TheatreLove: There is a great sense of joy when your own movie plays in theatres: Kannan

The first two films I remember watching and enjoying were Nayakan and Agni Natchathiram, at Udhayam Theatre, and those films, kind of, got me hooked to cinema. Agni Natchathiram theatre-la paathadhu vera level experience. The sequence in which Karthik sir and Prabhu sir first have a face-off is still fresh in my memories. PC Sreeram sir would have used an FOG filter for the film and every scene had that glow effect… a copper-like tint.That movie was a great visual and sound treat. When I was assisting Mani sir (Mani Ratnam), I asked him how he managed to get that high-decibel sound effect in Agni Natchathiram. He told me that all recording theatres, at that point, had a fixed template for sound recording and they wouldn’t cross that limit for any film. But he wanted to experiment and told the sound engineer to break that rule. He told the engineer that he wanted a high-pitch background when the two lead characters meet. Sound engineer tension aayitaram. But Mani sir stood his ground and said that he was going to pay for it anyway, and that he wanted to try it out with one reel at least. That’s how they arrived at that thunder kind of effect for the movie, which is mindblowing when you watch it on the big screen.
I think those who’ve watched films in theatres will unanimously agree that it’s the ultimate movie-watching experience. For filmmakers like us, theatre is thaai veedu. There’s a great sense of joy when your own movie plays in theatres. That way, Udhayam Theatre has a very special place in my heart because that’s where I saw my most favourite movie and that’s also where I watched my debut film, Jayamkondaan. It was house full on Day 1, and house full on the 95th day, when I went to see the movie again!