Chennai: Rajinikanth fans gave a loud welcome to their Thalaivar's new film on Thursday in Chennai even as critics and cineastes gave it a positive review. The verdict was this is more of a Ranjith film than a Rajinikanth film. While it may do very little for his political career, it may still give his long film career a new breath of life. There was good news from Karnataka too as conditions became normal by afternoon and the film was screened in mutliplexes and other screens by evening.

There were huge protests by pro-Kannada organisations against the screening of Kaala in Bengaluru but the situation improved towards Thursday afternoon. While in the morning, scores of protesters were detained by the police, around 2 pm the movie was screened in Orion Mall in Rajajinagar. By 4 pm, two shows were screened with the tickets selling like hot cakes for the 3.05 pm, show.





Meanwhile, an employee of PVR Cinemas in Orion Mall said, "In the morning, there was a huge protest by pro-Kannada organisations, now the situation is under control, so we are going ahead with the screening. Depending on the demand, we will increase the number of shows."

The Supreme Court has refused to stay the screening of the film, so too the Madras high court and an important film in Rajini's life and produced by his son-in-law Dhanush got off to a decent start after all the tension.