Chennai, July 25 :     All the perfumes of Arabia could not keep film-goers in their seats in Tamil Nadu. Nagalingam, the first scented movie to hit the Indian screen, has ended up with the audience turning up its nose. Not that the much-awaited Tamil movie suffers from bad BO. The fragrance is there, very real, very pleasing. When the hero and heroine cavort around the trees in a rose garden, the theatre is filled with the smell of roses. When a woman comes adorned with jasmine blossoms, the audience is overpowered by the scent of jasmine. It is the work of an ingenious contraption. A small flat-bedded tape recorder-like device, stuffed with dry ice soaked in imported perfume, is placed in front of the screen and operated to match the image. But even before the fragrances - of rose, of jasmine, and of what have you - could run out, the trapped audience ran away in sheer disgust. Nagalingam, for all its pyrotechnics, fragrances, graphics and fairy-tale story line, has fallen on its nose at the box office - it is being shown only at noon-shows at four theatres; that too to empty houses. The atrocious script does not add any flavour either. The story revolves around a feudal family hunting down snakes and the reptiles wreak terrible revenge, felling one member of the family after another. A reincarnation of one of the snakes, played by Babu Ganesh, the maker of the film, seeks to save survivor from the doomed family, but comes up against fellow reptiles. Not a single scene makes sense and the graphics are positively juvenile. And when Ganesh tries to evoke witchcraft, he ends up evoking guffaws all round. Matters were not improved at the premiere show by the conscientious inclusion of a large contingent deaf and dumb children. They clapped at some of the wafting perfumes, but soon became tired and very restive. But hero-director Ganesh is upbeat and clearing the air of the stench of failure. He claims that the film is a hit, adding he had released 15 sprints all over the state. 'The fragrance, the aroma wafting through the theatres when the film is screened transport the audience into a new world, a whole new theatre experience,' screamed the young film-maker, bubbling with more ideas than his small frame could hold. The perfume would also have practical uses, claimed Ganesh's PR men: it would mean a significant step in the war against video-piracy - not even the most meticulously-copied video could replicate the perfumes. For the sheer novelty of it, one could hand it to Ganesh. The hall operator sets off the perfuming device through remote-control, even though how the fragrances alternate was not clear. Ganesh was very wary of 'letting out the secret'. 'No, I can't afford to tell you all that. Others could copy it.' Not that it matters, as no one seemed anxious to copy his technique. Distributors would not touch it with the tip of a barge-pole. 'The fragrance technique alone cannot sell it. None of the actors, including the hero, is a known face. Besides it is long since snakes have attracted audiences. Those who have money to burn have done it,' says a veteran film industry observer. Ganesh has burnt his fingers too: he had to distribute the film at his own cost. This correspondent, however, does not know whether Ganesh succeeded in his on-screen mission: unable to put up with the aromatic mumbo-jumbo, he fled, escaping the watchful eyes of the film crew at the premiere.