Endhiran.....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 choreography