Spadikam's massive opening is a referendum on Mohanlal's stardom

The re-release of Malayalam superstar Mohanlal's old blockbuster Spadikam on Thursday opened to packed houses in Kerala. The film first came out in March 1995. And it instantly became one of the biggest commercial hits in Mohanlal's career at the time. 

The digitally spruced-up version of Spadikam was received by the fans at the box office amid a lot of celebrations. The videos of fans celebrating the movie inside the theatres have surfaced online. The videos show fans dancing to the opening song sequence which features Mohanlal and late movie icon 'Silk' Smitha.  

Spadikam was written and directed by Bhadran, who also supervised the movie's 4K conversation. The movie tells the tale of Thomas Chacko alias Aadu Thoma, wonderfully played by Mohanlal. The main drama of the movie stems from the never-ending conflict between Aadu Thoma and his father C. P. Chacko, a character that was made memorable by the terrific performance by Thilakan. Chacko's bad parenting skills change the fate of Aadu Thoma, who becomes a notorious rowdy, instead of achieving success in academics. And Aadu Thoma makes it his life's mission to never give his unsympathetic father a moment of peace. 

Spadikam is replete with several quotable one-liners. And one of the idiosyncrasies that made Aadu Thoma such an iconic character in Malayalam cinema is his habit of using his mundu as a weapon in street fights. 

“In the history of Malayalam cinema, there was never a cult character like Aadu Thoma. Kottayam Kunjachan (another iconic character in Malayalam cinema) doesn’t come close to this man. Aadu Thoma has a macho presence, to boost his power, he drinks goat milk and then fights. Kottayam Kunjachan doesn’t do any of that. He just wears a Ray-Ban and a shirt. The moment Aadu Thoma gets angry, he takes off his dhoti," Bhadran told OTTplay earlier. 

It's said that the remastered version of Spadikam is over 8 minutes longer than the original version. The movie stars Urvashi, Ashokan, K. P. A. C. Lalitha, and Nedumudi Venu among other iconic actors. 

The grand opening for Spadikam shows Mohanlal's undying popularity among the masses. The last couple of years may have been full of bad decisions and regrets in Mohanlal's career. But he seems to have built a strong base to ensure his stardom won't suffer irreversible damage caused by a few of his recent bad movies. 

His last film Alone was dead on arrival at the box office. The film was unanimously panned by critics and fans alike. And it failed to make his presence felt at the box office. 

Mohanlal is now busy shooting for director Lijo Jose Pellissery's Malaikottai Valiban and Nelson's Jailer, starrring Superstar Rajinikanth in the lead.