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Endhinran Review

What would you do when you see super star Rajinikanth on the screen ? Whistle, howl, cat-call ? What would you do when you see 100's of them ? 1000's of them ?

That ladies and gentlemen, is what endhiran(robot), Superstar Rajinikanth's latest flick, is all about. What would happen when a robot acquires the ability to feel ? To sense ? The so called sixth sense ? Now, whether a robot can get that sense or not is immaterial. After all, we have seen movies prior to this with the same theme.

Rajinikanth is a scientist, who is trying to create a humanoid, who can help the Indian Army. His senior is trying pretty much the same, albeit with a darker motive. Aishwarya plays his love interest.

Santhanam and Karunas play his lab assistants and try to evoke a laugh or two, but fall hopelessly flat.

After a rather bizarre fire rescue attempt that goes hopelessly wrong, Rajinikanth infuses the idea of sense, the ability to feel into the robot. The robot now falls for Aishwarya Rai.

What happens next forms the story. Does the robot succeed ?

The first half of the movie moves at a rather relaxed pace. One can actually term it slow. One expects the second half to pick up steam and chug along. However, that is not the case.

In an act of sheer frustration, Rajinikanth destroys the Robot. WHat happens next to the robot forms the best part of the second half.

The last 30 minutes or so of the second half is where Rajinikanth creams everyone in the movie. Some brilliant voice and facial modulations make for more than 120+ minutes of slow paced story telling.

The camera work is of rather decent quality. Special mention must be made of the special effects, particularly in the climax scenes. Unlike any other special effects that we have seen in Indian movies, the effects do not look jarring or out of place. The only one place in the entire movie where the special effects looked totally bad was when Rajinikanth tosses a baby to play with it.

Aishwarya Rai is/was expected to sleep walk throughout the movie and she does what is expected of her.

While this movie is in no way comparable to Rajinikanth's earlier cult classic Padayappa, this movie does have its moments. Watch out for that goat bleating sound.

The songs by A.R.Rahman are not pretty bad at all. However, considering his earlier scores, this does not impress that much. There could have been some more effort on the background score.

Shankar has been trying to change the time tested formula of Rajinikanth's movies -- an opening song showcasing the hero as demigod, sentiments involving sisters, mothers, the usual formulaic jazz. He tried that in Sivaji with quite bad results. He does seem to have succeeded in this movie.

All in all, this movie is definitely worth the price of your ticket. In fact, one could actually sit through a best part of the movie, to be treated to a 25 minute or so graphical extravaganza.

Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 6:46 PM