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!!
4 comments:
And I guess ur rating is 10/10... ;)
The review is well written!!
Lovely review for Thalaivar's movie.
BTW I recollect seeing Sujatha's name in the opening credits for dialogues.
@Vikas Even 11/10, U Bet!!
@Meera Yeah, a few of my friends told me today tat they hv given a reference. Will need to check it out during my next watch that I intend to do soon. :D
I really appreciate the concept of the movie. The way the features of a 'Robo' without human feelings and with human feelings shown is really phantastic. My view is, one has to see the movie. At the same time, one cannot deny the reckless mistakes committed by Director Shankar in this movie. They are
(1) After hiking the expectations of the audience about the villian robo (he is immortal, he has power equal to 100 persons, the way the graphics depicted robo is shown) ; he has been destroyed so easily within a short span of time by the hero, that too as a single person (hero)without much efforts. There, the real scientific method is not used. The tactic used to conclude the movie has not lived up to the expectations. For such a good concept, the approach applied to the conclusion is not satisfactory.
(2) how, such powerful robos could not identify the human hero (Rajni) when he enters the premise of robos. It should not have been that easy. Here, shankar made the audience fools.
(3) It is my understanding that he (hero) shoots an injection needle into the body of robo and therby the robo's magnetic power is destroyed, as was shown in the english movies where aliens are tried to kill. First of all, a robo's system is not made up of a nervous system like humans, where the blood vessel helps in distributing the medicine of injection throughout the body. Here for the robo, the same methodology is used to deflate the magnetic power. Here again, shankar has fooled the audience.
(4) Why people go for A R Rehman music-I do not understand. There is no life in songs. They are not the songs to be made for Rajni.
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