Enthiran – Movie review

Enthiran – Needs an update

There was a time in the early 90s when we saw a lot of toy robots imported from Singapore flooding the shops and showcases. They made funny electronic noises which made kids happy. Probably Shankhar wrote Enthiran by that time. Kalanithi Maran produced Enthiran is a middle of the road Rajini film with quite a few Shankar visuals. But the South Indian flavour and the Sun colors are enough to carry the film to the masses. Its time we came out of the movies of this sort.

The plot is simple. Vaseegaran (Rajini) a scientist invents a robot called Chitti(Rajini) assisted by two morons (Santhanam and Karunas) without even attending to his girlfriend Sana (Aishwarya Rai Bacchan). Vaseegaran wants his invention to become a part of the Indian army. Due to a few experiments which go haywire and the robot’s lack of emotions, Dr.Bohra (Danny Denzongpa) one of the members of the AIRT board disagrees to approve the robot. When Vaseegaran tries to imbibe emotions into the Robot, he fails. But when accidentally the robot acquires  emotions, problems begin for the relieved Vaseegaran. His creation falls head over heels in love with his better half. As the antagonist tells Vaseegaran just before the intermission, the story begins here. The movie starts with a very simple Rajini introduction and ends with a massive Rajini bonanza.

Rajini rocks as usual. Whatever he did in his earlier movies is repeated heretoo but in the robot’s skin. Humour and Rajini save the first half that otherwise would have become a big mess. When the robot runs over the train coupes like a control pressed cursor in text editing, we drop our jaws. There are a lot of other interesting chunks in the movie you should look out for. Inspite of the scenes which remind us of Judgement day, Iron man and transformers, Enthiran remains original. But the base line of the story takes us to the science fiction writers of the last century. Probably they were the sources of writer Sujatha’s inspiration. The final 25 minutes of the movie is the yummy chocolate piece which is hidden at the bottom of a cornetto ice-cream. Shankar and Rajini were successfully able to enliven up a dead script that has got no USP except Rajini, Visuals and the last of the eye candies:Aishwarya Rai Bachan. Rahman’s grand BGMs add salt to the movie and try to tie the audience to their seats during the song sequences. Shankar’s innovative vision even in cliched areas make Enthiran interesting in flashes. For a movie made from a cost much lesser than Matrix and Iron man, Enthiran’s visuals are amazing. Hats off to Shankar’s vision and the effort put in by his team.

Enthiran’s script goes haywire once we get back to our seats after the intermission. Shankar uses the MGR formula of a 3 songs after the interval which drains our energy and gives us a patience test. The script loses focus and clarity to the commercial purposes after the interval and makes Enthiran look like a Perarasu movie for a while till Shankar comes back to claim his place in the denouement. Also the ways in which the robot charges itself and the methods used by Vaseegaran to destroy the robot are hilariously illogical and outdated. Come on guys, we’ve grown up. Through out the movie robot makes noises that keeps us in the 80s. Once again Aishwarya Rai plays a dumb doll role toeing the lines of great Indian heroines. The second half of the movie lags and puts you to sleep despite a trio of Rahman numbers and wakes you up with a big noise at the end. Shankar’s vision to make extraordinary visuals is laudable. But his imaginative faculty which we saw scaling great heights in Mudhalvan and Indian falters in Enthiran. With an uninspiring story which runs mercilessly for almost 3 hours he had made Indian cinema a laughing stock. Lack of intelligence and common sense may be liked by the masses but not by any intellectual movie buff. The million dollar question that why most of the Indian film makers always fall short when it comes to good writing remains. The audiences have developed and are muffs no more and they deserve to be respected and not to be fooled.

Even A.R.Rahman’s BGMs don’t work in most parts of the latter half, while his songs are peppy enough to pull audiences out of their seats for a dance. R.Rathnavelu seems to be the master of Enthiran with his amazing camera work. Peter Hein’s stunts are kind of repetitive and need tweaking. Anthony Gonzalves still needs to check the movie once more for scissoring it’s sprawling length. .  Sabu Siril‘s set designs and architecture are amazing but again they’re ‘grandeur supporting nothingness’ in a few areas.   For those who were angry when SRK called robot a half baked story, see and know for yourselves. Enthiran says, I am a layman’s eye candy.

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