About Me

A simple technological geek with an insane passion for the Android OS, smart-phones and tablets.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Enthiran: Another Rajni Film (Two Point Oh No!)

Inspiration doesn't come easily as I have experienced it first hand these past three months. Nothing was inspirational enough to write about and I was going to throw in the towel when, out of nowhere, inspiration punched me dead in the face, in the form of a movie. I still regret getting that inspiration. 

Enthiran, was the biggest hype in south India when it was announced. It was the first Tamil or Indian film, overall, that attempted to rival Hollywood. In a sense, all Indians should be proud and some still are but to those who saw the film, I'm pretty sure you were having a hard time remembering what they were trying to do in the first place. The success behind Hollywood's fictitious films is that they have some logic behind them even if it is basically a story about something that doesn't exist. As bad as Tamil films are getting these days (there are a few exceptions since I still do watch them) people don't want another epic fail and that too with graphics for God's sake. 

Rajni has been successful in providing another over the top, dramatic film but thankfully, no punch-dialogues. I'm still wondering, who was the mastermind that thought of making a special event for the release of the movie trailer? I mean seriously, why do they need this kind of hype as if audio launch events weren't enough? I'm sure that Tamil comedian, Vivek wasn't aware what he was saying when he commented at the trailer launch that the trailer itself could run for a hundred days in theaters and people would still come to watch the film. Well the reason is because people would not know how horrible the entire film will be since trailers only showcase the good stuff. 

I don't know why but the movie was released a day before the global release date in Dubai. Coincidentally, I happen to be on vacation at that time so with my father and sister in tow, I went to watch this much anticipated film. There's no need to explain what it would be like in a theater filled with Tamil audiences for a Rajni film on the first day of release but I'll give you a breif summary: It's a hell lot of loud whistling that can even make the movie seem like it's running on mute. (If you felt good reading it this far and don't mind spoilers, then do carry on).

The first half was sort of okay. Rajni, for the first time in ages, didn't have such a larger-than-life entrance for a film. It was pretty simple so I thought this film would be really worth watching and perhaps even enjoyable like Rajni's previous film, Shivaji. Four words can describe my condition after that: I spoke too soon. (Too could use a lot more o's but I don't have the time and don't feel like bothering you all with three or more lines of o's). The antagonist, Dr. Bohra, is the teacher of Rajni's character, Vaseegaran, and it's clearly visible that he isn't very enthusiastic about seeing the success of his pupil, making this 'the student has surpassed the master' scenario. A little humor is present here and there that would make you grin or maybe smile but not laugh as much (It might be funny for others but the humour in certain films doesn't strike me). The main purpose of creating Chitty (that's what they named the robot) was to help India progress in different aspects but it has to pass a certain evaluation and get an approval for production by a certain organisation known as the Board of Directors for Robotics (I didn't bother about it too much as I was too 'engrossed' in what else was going on). Apparently, Dr. Bohra happens to be the head of the Board and he rejects Chitty with reasonable um, well, reasons. Basically, it has no emotions and follows any command without hesitation which can be used for the wrong purposes hence, it's a major flaw.. 

Vaseegaran tries to reprogram Chitty and make him learn emotions. I'm pretty sure that Vaseegaran, being a genius who invented a robot would have at least known that teaching a machine about emotions was like teaching a lizard how a light bulb works. i mean seriously, come on, a little logic wouldn't hurt. Just like Spider-Man was bitten by a radioactive spider to get his powers, Chitty got emotions jolted into him when he was struck by lightning while his inventor took classes for him, outdoors in the open, while a thunderstorm was approaching (It's a good thing that colleges train potential teachers indoors rather than conducting classes during a storm with no regard for their students' lives). 

I didn't want to mention anything about Aishwarya Rai because she acted flawlessly and my sister even remarked that the film might run with the presence of Aishwarya Rai fans itself but nobody is perfect, well at least Aishwarya's character, Sana, wasn't. Common sense seemed to be very uncommon with her. Most people know what a guy might feel when a good-looking girl kisses him on the cheek regardless of whether she is single or in this case, has a boyfriend who looks like he is 45 years old. Sana apparently didn't know that Chitty now has emotions and he immediately feels love when she kissed him (She considers him a "toy friend" if that makes any sense). Starting from this point forth the story is pretty similar to the Hollywood movie, Artificial Intelligence (A.I), which is about a robot trying to earn the love of the person it longs for. The major difference is that the robot in A.I looks like a 10-year old boy wanting to earn the love of the mother he is created for. 

The now, love-struck Chitty can only think of Sana and fails another evaluation that is done by the military. After this failure, Vaseegaran is furious and breaks Chitty down after which he is thrown away as trash. Dr. Bohra somehow knows about this and goes through the trash like a hungry raccoon to find the remains of Chitty. He rebuilds Chitty and makes him more of a weapon with a sinister personality by slotting in a red chip (This is because even little kids can understand that bad things are represented by the color red). Chitty goes rogue and kidnaps Sana from her wedding. A big chase scene ensues where the local police try to capture Chitty who now calls himself 2.0. I thought I couldn't be more irritated and yet I was proven wrong because of the background soundtrack for the chase, it was just a robotic voice singing "two point oh" throughout the scene. 

The story goes on and on with me staring hopelessly at the screen while also counting how many people were leaving. The funny thing that wasn't a part of the movie was the reply my father gave me when I showed him all the people that were leaving. He glanced at them then looked at me and said, "They might be going to the toilet". I've seen animal migrations but never have I seen so many humans migrating to the toilet. My thought was that either all of them drank too much of the same drink or have really freaky time-bomb like bladders that go off at the same time. My strong willpower kept me going through the rest of the film and I nearly cracked when I remembered that they had extended the climax for 30 minutes to show off the effects. 

The only, only part in the movie when I actually laughed was when Chitty bleated like a sheep and that barely lasted for 30 seconds. Now moving back to the extended climax, all of Chittys (or is it Chitties? They made dozens of themselves in half the time it takes certain people to get ready) fight off the armed forces by 'combining together' to form different shapes. The sphere shape and the way it was utilised for combat had a lot of thought put in but it's not much of an impression-maker. The snake form was decent to look at. The final form was the one worth watching. The Chittys combine to make one 30 feet tall robot. The next ten seconds removed that short-lived excitement from my face. The giant robot couldn't catch the bus in which Vaseegaran and Sana were escaping. After a few moments, Chitty is finally captured, brought back to normal, sentenced to be decommissioned by a judge and the world has one less disaster in it.  

I finally crossed the climax at the expense of three whole hours of my life. The moral of the film is what Chitty says before he deactivates and that is, "People are living with red chips inside them in the form of jealousy and hatred so if they can remove that the world can be a better place". I finally lost it when I had to come to terms with the fact that I spent three, very precious hours for this small bit of advice that elderly people say very commonly. 

My verdict? If you aren't a die-hard Rajni fan or you have already watched a lot of Hollywood sci-fi movies then this isn't the movie for you. My father's friend said that it might be an enjoyable movie for kids but I'm not a kid anymore yet I sure enjoy watching Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks and other animation movies to this day as I still feel like they are well worth the time. I don't know what your thought on this review is but it has been fun writing (or was it?) 

This is AJ signing off.

5 comments:

  1. Well Written review.

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  2. AJ couldn't believe ur writing. Ur style of writing is good. Ur thought abt this //A.I looks like a 10-year old boy wanting to earn the love of the Mother he is created for// made me to grin :-). U forgot to mention abt 'Star wars' comic style :-).

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  3. AJ,
    It was a well written review. The blogs were full of reviews written by Rajini fans or haters, so I was eagerly hoping to read a review which was unbiased (at least to some extent)

    Can you please take off the word verification?

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  4. Nice review AJ.

    Getting a teenager's perspective is good.

    Keep posting frequently.

    ReplyDelete