Movie Review By: Y Sathya Kumar Rating: 7.4/10
Chiefly, I was taken away by Rajinikanth's performance in the film. The guy's charisma never gives us a chance to be unhappy with him in the screen.
The storyline is simple. The plot revolves around a Scientist(Rajini: Vaseegaran) who creates a humanoid(Rajini:Chitti) to for Military purposes and tests it by releasing it to the society to see how it fares.Ultimately,it fails approval by the scientist's rival(Danny Denzongpa) whom condemns it for the lack of feeling and knowing what's right and wrong. Vaseegaran continues his upgrading and gives Chitti emotions and feelings. Chitti thus becomes self-aware and falls in love with the scientist's lover (Aishwaraya rai : Sana). Vaseegaran disapproves Chitti's love for Aishwaraya and sends it for Military usage; Chitti however fails to impress the higher officials in the military and Vaseegaran hacks the Robot. Danny Denzongpa then picks up the hacked parts of Chitti, makes changes to it and plans to sell it to terrorist for money. However, Chitti after being modified to be evil rather chooses to pursue Aishwaraya rai and kills off Danny Denzongpa. The final scenes show Vaseegaran saving Aishwaraya rai from Chitti and changing it back to its original form.
The movie started off promising giving the audience a serious mood; however the story slowly fails to capture the same mood and goes for a more comical mood by the end of the film. This is subtle letdown as audience would have been lost with the roller coaster ride of the mood in the film, especially when Chitti turns villain, audience would be confused with the emotions and unsure as the mood wanted audiences to expect a real bad-ass Robot but rather a typical villain Rajinikanth (the actor started off his career with negative roles) character appears.
But it was not devastating for the film as the Indian audience were definitely happier to see the typical villain Rajinikanth.
A.R. Rahman who provided the score in Endhiran did a wonderful job and we heard the right things at the right moment and nothing went wrong in his department.
The cinematography needs to be applauded as it was breathtaking and colorful, giving the eyes of the viewer a holiday-like feel.
Visual effects and animatronics were the real deal in the movie. The people who made the movie a real hit would be the names you will be seeing at the ending credits starts to roll. They were the heroes of the much appreciated climax of Endhiran.
Another area for major improvement was the screenplay, since the visual effects (Industrial Light & Magic) and animatronics (Stan Winston Studios) were done by the best in the world and the director was left to his direction. He could have concentrated more on the screenplay and bought us imagery of Chitti's perspectives. I.e. The train fight scene where Chitti had to fight off a group of bad guys might have been better if Chitti was able to analyze and select his wide array of programmed fighting skills for the current situation, rather than just fighting them off with a default Kung fu fight.
The viewers could actually predict the following scenes as all were chronological and orderly; Shanker could have actually saved it from the mundane Traditional movie sequencing.
Director Shanker could have also worked more on the ending. He could have surprised the audience with a twist-ending or an opening to a possible sequel. He rather finished it off like everybody expected- a happy ending.
Other aspects of the film were very well done too. Fighting and Dancing choreographers did a excellent job overall.
I have to keep emphasizing the Indian audience as this Tamil movie is actually customized for them and is already grossing millions, the only sad thing it was so near becoming a good Sci-Fi for audiences all over the world. Nevertheless, this Sci-fi movie is new and a brave attempt by Shanker to the audiences which has all the ingredients for the whole family to enjoy.
Go for Endhiran the Robot to see Rajinikanth and a maiden attempt by Indian Cinema on Sci-Fi (Indian Style) setting a new genre...
Verdict: A blockbuster for Indian audiences and Rajini Fans... An entertaining Sci-fi movie with few flaws for other audiences...
Chiefly, I was taken away by Rajinikanth's performance in the film. The guy's charisma never gives us a chance to be unhappy with him in the screen.
The storyline is simple. The plot revolves around a Scientist(Rajini: Vaseegaran) who creates a humanoid(Rajini:Chitti) to for Military purposes and tests it by releasing it to the society to see how it fares.Ultimately,it fails approval by the scientist's rival(Danny Denzongpa) whom condemns it for the lack of feeling and knowing what's right and wrong. Vaseegaran continues his upgrading and gives Chitti emotions and feelings. Chitti thus becomes self-aware and falls in love with the scientist's lover (Aishwaraya rai : Sana). Vaseegaran disapproves Chitti's love for Aishwaraya and sends it for Military usage; Chitti however fails to impress the higher officials in the military and Vaseegaran hacks the Robot. Danny Denzongpa then picks up the hacked parts of Chitti, makes changes to it and plans to sell it to terrorist for money. However, Chitti after being modified to be evil rather chooses to pursue Aishwaraya rai and kills off Danny Denzongpa. The final scenes show Vaseegaran saving Aishwaraya rai from Chitti and changing it back to its original form.
The movie started off promising giving the audience a serious mood; however the story slowly fails to capture the same mood and goes for a more comical mood by the end of the film. This is subtle letdown as audience would have been lost with the roller coaster ride of the mood in the film, especially when Chitti turns villain, audience would be confused with the emotions and unsure as the mood wanted audiences to expect a real bad-ass Robot but rather a typical villain Rajinikanth (the actor started off his career with negative roles) character appears.
But it was not devastating for the film as the Indian audience were definitely happier to see the typical villain Rajinikanth.
A.R. Rahman who provided the score in Endhiran did a wonderful job and we heard the right things at the right moment and nothing went wrong in his department.
The cinematography needs to be applauded as it was breathtaking and colorful, giving the eyes of the viewer a holiday-like feel.
Visual effects and animatronics were the real deal in the movie. The people who made the movie a real hit would be the names you will be seeing at the ending credits starts to roll. They were the heroes of the much appreciated climax of Endhiran.
Another area for major improvement was the screenplay, since the visual effects (Industrial Light & Magic) and animatronics (Stan Winston Studios) were done by the best in the world and the director was left to his direction. He could have concentrated more on the screenplay and bought us imagery of Chitti's perspectives. I.e. The train fight scene where Chitti had to fight off a group of bad guys might have been better if Chitti was able to analyze and select his wide array of programmed fighting skills for the current situation, rather than just fighting them off with a default Kung fu fight.
The viewers could actually predict the following scenes as all were chronological and orderly; Shanker could have actually saved it from the mundane Traditional movie sequencing.
Director Shanker could have also worked more on the ending. He could have surprised the audience with a twist-ending or an opening to a possible sequel. He rather finished it off like everybody expected- a happy ending.
Other aspects of the film were very well done too. Fighting and Dancing choreographers did a excellent job overall.
I have to keep emphasizing the Indian audience as this Tamil movie is actually customized for them and is already grossing millions, the only sad thing it was so near becoming a good Sci-Fi for audiences all over the world. Nevertheless, this Sci-fi movie is new and a brave attempt by Shanker to the audiences which has all the ingredients for the whole family to enjoy.
Go for Endhiran the Robot to see Rajinikanth and a maiden attempt by Indian Cinema on Sci-Fi (Indian Style) setting a new genre...
Verdict: A blockbuster for Indian audiences and Rajini Fans... An entertaining Sci-fi movie with few flaws for other audiences...