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Chris
Paranormal
It was the year 1999. I was I couldn’t wait to get home
probably the biggest A R and share the excitement with
Rahman fan in Changanach- my younger brother who too
erry at that time. Rahman had was a Rahmaniac like me. Also
composed for some 25 films I couldn’t wait to get home
idway during by then. That meant, around to tell Mommy to tell Daddy
a discussion 125-150 songs. I might have to buy me the cassette at the
listened to each of those songs
earliest. But a small problem
based on his at least a hundred times (some was there – the name of the
fabulous debut of them even a thousand, no movie was written in Tamil.
Mnovel ‘Serious
Men’, author Manu Joseph hyperbole). The entire recess was spent
talks about a paranormal trying to decode the movie’s
title. Some of the alphabets
experience in his personal There was no YouTube Music when Mani Ratnam’s ‘Bombay’
life. On the day of an or Spotify then. It was the age is written in Tamil were there
India-Pakistan cricket match, of cassettes and Walkmans.
he describes he ‘saw’ the final Then there was no social here too. Based on that, I
score in advance! He tells media buzz either. You had concluded the movie’s name
should be ‘Badayba’. Sounded
his friend what he ‘saw’ and no idea whom Rahman was weird, but it’s Rahman. What
then they proceed to watch collaborating with next or can go wrong?
the match. The match was what his upcoming movies
abandoned or truncated for were. You had to rely soley on As soon as I got home, I
some reason, but the final the newspapers. Whenever told Mommy to get me A R
scoreline was exactly what there was an impending Rahman’s ‘Badayba’ starring
Manu foresaw, right down audio cassette release of Rajinikanth, at the earliest.
to the number of wickets an upcoming A R Rahman Earlier the better. I got into an
that fell! He and his friend movie, it would appear in the animated discussion with my
exchanged stunned looks. papers along with the ads of brother soon after. Rahman
He found that experience all the other new movies that was riding a large wave at that
fascinating ever since and were going to be released time. He was coming on the
goes on to tell the listeners that week. Now, imagine my back of ‘Dil Se’, ‘Jeans’, ‘Iruvar’,
that it inspired him to cause excitement when one fine day ‘Daud’ and ‘Minsara Kanavu’.
one of his main characters to during the recess at school, Whatever he touched was
have a paranormal experience while flipping through the turning into gold. ‘Badayba’
in his novel. Well, listening to papers, I saw Rajinikanth, one or ‘Badeba’ or whatever it is,
that, I was reminded of my hand in his pocket and the is going to be a magnum opus,
own personal paranormal other raised in a triumphant I told my brother. Especial-
experience 22 years ago. salute and beside him, there ly since he was giving music
I know you will find this was the signature inset image for a Rajinikanth movie.
unbelievable. Heck, I myself of a grinning Rahman. You Rajinikanth and Kamal
find it unbelievable. But won’t be able to relate to me Hassan are biggest deals
believe it or not, here’s what or comprehend the rush I felt in Tamil Nadu, you know.
happened. unless you’re an addict. Tamizhans are crazier for
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2K1 MBBS, Trivandrum Medical College
2K1 MBBS, Trivandrum Medical College 2K1 MB BS, T ri v andrum M edical Co lleg e
