Nothing hits home quite like nostalgia, and as the recent trend of re-releases has proved, it is especially the case when it comes to cinema. 20 years after it was originally released, Ghilli is back on the big screen, and a matinee show on the packed main screen at PVR Sathyam cinemas on Saturday saw a crowd of fans dance to the opening beats of ‘Soora Thenga,’ as if it was one of the several First Day First Show celebrations of actor Vijay’s films that we have witnessed over the last two decades.
A remake of the 2003 Telugu film Okkadu, Ghilli follows Velu (Vijay), a kabaddi player who bravely dares to rescue Dhanalakshmi (Trisha) from a Madurai gang leader Muthupandi (Prakash Raj). The film’s plot and narrative is as simple as it gets, and yet, audiences since 2004 have gone back to it several times in the last two decades, mostly when it got aired on television and more recently on OTT. This has only led to more excitement building in the weeks leading up to the re-release, culminating in a social media frenzy thanks to fans who shared several videos of the revelry from packed theatres. So what makes a masala fest like Ghilli one of the most re-watchable movies?
