Random encounters:





Best to turn to some nice sensible food pictures:




Meanwhile, preparations continue for our upcoming travels. They're dull, so I won't burden you with detail. Today is D minus 6, and there's still lots to do.

Two little stories, both from Tuesday:

The first: You know how we live on Ghost Hill Road? We've not had any strange encounters, but Nigel did have a little frisson-inducing experience that day. Standing on our laundry balcony, which faces a stand of trees, he was hanging up the washing that had just had its turn in the machine. It was a still day. Then, suddenly, there's like a Mexican wave of movement that makes its way along the wall of leaves. It still feels as though there's no breeze. But the window by the front door slams shut... Nothing, really. But a little shudder went down my back as he told me.

The second: A movie called Coolie, directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj, and starring Rajinikanth.

We've been following this Tamil megastar for ages now, and have watched his films in KL, in George Town, and in Kuching. He's a massive deal: "At a packed screening in Mumbai, patrons whistled and hollered from the moment the words 'Superstar Rajni' appeared. (Projectionists sometimes pause the film after his grand entrance to let viewers offer prayers from their seats or hurl coins and banknote.) 'This is nothing. You should go to Tamil Nadu or Karnataka,' says one fan. 'You won't be able to hear his dialogue.'" He's in his mid-seventies now, and this year marks his 50th year on screen.

Having read about this on Tuesday, we thought: We need to go. We'll go tomorrow. So Nigel fought a few rounds with the world's most obdurate cinema app, turning the air blue in the process, and finally came up with some tickets. But, whoops, they're for today... Never mind. Luckily, we've nothing else booked.

We weren't done with the farce, however. We sat down in our pre-booked seats, two spaces between us and the next punters. In came a couple, who proceeded to occupy those two spare seats. How weird, we thought, when the cinema is far from full, that everyone's scrunched up in the same corner. After a while, though, Nigel's neighbour asks politely: "Excuse me, Sir, what movie is this?" "The Rajinikanth movie," says Nigel, adding: "It's called Coolie." "Ah," says the guy, "not Demon Slayer, then?" "Nope." And so off they go...

Leaving us with RAJINIKANTH! SUPERSTAR!! This wording, accompanied by dramatic music, is the first thing that comes on the screen.

They're a cultural experience, these things. We loved the two cracking dance sequences (completely coincidental to the plot, and aimed mostly at drawing in a few more stars -- but Monica is a great song).

I'm not a huge lover of fight scenes, but it helps to think of them too as bits of choreography, in which Rajinikanth stands in the still centre of things while hosts of bad guys rush and tumble all around him, banished by the most economical of arm movements. None of it is plausible, but as one of my Tamil students once told me, you don't go to a Tamil movie looking for reality... What you're looking for is spectacle, and you get that in spades.


Our star's hair has a choreography all of its own. I'm not sure how they get it to ripple like that... The actor makes absolutely no bones about its being a wig, or about being photographed au naturel. Is this down-to-earth manner part of the reason for his popularity? "While his on-screen persona might be all about the swagger, shiny wig, flashy clothes, et al, his off-screen personality is the polar opposite in simple clothes and receding hair. In a 2010 interview with The Telegraph India, Rajinikanth spoke about why he looks his age off-screen: 'It is important to them how you look on celluloid; they’re paying for that. There they feel: my hero should look like a hero. On celluloid if you come like that they will hate it. Outside it doesn’t matter. People are intelligent, they know everything. So why unnecessarily give yourself discomfort?'" Such a refreshing change from the botoxed celebrities of Hollywood...

Don't ask me to tell you the plot... I'm still not totally clear about the identity of those guys at the close... And, personally, I could have done with fewer hammer-wielding goons rampaging around. But there were some good plot twists, it definitely kept you engaged, and I salute the non-mushy ending.

Meanwhile, let's close with something calming...