Reliving the magic of the 80s South Cinema

Bollywood’s evergreen hit track ‘Kya umar thi, kya zamana tha’ summarised the sixth reunion party of actors from the 80s in Chennai over the weekend. This year, the guests included Bollywood actors Jackie Shroff, Poonam Dhillon and Swapna.

Chiranjeevi, Venkatesh, Jayasudha, Suman, Naresh, Bhanuchander and Ramya Krishnan among others represented the Tollywood contingent. Stars from the southern industry including Mohan Lal, Bhagyaraj, Satyaraj, Prabhu, Mohan, Sarath Kumar, Prathap Pothen, Jairam, Rehman, Rajkumar, Suhasini, Radha, Radhika, Menaka, Revathy and Shobana attended the event.

The party, themed ‘Moulin Rouge’, was arranged by Suhasini, Lissy and Kushboo at Nina Reddy’s guest house in Olive Beach. The house was decorated in true French style with red gold and neon red carpets, red velvet cakes, macaroons, roses and red friendship bands. The guests were dressed in red and beige.

The party started with a karaoke session where Sumaltaha, Jackie and Jayasudha crooned Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam hits from the 80s. They were later joined by Mohanlal and Suhasini. The action then switched to the dance floor where Kushboo distributed lungis to the celebrities for the session.

Jackie Shroff, in fact, took all the lungis back to Mumbai as memorabilia. The finale was a Broadway like act where Kushboo, Suhasini and Jaishree, dressed as French dancers in black and white with black hats and red feather stoles, invited Mohanlal, Chiranjeevi, Venkatesh to the floor and the men jived to the songs.

At the stroke of midnight, the actors, to mark the occasion, cut a special cake. As has been his ritual in the reunion party over the past few years, Mohanlal entertained the guests with a magic show.

He in fact tried to levitate Khusboo many a time in the past but failed in his efforts. But then his trick clicked with Sarath Kumar this time around much to the appreciation of his friends. The party went on till the wee hours of Sunday.