Rockstar Baba’s fans continue to pour into city

Despite film critics calling the movie 'too good at being bad', followers of the controversial 'rockstar baba' Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Insaan continued to head to the City Beautiful on Saturday morning - wearing MSG T-shirts, with jeans or over kurtas - to catch the show of his debut movie The Messenger (MSG).
READ: MSG actor Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Insan: Lesser known facts

On the second day of its release too, bus and jeep full of fans kept streaming into the city. While those from Punjab travelled for four - or five - hours to catch a glimpse of Singh on the silver screen with a ban in effect in the state, followers from Haryana - young and old - rushed to the swankier theatres in Chandigarh from small towns for the Love Charger experience in the city's malls and multiplexes.

"The movie is showing in a theatre near our town, but I wanted to experience watching it in a mall, followed by some shopping and exploring the city," said Rishu 'Insaan', who travelled all the way from Jakhal (Haryana) with her family. "We have hired a separate car to come to Chandigarh. It will be like a family outing with a purpose," she told TOI.
Even on Friday, much before the earliest show of the movie that was scheduled to start at 9 am, followers chanting 'Dhan dhan Satguru tera hi aasra' had started gathering at the four multiplexes of the city screening the movie. The highest rush was at Elante Mall in Industrial Area of the city, where most of the crowds were coming from Sangrur.
"We will go wherever the movie is screened. We will book the entire theatre when it is released in our town," said Venus 'Insaan' from Dirba near Sangrur. Moving his followers to tears during sensitive scenes and breaking into applauds when the villain - out to kill 'pitaji' who wants to wipe out drugs, addiction and gives out messages of environment protection, drug donation and the likes. Like him or not, his followers love him, as one of them, Ansh from Sangrur put it, 'MSG meri jaan...'
However, the idea did not go too well with youngsters, who were out to celebrate Valentine's Day on Saturday in the city's posh hangouts. "They are just about everywhere. We went to Elante and didn't feel comfortable in the presence of so many people from remote areas," said Vanshika Arora, a 21-year-old resident of Sector 22.