Review: Robot/Enthiran

Not quite the ‘Rajni’ experience



Director: Shankar

Starring: Rajnikanth, Aishwarya Rai, Danny Denzongppa

Rating: * *

Considering Rajni’s demi-god status down South and his colossal fan following, one has long stopped looking for a story in his films. It is just the experience of watching him that makes it worthwhile, his million plus fans will tell you. Even going with this knowledge, his latest, the mega budgeted Enthiran/Robot is an extremely lacklustre affair, with poor music from A R Rahman and an overdose of technology that gets tedious to watch after a point.

Dr Vaseegaran aka Vashi (Rajnikanth) is a scientist, who spends several years of research in creating a robot called Chitti with a face like his. The robot can perform several tasks, is highly accomplished and has knowledge of all arts and sciences. The only thing he lacks is human emotions. When the time comes to evaluate the robot before a panel, Vashi’s ex prof and rival Dr Borah (Danny Denzongppa) is consumed with jealously at his own failed attempts, and rejects the model on grounds that Chitti does not have human sentiments and therefore can be a threat. So Vashi reworks on his robot and gives him human qualities of love and hate. But it creates a confusion, as Chitti starts to love Vashi’s beautiful girlfriend, Sana (Aishwarya Rai). This causes complications, with Vashi ending up dismantling Chitti. Borah, under pressure to deliver a robot to a foreign company desperately looks out for Chitti and gives him destructive tools. Chitti — now a man with sinister intentions — models many other robots that look like him and builds an army of iron men. It’s left now to Vashi to find his own creation and put an end to his evil deeds.

Knowing how much money has gone into making the film and the unprecedented hype associated with it, the makers probably wanted to ensure there was enough and more of Rajni. So not only is the superstar in a double role, millions of his prototypes have been created. The problem with such splintering is that you never know whom to root for really. Is it Vashi — the creator, a man who gets jealous of his creation, or the robot Chitti — who turns evil? The film has too many Rajnis walking around, as if providing the audience with a wish-fulfillment where each can take one of them home.

Yet, the first half is somewhat watchable. There are some light moments between Chitti and Aishwarya, and a few of the thrills — though not very ingenious — that keep you at least midly interested. But boredom sets in, in the second half, as the storyline takes a predictable turn where the robot falls in love with his creator’s girlfriend. It’s not so much the plot that is to blame, as much as the insipid treatment and screenplay. The Tamil dialogues are just about passable — there’s none of the chutzpah and humour you associate with a Rajni film, and the romance is altogether serviceable.

In a film about robots, real emotions actually go missing and what one gets is a synthetic film, where one doesn’t feel like one has experienced a Rajni film. The sheen and setting of the film was almost surely going to take away a little from the rawness and fun that has come to be the hallmark of all of the superstar’s movies, but even otherwise, Enthiran is not even a good sci-fi film. Even fantasies must have a semblance of truth to it to be effective, and especially with sci-fi, one has to imagine the happenings in the realm of the probable. The film doesn’t quite achieve that and becomes too much about nuts and bolts and mindless action.

The songs by A R Rahman additionally are a huge disappointment, that lowers the fun quotient considerably.

As for the performances, Rajni will be liked and adored by his fans again, but they might miss his usual histrionics, given he’s playing a robot here. Aishwarya is simply the romantic interest, and has nothing comparable to the challenging role she had in Raavanan.

All in all, an average fare, with a story that defies common sense at several points, and never quite hits the high notes in terms of entertainment.