Thy hype was adequate enough to ensure that even non-fans of the Rajni style of movies joined in the madness. Yes, I shamelessly succumbed in. To Endhiran (Or 'Robot' for the Hindi audience). To the phenomenon called Rajni Kanth. And I came out a proud tamilian!!What struck me most was the story behind the science fiction. There have been several bollywood and regional flicks in the past with loads of science fiction effects ala their Hollywood counter-parts – all, unarguably, visual treats. Clearly, Endhiran’s strengths are its ahead-of-times science fiction effects re-created by Director Shankar with a fair share of help from the technicians from Hollywood. Be it the scene where all the arms and weapons stick onto Chitti (The Robot) in his electro-magnetic mode or the on-screen grandeur wherein Chitti transforms into a humungous King-Kong, human sphere, dinosaur, et all. The magnificence, opulence and splendour brought out on-screen is un-paralleled till date. Needless to say (like several others who have watched Endhiran would agree), Shankar is a visionary who is way ahead of his times as far as technological advancements.
However, where Shankar scores in this costliest Indian movie ever made is in his lucid portrayal of the Man Vs Machine debate. The former part of the movie deals with the creation of Chitti by the Scientist and subsequent attempts to inject emotions into the mere-machine Chitti. What turns out as a result of such adventurous experiments is the latter half of the story where Chitti transforms into a destructive bad-man who murders and creates havoc with a mere with a snap of his finger. The kind of destruction that a human creation can cause and the cons of a possible mis-use of science and technology have been brought out ever so subtly.
As for the Super-star himself, I have no words to describe him. Nor does the English Language. :). The 61 year old guy plays a Scientist in the movie and the Chitti that he creates. He is The Terminator. He is The Transformer. He is the Navi. The Avatar. The Matrix Man. He is The King Kong. He is The Incredible Hulk. He is The Iron Man. The Bat Man. The Spider Man. The Dark Knight. Rajnikanth. The Man. The Robot. In addition to Rajnikanth, the movie had other attractions like an Oscar winner who has done the music, a former Miss-World as a leading artiste, etc. However, these things pale out before Shankar’s on-screen execution and screenplay.
After a totally engrossing 3 hour plus show, I came out of the hall wondering if this is what Shankar achieved with a reported budget of ` 150 Crores – what can be a possible outcome if he had the kind of money that the makers of Avatar (reported budget of $ 300 mn) had!!. Well, some times, its good to dream.
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P.S.: I have a single complaint, though. I’d read somewhere that the movie is loosely based on 'En Iniya Iyandhira' a Novel by Late Sujatha Rangarajan, a renowned science fiction author in Tamizh who was himself wayyyyyyy ahead of his time (just for the record, he wrote the story in d early '80s). It would have been nice if they had added his name in the end-credits!!
