On a normal hartal day, Keralites would have stayed home, with no desire to venture out, unless absolutely necessary. But Friday’s hartal called by the Bharatiya Janata Party was defied even before it started, and hundreds were on the roads from 4.30 am in the morning. This because actor Mohanlal’s much awaited movie Odiyan had hit the screens on Friday. Though many other shows of the movie were cancelled, fans defied the hartal and queued up for the early morning and morning shows reserved for them.
Meanwhile, the BJP’s Facebook page saw massive trolling by the fans groups. A picture uploaded by the BJP on Thursday night of Venugopalan Nair, the man who set himself on fire at the BJP protest venue in front of the Kerala secretariat has got 23,000 comments so far. Normally, a post by BJP would automatically see comments by CPI (M) or Congress loyalists, but this time it was hundreds of outraged Mohanlal fans who were trolling the party for calling a hartal on the day of the big budget movie's release.
One comment by a fan said: “Coconut will fall on your head. If anything happens to Odiyan release, we will not forgive you.”
Another claimed he was a BJP worker and said, “I am a BJP member and a Mohanlal fan. If the hartal prevents me from watching Lalettan’s movie. Just see what will happen.”
Many issued challenges to the BJP. A comment said,”This hartal can be defeated easily if cinema lovers of Kerala unite.”
A Mammootty fan also pledged his support. “Ikka fans are with Lalettan fans. This is a conspiracy against the movie, we will unite against it.”
But as is usual during trolling by fans of male superstars in Kerala, there was a lot of abuse too. As fans kept venting, there were many others who came to give serious feedback to the BJP. One man said, “I have sympathies for Venugopalan Nair’s family. But what is this hartal for? How many times have you all called for a hartal recently? It seems the party leadership has decided to gain people’s wrath.”
Raju Nair, a Congressman who also heads the movement called ‘Say No To Hartal’ and opposes hartals by all parties including his own, wrote on BJP’s Facebook post, “The BJP is trying to create a riot in Kerala. The BJP’s call for a hartal exploiting a drastic decision made by a man is just not acceptable. People should defeat this hartal.”
Odiyan will mark the directorial debut of ad filmmaker VA Shreekumar Menon and has Mohanlal and Manju Warrier playing the leads. The rest of the star cast include Prakash Raj, Innocent, Siddique, Manoj Joshi, Nandhu, Narain, Kailash, Sreejaya Nair, Sana Althaf and Appani Sarath. The film is scripted by the National Award winner K Hari Krishnan.
The movie made at a mammoth budget is being simultaneously released in more than 3,500 theatres and a lot of business would depend on the collections that the movie makes the first day.