Lungi’s hour of glory!!!

Datuk Shahrukh sensed southern spice (Masala) sells and intends to stay stuck even though a kkkkkiran Khan in Dar sounded and looked much better than ‘indha madhiri appon irrupanna’ at the climax in Chennai Express.

King Khan looked more like King Kong in this one. Doesn’t matter with the ancestral looks, Khan ended up laughing, laughing at us all the way, to the coffers.

I know enough has been written about Chennai Express over the last few weeks and I might be the last one on the block. However, I felt I should offer my 2 cents too on the blogosphere, where else will I rant about my contribution to the 250 odd crores that found its way to his kitty.

This blog is not a review of Chennai Express but just focusses on the USP of this movie the Lungi dance and the positioning of lungi that contributed to the success. The bored economists having nothing much to write about since the Indian rupee had turned a chronic alcoholic, hitting a new high every day, started to analyse the impact of this movie on the business of lungi’s bottom line, just that the bottom line needs to be always up literally, if the lungi needs to be in the limelight.

The humble lungi a rectangular piece of cloth, all of 2 M X 1.15 M that covers the modesty of a man and much more, was an inseparable piece of cloth that doubled and tripled as a single bedspread and as an aerator, during the torrid Madras summers and as a comforter during the mild Madras winters, or even as a shade during mild drizzles. We did not need quilts for the winter all we needed was our unassuming lungis that looked like Scottish Kilts when we wore it all folded up with pride especially if it had Madras checks as its design. I remember during my growing up years when all of my cousins or a group of friends had a today’s equivalent of a sleepover we used to wake up in lungis that did not belong to us and were not the ones that we went to sleep in. Thankfully some sensible soul (looks like I’m on a ‘S’ trip since I started writing this) managed to invent the version of the lungi where its ends were stitched together which transformed a 2 dimensional rectangular piece of cloth to a 3 dimensional cylindrical structure that could save you from many an embarrassments the morning after when the unbridled end went astray.

The lungi was to the South Indian what denim was to the cowboys of the Wild West. Sad that Microsoft prompted me to use the upper case for W for wild and west when I typed them together and not for the S and I of South Indian. Sadly my friends, the lungi are a minority.

Now to the lungi dance in Chennai Express. Having a song in Hindi punctuated with Thalaivar, Rajini fans and the likes is a sure recipe for success at least in box offices down south. I will just take a couple of verses from the song and analyse it. Here it goes….

‘Moochhon ko thoda round ghumake
Anna ke jaisa chashma lagake
Coconut me lassi milake’

Moochon…give me a break Khan or the Khans haven’t seen anything growing below their nose, rather immediately below their nose for ages and ‘Anna ke jaisa chashma lagake’ was a failed attempt by King Khan.
‘Coconut me lassi milake’ can only come from a someone called Yo Yo Honey Singh who happens to write the lyrics and score music for this song.

‘All the Rajini fans - Thalaivar
Don't miss the chance - Thalaivar
All the Rajini fans - Thalaivar
Don't miss the chance - Do This!
Lungi dance, lungi dance...’

This was the USP of the movie.
Now coming to the most controversial part.

‘Lungi ko uthana padega
Step karke dikhana padega’
‘All the Rajini fans - Thalaivar
Don't miss the chance - Thalaivar
All the Rajini fans - Thalaivar
Don't miss the chance - Do This’

This is what I call the “Choli ke peeche Kya hai” equivalent of a song. I remember the calls to ban the song when it was released. Now read the above lyrics in conjunction with the chorus. This should have been banned in my opinion. Why should the Rajini fans want to see what’s down under.

At the end of the day, I'm happy that the Lungi was endorsed and adorned by SRK and the pretty Padukone. It will certainly go a long way in catapulting the lungi to the cat walks. Imagine the Khans, Padukones, and the Kapoors walking the ramp in lungis designed by the Manish Malhotras, the Satya Pauls and the Sabyasachis. Hopefully they in turn lead to the Versace’s, the Calvin Klein’s and Dolce & Gabbana’s launching lungis as their fashion statement of the season.