Robot (Enthiran)

Director: S Shankar

Producer: Kalanidhi Maran, Hansraj Saxena

Music: A R Rahman

Dialogues (Hindi): Swanand Kirkire

Cast: Rajnikanth, Aishwaraya Rai, Danny Denzongpa and others.

        ‘Super Star Rajni’ returns to the silver screen after 2 long years. His last film was the box office dud ‘Kuselan’ (2008). He’s back and back with a bang in S Shankar’s ‘Enthiran’. In this film he teams again with Shankar with whom he gave the hit ‘Sivaji – The Boss’ in 2006. Robot is apparently the most expensive film ever made in the history of Indian cinema with a whopping budget of around Rs 162 crores. Naturally Rajni fans had big expectations from it. And yes, the film does fulfill it.

        The film begins with Dr Vaseegaran (Rajnikanth) working on his android project. He has been working on it for the past 10 years. And he does taste the sweetness of success. He develops ‘Chitti’ (name given by Vasi’s mother) who looks like his twin brother. Chitti can do anything. He has the working capacity of around 100 persons and is an expert in all spheres of life. He does exactly as he is told (even breaking the television set when he’s told to ‘open it’). Naturally the world is taken aback when Vasi demonstrates his project in front of a live audience. Vasi’s girlfriend Sana (Aishwaraya), a medical student, too is amazed by Chitti’s skills when he does all her housework and helps her in the medical exam. 

Vaseegaran has built Chitti for the welfare of the society. In a short period Chitti becomes everyone’s favourite. But he has one fault. He cannot feel things the way humans do. Due to this he is rejected by the expert group of scientists for further development. Dr Bohra (Danny), Vasi’s professor, heads the team of experts. He hates Chitti as his own project of androids (for a terrorist group) is incomplete. In the course of Vasi’s intended ‘welfare of society’ an unfortunate incident happens by which Vasi is forced to install the concept of ‘feelings’ into Chitti. 

Chitti learns the rules of life and begins to think like a human. He falls in love Sana which turns to be his biggest mistake. This angers Vasi as well as Sana when he reveals it to them. Vasi now plans to induct Chitti into the army for the welfare of the nation. During the trials Chitti preaches love and is rejected. Vaseegaran destroys his project ‘Chitti’ and throws his parts into garbage dumping grounds. Bohra takes the damaged android and gives it a new life. But, with a change. The new microchip installed by Bohra makes Chitti a bad droid. Bohra aims to become rich with the improved Chitti. However Chitti kills Bohra and completes his project forming his own army of droids. He then breaks into Sana’s wedding with Vaseegaran and kidnaps her. How Vaseegaran gets to Sana, how he eliminates the army of droids forms the rest of the story.

The script contains Shankar’s usual ‘Masala’- songs, fights and drama with a social message. Rajnikanth is back to what he does the best – the impossible (however you can accept it. The stunts are done by the droid and not the human) Most of the stunts are done by stuntman Alex Martin. Aishwaraya Rai looks gorgeous in the outfits designed by Manish Malhotra. Cinematography by R Rathnavelu is flawless. The song shot in Peru looks amazing on the big screen. Animatronics by Stan Winston Studios and visual effects by Industrial Light and Magic Company need no words to explain. Anthony repeats his perfection in editing. Music is average. Rahman could have done much better than this. 

As such Robot is a family fun. If you are a die hard Rajni fan then you must see it. I feel it’s a great entertainment for the weekend. I go with two and a half starts out of five for S Shankar’s Robot. You’re sure to enjoy it though you might feel it’s just a one time watch.