ENTHIRAN MOVIE REVIEW

When was the last time, you watched a movie and came out of a theatre and then continued to talk about that movie for ages to come? If you have an answer, you have another opportunity and if you don’t, you have your first ‘experience’ here!

Director Shankar, director extraordinaire comes with an Ento-sci-fi-thriller (Entertaining science fiction) ride and that’s ‘Endhiran’ produced by Sun Pictures’ Kalanidhi Maran! His trump card is Superstar Rajnikanth with four Aces being Aishwarya Rai Bachchan as the heroine, AR Rahman for his expertise best known, Rathnavelu for cinematography and one whole Ace for his team that developed the special effects!

If you are that die hard fan of Rajnikanth, you wouldn’t need a review but you’d still want that loads of lines praising heaps on the Superstar! But here, you’ll regret one thing – the invention of the dictionary! You won’t really find one word to describe the true charisma and the on-screen persona of Rajnikanth, the undisputed Superstar of Tamil, oops Indian cinema!

Man, he is just class, when it comes to style and performance! Let’s dip in to the review in detail, don’t worry, there will be no spoilers!

The Gist of the Story

Rajnikanth is a scientist, Vaseegaran who develops his brainchild, a robot. Names it ‘Chitty’ and teaches every single thing that this universe can hold. ‘Chitty’ is programmed to learn and know everything except for human emotions and when that is taught, how would you expect a machine to react? Watch ‘Endhiran’ to know how!

Shankar, the captain!

‘Endhiran’ was apparently Shankar’s vision which he envisaged 10 years back! So imagine the idea that rose almost a decade ago! Yes he has been inspired by Hollywood, the land of science fiction, but executing that in India with the ‘Superstar’ flavour is not an easy task. Shankar’s knowledge on science and technology seems to be immense and he has conveyed his ideas to both rural and urban people with ease, thanks to simple, straightforward dialogues with due credit to Late Sujatha and young Karky. Shankar has adopted an uncomplicated screenplay that is enriched with entertaining elements that will make you think of how those three hours just flew!

Dialogues

The Superstar’s fan following ranges from the villages to international cities and this being a movie talking about technology, one would expect totally technical jargon in place. But that’s only a myth, because the dialogues in ‘Endhiran’ are simple and convey the message quite crisply making sure all the sections of the audience understand every aspect of technology and science. Now did that sound serious? The movie is neatly infused with comedy dialogues that will make you giggle and when rendered by Rajni himself, you’ll just scream laughing!

Visual Effects and Editing

The teasers and trailers stimulated the curiosity thanks to the splendid visual effects by international technicians. Examples of the dynamic effects are a plenty to talk about in the movie but sample this – a robot with unimaginable powers confronts goons with his electromagnetic property and attracts their weapons, and voila, you get to see, a spectacular scene that probably idolizes Goddess Kali! You’ll have to watch it to understand and realise, it is verbally impossible to describe that scene and many other visual effects! Editing by Antony is crisp. Had the length been a little longer, the party would have been a little annoying!

Stunts

Not just for visual effects, Shankar has also used the services of international expertise for the stunts in his movie. Yuen Woo Ping, who worked on ‘The Matrix’, etc, has designed stunt scenes that will make your jaws drop! Our very own Peter Heines has also done his part. A sample to tease your curiosity – an intense car chasing scene with our Superstar making a ‘donut’ in his Mercedes Convertible! Exhilarating!

Cinematography and Art

Rathnavel aka Randy, seems to have been born with a golden camera! He has produced visuals fabulously with all the songs being shot with right colour temperature and lighting. You won’t miss a sight when ‘Kadhal Annukal’ and ‘Kilimanjaro’ are on screen; they simply transport you to the scenic locations. And coming to art Sabu Cyril has done a tremendous job with his distinct style.

Music

AR Rahman, the Mozart of Madras, we’ve seen the response for the music right after the launch! But on screen, ‘Kadhal Annukal’ and ‘Kilimanjaro’, not to forget ‘Arima’, they take you by storm. The background score’s decent and tries to receive your attention effectively! The rerecording in the movie is near perfect and sound capture by Oscar winner Resul Pookutty is A1.

The Cast

Your eyes are predominantly set on the Superstar but pave way for the other leads. We’ll come to the beautiful Aishwarya in a little while but before that it is going to be the gracious Danny Denzongpa, the wily villain of the movie. He is old but he is got grace and is a refreshing change from the usual villains. He adds a lot of freshness to the script, a brilliant choice of casting.

The next, comedians Karunaas and Santhanam, though they don’t quite have lengthy screen presence, they still manage to receive appreciation for their comic timing. Santhanam will be a proud man to have shared screen with the superstar.

Aishwarya Rai – The Miss World, is amazing and truly an epitome of beauty! She forms an important part of the script and hence you’ll spot her throughout the movie, perhaps for the first time a heroine is receiving considerable importance in a superstar’s movie! The marvellous costumes add to her allure and she’s just majestic in few scenes!

Rajnikanth aka Superstar

Saving the best (or the ultimate) for the last, Rajnikanth is one man who will not cease to amaze you! If your 6 or 60, doesn’t really matter because you will be in awe of the man! you will be in awe of the man! In a movie which shows signs of visual effects riding in the driver’s seat, the Superstar dominates every bit to walk away with appreciation! No favouritism here, you just can’t stop talking about him, once you come out! As the scientist Vaseegaran, he plays his part uncharacteristically Rajni without Punch dialogues or fights but as ‘Chitty – the Robot’ you are bound to follow or even turn an addict!

Sample this – as a gentle Robot he is precise in acting and when it comes to the evil side, the incredible Rajni has made sure he doesn’t waste his opportunity! His evil laugh, his characteristic slick walk, that body language and the dialogue delivery in ‘Endhiran’ remind you of the golden Rajni time! Look out for the amazing dance moves by the superstar, given his age, a few moves are stunning, credits to the choreographers!

ENDHIRAN SONGS REVIEW

Well, the mystery has begun to unravel.Coming from A.R. Rahman, one is already set to listen to techno beats and snazzy rhythms. When the movie is titled Endhiran (which means Robot), we know there’s no room for the ordinary. Both expectations are thoroughly satisfied.

Produced by Sun Pictures, directed by Shankar, starring Rajinikanth and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, the songs of Endhiran are released under the Think Music label.

The album takes off with 'Pudhiya Manidha' in the voices of S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, A.R. Rahman and his daughter Khatija Rahman. In keeping with the futuristic theme of the movie' the opening notes are very techno. A robotic rendering of the first verse is followed by slow strong chanting ‘Pudhiya Manidha Boomiku Va’. The song goes on to sing the praise of the Robot and it’s sublimity. When the pace gradually picks up, SPB’s vocals overpower the others'.

The next song is 'Kadhal Anukkal', a poetic love song in the voices of Vijay Prakash and Shreya Ghoshal. The mellifluous opening guitar strumming is simple yet soul-stirring. This is a typical ARR melody of the 2000s with pacey beats in the background and a gentle melody in the foreground. The first musical interlude with the distinctive note of bagpipes has a soothing feel to it, but when the techno beats surface in the second interlude, we are reminded that we are still in the Endhiran album! Needless to say, Vijay and Shreya bring soul to the composition – they always do!

'Irumbilae Oru Idhayam' is the next number. The lyrics are quite touching and bring out ‘the Robot with emotions’ angle. ARR has sung the song himself, and as always, arouses our emotions with finesse. You can’t miss the female voice singing 'Super Sonic Super Star' from time to time in the background. Once she even calls him 'Robotic Hypnotic Super Star!' The song has a heavy dose of quirky English lyrics and to top it all , we have a medium-pace rap from Kash 'n' Krissy that kind of grows on you.

What follows the heavily westernized number is the theme music, titled 'Chitti Dance Showcase', a very techno, speedy theme. It starts off with few lines of rap in English and quickly converts into quick-paced classical notes sung to heavy western percussion, a very interesting piece repeated a few times in the composition. The song has a heavy dose of electric drums; when the drums fall silent, they are replaced by a serene violin orchestra with a divine harmony.

'Arima Arima' opens with the royal rhythm of drums, like it’s marking the entry of an Emperor, in this case, Endhiran. While the chorus chants his praises, calling him even the Silicon Singam, there is a tinge of pain in the voice of Sadhana Sargam. The thuds of the drums continue all through the number, with Endhiran sounding every bit the tough guy in the voice of Hariharan. This majestic composition has a shade of melancholy, bringing out the contrast in the psychological mindsets of the characters.

While all these songs have an obvious attachment to techno beats and futuristic rhythms, the next song 'Kilimanjaro' is completely removed from these moods. Tribal beats and tribal chanting persist throughout the number without the slightest mention of Endhiran or anything robotic throughout. The lyrics are on the sensual side. The sound of the drums overpowers all other instruments in this number sung by Javed Ali and Chinmayi.

'Boom Boom Robot-da' is the last number in the album. This fully techno, upbeat number (sung by Krithi Sagathia, Swetha Mohan and Tanvi Shah, interspersed with Tamil rap from Yogi B) is a mish-mash of fast techno sounds and a moderately pacey tune. The lyrics reiterate the greatness of the robot and the unimaginable avenues it opens up for the development of humanity.

AVATAR-MOVIE REVIEW

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart,” said William Wordsworth. Thus, without letting our admiration for James Cameron come in the way of our verdict on ‘Avatar’, with a heavy heart, we’ll have to say that we found Cameron’s highly anticipated, expensive motion picture ‘Avatar’ not living up to our expectations.

Many who have seen the film have an opinion that since so much time (10 years), effort and sweat has gone into creating stereoscopic 3D effects for the film, and combining live and computer animation, one ought to appreciate it. True as it might be, at the end of the day, if a film fails to establish an emotional connect with the audiences, no effects whatsoever can salvage it or make it special.

Coming to the story, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is an ex-marine who is forced into participating in Avatar program. The program is setup by humans and comprises of encroaching a distant moon Pandora as it has an abundance of precious minerals on its land. However, getting hold of Pandora won’t be easy as humans can’t breathe on it. Also, the warrior Na’vi tribe resides in it.

In order to encroach Pandora’s land, one has to be able to breathe its air and thus become one of the Na’vis. Scientists thus create these genetically-bred human-Na’vi hybrids known as Avatars. The Avatars have a Na-vi body and a human DNA. Jake becomes one such Avatar...human kind’s weapon to make truce with Na’vis and thus force them to evacuate their planet. As Jake starts shuttling between his human and Na’vi body, he starts getting emotionally attached to Pandora and there begins the conflict between his medium of existence.

Avatar begins well but goofs up as it progresses. The story which seems promising initially starts faltering the moment Cameron shows Jake fall in love with a Na’vi woman. The film then on becomes just another clichéd love story where a hero will save his lover and her people from the villains. The villains happen to be humans here who now want to wage a war on the Na’vis as they refuse to give in to their demands. Jake even readies himself to battle it out with the humans to save his Na’vi tribe... things people do for love! If the love wasn’t clichéd enough, Cameron even makes his hero single out the lead villain and engage him in a one-to-one fist fight with him!

Avatar begins well, drags tremendously in between and then picks up on its pace towards the climax, but its too late by then. Titanic oozed romance and we loved it but the setting of Avatar didn’t require romance as its prime ingredient. This wrong move of Cameron transforms a sci-fi ‘Avatar’ into a highly clichéd run-of-the-mill dramatic love story set against a war backdrop.

The film is a visual delight, but lacks an original plot. This visual treat doesn’t make up for the weak storyline. The infusion of human trauma in an idyllic fantasy setting doesn’t seem to be a good idea! Avatar loses direction somewhere along the way, and its huge length plays spoil sport too.

Performances are decent, but not outstanding. Unfortunately, so is the film! However, ‘decent’ is not what one expects from a James Cameron.