Endhiran (2010)

The day was finally set. I was going to watch "Endhiran", the most expensive Indian movie ever made. The "Avatar" of India, the posters claimed. I will admit upfront, I am not a huge fan of either Shankar or Rajinikanth, but there was a glimmer of hope as it was a screenplay by the late Sujatha, a true technocrat whose books and prose I have cherished over the years (would he have coined the term "Robo Sapiens"?). As Sujatha had passed away during the pre-production of the movie, I was well aware that the screenplay would have been completed by Shankar (Madhan Karky is also credited as a co-script writer). The initial reviews had lauded the movie claiming it to be a benchmark in Indian cinema and how Indian cinema has improved by leaps and bounds and how the movie will stand up to any Hollywood production of recent years.

The movie proved be a huge disappointment (except a few scenes) and it also proved the fact that without a cohesive screenplay, any movie, even the most expensive one, would turn out to be a fiasco and dishearten the non-emotionally-invested viewers. Let's face it; the movie would have never worked with that screenplay, without a huge-name star to portray the protagonist, the innocent robot Chitti (Speed 1 THz, Memory 1 Zettabyte) and the antagonist (Chitti v.2.0). Rajini, a force/star he may be, but it is the actor that I miss, whom I last saw in "Thalapathy" (1991). I was subject to over-the-top performances and over-the-top everything that I have come to witness in Shankar movies. Aishwarya Rai, as Sana, is beautiful (as always) but has little else to do, as others, who just appear in the scenes without leaving a mark. It is understandable that Shankar wanted Rajini to carry the movie, but I was used to the Rajini that I saw on-screen; he did not bring anything new to this movie. I was comforted in the fact, that there were no build-ups to the Dr. Vaseegaran character and no opening songs claiming the protagonist to be the all conquering singing, dancing hero of the silver screen.

The songs, good as they were, only managed to drag the flow (if there was any) of the already stumbling screenplay and the second half seemed to drag. I believe it is now time for Thamizh movies (or any movies, except musicals) to not have song sequences which just test our patience as I did not gain anything from a song set in Machu Picchu as Dr. Vaseegaran was contemplating the future of Chitti. Plot holes galore in this movie which took two years to complete; we are shown that as Sana is kidnapped by Chitti v.2.0, the police randomly firing at the car; were they not worried that Sana might be killed in the cross-fire or were they all crack-shots? And, did we need to see Chitti conversing with mosquitoes?

I felt angry for spending the money and wasting my time watching this utter garbage, which some of my friends have claimed to be the best Thamizh film ever! Shankar has taken elements from "Bicentennial Man" and "I, Robot" and served up a diarrhea inducing meal on a silver platter. It was really hard to believe that Santhanam and Karunas to be scientists, but even that seemed tolerable compared to the "romantic" scene between Aishwarya and Rajini (Sana wants to end their relationship) where Vaseegaran asks Sana to return the kisses he had given during the course of their relationship. The scene takes us to a very artificial looking desert as Rajini plays the guitar (if you can believe his strumming - looked more like he was moving his hands up and down the guitar) and a beautiful song wasted in "Kadhal Anukkal".

The one scene that I found really impressive, was the Chitti (v.2.0) metamorphosing fight sequence in the climax, supported by the background score with the metallic edge as provided by Academy Award winner A. R. Rahman. I expected more from Chitti (v.2.0); Rajini should have explored more with what makes Chitti (v.2.0) tick, but, as he said in the Endhiran audio launch, he had followed Shankar's directions to a T, which, in my opinion has backfired as Chitti (v.2.0) exaggerates its' speech and gestures as the much-detested Shankarism comes into play in the third act. I did not empathise with Chitti as it dismantled itself; I found it neither moving nor the fitting end to the most expensive movie of Indian cinema. My absolute anger lies in the fact that this so-called-excuse for a movie was marketed as a challenge to Hollywood productions and the announcement of Thamizh cinema on to the world stage. If the rest of the world considers "Endhiran" as a token Thamizh movie, I will be among the first to completely switch off Thamizh movies and deny that I ever watched them. Dot.