Endhiran: Movie Review

My longest movie review ever, but the movie demanded it.

A typical Hollywood Blockbuster Action movie would take about 200 $ million dollars to make. Endhiran, despite being the costliest Indian film ever made, the budget was approximately @ 35 $ million dollars. So you do the maths.

Let’s talk about Hype, making a regional film @ 35 $ million dollars, you need to appreciate the guts of Kalanidhi Maran. Why wouldn’t you want not to Hype it, it’s after all his money. We all know how good Sun Pictures is when it comes to marketing and they have done their job clearly well.

The movie starts sans Rajni’s fancy Introduction, and is light hearted right through the first half. Rajni is Dr. Vaseegaran who is a Robotic Scientist keen on creating a one man army Andro Humanoid Robo which he could give it to the Indian military for greater good. He creates Chitti the Robot who amuses everyone with his capabilities. Sana (Aishwarya) plays his love interest, two assistants for Rajni in Santhanam and Karunas who are wasted with little scope for them. Dr. Bohra (Danny Denzongapa), the guy who had refused Amjad Khan’s Sholay role is brought back to the Silver Screen after a significant hiatus. He plays the role of a Rajnis’s antagonist who wants to create destructive Robots and sell it to international terrorist arms dealer. Unlike Rajni’s previous villains like Ramya Krishnan in Padayappa and Suman in Sivaji who crave a niche for themselves after they make a movie with Rajni, there isn’t enough scope for Danny too and is completely wasted as well. The Robot character has been thought too well by Shankar and satisfies the viewers in all needs. Shankar is without any doubt the best creative director in the world when it comes to creating a song sequence and has proved it again in Endhiran. Aishwarya looks sizzling in Arima Arima and Kilimanjaro song. Just when you thought that the former Miss World would have possibly worn every single dress on this earth during her career, the dresses doled out to her in the Kilimanjaro songs are a visual treat to the viewers, shot at Machu Pichhu, an UNESCO World Heritage Site located at Peru is the first Indian film to be shot at this location. Heard that shooting rights were rejected for James Bond’s last film at Machu Pichhu, the views and camera angles are just breathtaking, you need to watch in Big screen just for this song alone. Shankar’s creative genius comes into foray when Chitti attracts all the metal objects from the bad guys and looks like a Bathrakali with all the ladies amusing themselves thinking that he is actually their God, a hilarious scene.

Shankar does a King Kong in the second half giving us an overdose of animatronics and CG. It looked like a showcase event to Hollywood producers that he can do a Hollywood Blockbuster if given 200 $ million dollars. In the run, the plot of the movie was compromised. His desperation comes out when he tries to fit in all possible famous Hollywood CG effort in the long climax action sequence ranging from Anaconda to Iron Man. However, Kudos to his meticulous effort despite a poor finish to the movie. When I was wondering why Rajni’s first half performance was subdued with no significant mentions, Bam came Rajni with the Bad Robo performance. Many a times we tend to forget how great Rajni is as an Actor, he scorches the theatre with his performance. The scene where he finds the Black sheep and shouts maaaaaaaaaaaa was phenomenal, one watch just for this sceneJ. Hope Rajni does a full blown Villain role in the near future. Aishwarya was stunning in patches and artificial in patches too, the final scene where Rajni destroys all the Robots, Aishwarya’s expression was amateur. I would still stick to my point that Aishwarya can act only in emotional scenes.

A. R Rehmans’ background score was a mini Philharmonic Orchestration and was colossus. Off late many of his songs need a lot of listens before it gets on to you and Endhiran is no exception. He nails it to the movie requirement. If you don’t like the songs yet, probably you have listened enough. Sabu Cyril art stands out and so does Rathnavelu’s cinematography.

A very impressive enjoyable first half turns cacophonous to satiate Shankar’s CG appetite with Rajni’s performance as the saving grace.

My Verdict: ***