Endhiran - As I See It

Directed : Shankar
Produced : Kalanidhi Maran, Hansraj Saxena
Music : A R Rahman
Starring : Rajinikanth, Aishwarya Rai, Danny Denzongpa

Endhiran was not released, Endhiran was arrived! Along with it Indian cinema too ! If you think I went a bit too overboard or before laughing at that statement, go watch the movie. It will make you proud and sad at the same time ! Proud for an Indian movie being so rich in visuals and techniques and sad because the one thing that hinders Shankar from making something like Avatar or Matrix is the lack of money. He has ideas - brilliant ones, but to materialize it he needs bigger banner and wider audience. May be the Hollywood guy Vijay Amrithraj who made Jeans with him can sit with him for a pure Hollywood movie now !

The movie indeed is huge. The production, team, theme, music, location, costume, hype everything is rich. Interestingly, even the audience too, in Bangalore I never seen such a rush and excitement in the counter that too in the second week of release. The best part is it lived upto the expectation. It offered worth for every penny of the moviegoer that he left movies content. 



Let us come to the movie. It is about a robotics scientist ( Vaseegaran ) and his invention - the humanoid with emotions. The first half deals with the raw Chitty ( cute name for the robo ! ) who struggles to fit in to the world. Though he looks human, the lack of emotions and understanding the virtues make him an outcast. Though his super powers help in disasters his lack of understanding values and ethics make his and the scientist's life tough. And the extreme of it was nicely conveyed in the fire rescue scene. 

Vaseegaran, decides to fix it by adding emotion programs to Chitty. Result - a Robot which ( or who ) can think like human and emote like human too - whether it is anger, Love or revenge. Chitty smitten by Love was fun to watch. Robo dreaming about a girl in sleep and going any extent to get her kiss was fun…  :)

Like any story the good things will not last long and the trouble and the way Vaseegaran handles it make the rest of the story. It is nicely told. The ways the robot clones or adapt to situations ( like charging from car batteries ) are beautifully conveyed. Ended with a message (!) of everyone born pure but the circumstances influence him right or wrong. Hhmmm… Point noted Shankar :)

Nothing about Robot will not complete with Rajnikant. Interestinlgy this is a new avatar of him. No, not the electronic avatar but the other one. He significantly downplays himself. The 'real' Rajni is limited to songs and other characters dialogues ( like Aiswarya when break up saying he can go his 'thani vazhi' ( lone way ) or in the song hey auto auto kaara, automatic-kaara, koottam koottam paaru unn autographukka and so on ). The 'real' Rajni not even fight bad. He throws dust in the eyes of a baddie and run for life! Man, that is so unreal of Rajni! The typical Rajni walk, laugh, talk everything is given to the Robo ( the scientist asks Robo to walk like him and when the Robo does the Rajni walk, the theater broke to cheer ). This movie will not happen without Rajni. Not just because only he can carry the role of properly, but only he can justify the huge budget and can get it repaid too. He is excellent, if he does that underplay in Kuselan, the fate of the movie might be different…  !

The technical department of the movie is also done a great job. The sound, music, location, costume, choreography and the dancers - everything added to the awe. How the locations were beautiful and eye candy so was costume. Rajni was looking elegant and Aiswarya dashing. The costumes of the dancers, whether it was the Robo dress or the tribal ones,  were rich and different.

A R Rahman's music… - The movie will be incomplete with it. Not just the great songs, but the background scores too. The songs may not be very impressive in the album, but once you watch the movie, you will see that, that is the only way it can be done and it is brilliant in the movie. Kudos to A R. No wonder Mani Ratnam or Shankar chooses him, nobody else can give music to the sound of dreams of these great storytellers.
 
Do you think whether all this are possible - the robot with emotions… may be one day it might come true. Remember, man's landing on moon was first suggested in a 'then sci-fi' novel. Just wait and watch.

The movie starts with the song 'Puthiya Manitha Bhoomikku Vaa…' ( Come to earth, the new human ). The newness Shankar kept until the end and that made it a paisa vasool entertainment. 

If you think I went overboard praising the movie, that is because you haven't watched the movie yet ! Go watch it and you will know that I haven't said even half of the magic ! Let me summerise this with a few lines from the song Arima Arima.
 
Ivan Perai Sonnadhum, Perumai Sonnadhum Kadalum Kadalum Kai Thattum
Ivan Ulagam Thaandiya Uyaram Kondathil Nilavu Nilavu Thalai Muttum

(The moment his name or his praise is mentioned, the oceans gave him a stading ovation

He has reached such a height that his head touches the moon)

It was originally a Rajni anthem and now we can sing it about Shankar too :D