"We have 3 festivals down south. Deepavali, Pongal and a Rajni movie release" said someone sometime back. Enthiran stands up to it, rather tall!
As rants and raves came pouring from all directions, the air of expectation that surrounded this movie far surpassed all else around it - so much so that people even stopped talking about the Delhi debacle!! Even FB seemed to have partnered with the media giants to promote the Robo - every single update on FB made me think I am wasting time by not being at the cinema hall!
So then how did Robo measure up to all of this? Two words - Robo rocked! He walked, danced, kicked and kissed his way through all the hype. Although, he did need a bit of hand-holding here and there. And with Aish around to lend more than just a hand or a shoulder, he wouldn’t fall down now, would he ;)
Man vs Machine - a topic that has been beaten to death in almost all known languages, has been handled with a surprising amount of élan, considering the fact that this is the first such attempt in the Indian movie industry. That too, by stepping away from the usual 'Machine takes over the world' storyline. It was refreshing to see the script centred on the ‘human’ emotions of the not-so-human android.
And who better to enact it all? Rajni the creator, Rajni the Robo and Aish the woman in-between. Rajni dazzled and Aish was at her sizzling best. As for the rest of the cast, they have just filled up the gaps. Danny Denzongpa is the only other worth mentioning. But with Rajni the Robo turning into Terminator-3 mode, there is no much scope for a second villain - is there?!
The music is more than just hummable with glimpses of vintage Rehman coming through.The picturisation of songs is dreamy – perhaps even to the envy of National Geographic in accessing some exquisite corners of the globe. A few laughs have also been sprinkled around here and there to keep everyone happy.
The graphics? It almost seem like two distinct teams worked on the graphics. One focusing on Rajni as the robot and the other team focusing on all else around him. Obviously, Rajni's team won hands down! The car chase in-between and parts of the final sequence are too meandering and forgettable at best for the patchy work (we toldya, dont rely on that pentium thingy!). But the formations of the robot army were fantastic and well executed. Obviously a lot of time and energy has been invested and it has paid off.
I wanted to bring up one of my theories here. Something built upon observing some of the sci-fi movies that are well appreciated for the effects and graphics. I noticed that most of them are almost completely monochromatic with a blue/grey/green hue to it. You might see some dark patches of red here and there. But thats about it. Does monochrome provide for better graphics? Will the absence of colors hide the abnormalities in overlapping graphics with real video? I wonder.
So then, I sat there at the end of the movie, until the credits ran out, a bit dazed. Wishing it didnt end so soon (after almost 3 hours) and at the same time wondering what could have been better.
Well, what could have been better? The first half could have been more to the point. Maybe a song from the packed second half could have been pulled into the first. Maybe the support cast could have been given a bit more screen space, just to break the monotony (Spare me Rajni die-hards). Maybe they could have avoided obvious inspirations from movies like Mask or Robocop. Maybe a version 3.0 with all the signature Rajni-isms reinstated?
Closing line. Its neither a typical Rajni movie nor a typical Shankar movie. But then, this is not your typical movie anyways! Robo Rules! Dot!
