel to it. It felt like a reprised version of the Theradi Veedhiyil song from Run. The tune sounded similar; the visuals had the same small town locations with hundreds of dhavani-clad women eyeing Vijay Sethupathi. And of course, just like Madhavan, Vijay Sethupathi struggles with his dance moves. But to his credit, he seems to be struggling a lot less than he used to.
The second song screened features Kanna Kaatu Podhum featuring the lead pair. Again, a ‘foreign dream sequence’ is a first for Vijay Sethu. Shot in the picturesque Krabi Islands, he has Lakshmi Menon dancing and twirling around him while he merely glances at her as he coolly walks away.
The whole crew of the film – including about twenty from the direction department alone – was called onto the stage, to be felicitated. All the technicians, starting from the assistant cameramen, editors, make-up and costume executives to line producers, were invited onto the stage by the producers. Producer Ganesh thanked Vijay Sethupathi for Rekka, which he said was like Vijay’s way of compensating for the producer’s previous venture Orange Mittai‘s loss.
K S Ravikumar, who is busier as an actor these days than as a director, said that he admires Vijay Sethupathi for his originality and for not having traces of any other actor in him. He also appreciated his hard work in reaching this level of success.
Actor Satish, who provides the laughs in films, did his job at the event too – by taking a dig at the director. “Rathnasiva has a unique way of narrating every scene, he adds sound effects too. He makes sounds of punches during fight sequences, and even mimics the sound of vehicles in the scene,” he said. He even teased Vijay Sethupathi for being popular among the heroines and added that the actor should do ‘massy’ roles like the one in Rekka. “I watched Aandavan Kattalai yesterday. The film has no stunts whatsoever. But even in the scene where Vijay kicks a few vessels at his home made the audience cheer,” he said.
Vijay Sethupathi was welcomed on the stage with two giant flower garlands. He seemed visibly flustered at this gesture by the producer and a group of his fans. The crowd erupted when he took the stage and the cheer didn’t seem to stop, and in response, Vijay said “semayya iruku” which provoked another minute of cheering. They kept interrupting him during his speech and he had to say “dai, yen da, oru flow la pesaren la”. He thanked all the actors and his ‘machi’, Ganesh, the producer. By the time he could get to Lakshmi Menon, the crowd got the better of him and he quit talking. The audio of the film was released with Virru Virru playing in the background, and we could see Vijay Sethupathi singing along.
