We saw it in London.
Usually if any Chiranjeevi's movie is released, there is a festival period for online and print media. This kind of situation was at sky high for 'Stalin' as well. I will write on 'Stalin' in next paragraph after some general observations. I find Chiranjeevi is a versatile mass hero in India like Amitabh Bachan. Like Chiru, Amitabh is also acted in both classical and pure mass masala movies. I participate in discussions with friends and family members about telugu movies, because we watch movies not only of Chiru but other telugu movies acted by other popular hero's. Overall, I personally believe Nagarjuna and Chiranjeevi have been successfully able to reach masses in Andhra Pradesh by their good off-screen communication skills. In fact both of them are choosing their movies (in the recent period) which have either devotional framework or society concern. I deny that Chiranjeevi ignored message oriented movies in his earlier days. He did extraordinary youth message movies like Challenge (direction: Kodanda Rami Reddy) etc, but that time he didn't had such following which he enjoys today. For me 'Stalin' climax fights resemble that of his movie 'Challenge'. Sri Ramadasu by Nagarjuna is truly thought provoking movie by any standards.
Some of the reviews have suggested direction of Murugadoss in stalin was not up to the standard of his previous movies. But, I think Murugadoss did a very good job and he is very successful to live up to the image of our megastar. The message in the movie is clear. Such messages can be entered into public minds and possible social change only if a stature of Chiranjeevi shows them on screen. In this aspect the movie is a great attempt. Roughly Chiru might have fan following anywhere between 3.6 and 5.4 crores in Andhra Pradesh alone. I am not biased for him, because I watch movies by all major hero's and appreciate good movies. Next best fan following in Andhra Pradesh might be somewhere between 1 and 2 crores for any other hero (excluding Sr NTR and ANR). It is worth to watch 'Stalin' with all the family members. We all came out of the movie with a very positive mind. Songs are not very catchy, but this I believe helped a lot on concentrating on the movie and its theme. Stunts and picturisation is super! Overall, 'Stalin' sets a trend in recent Indian cinema.
In Hollywood movies, if mass heros like Arnold or Bruce Willie does super stunts people accept, but heros like Kevin Costner or Tom Hanks do super stunts then people do not accept. Similarly, some stunts in 'Stalin' although might sound impossible, but is fine to have such for a hero who enjoy huge mass support.
