Endhiran

I watched Endhiran almost a week after its release as I had gone to Bangalore and had to patiently await my brother's return who had gone outstation for a training as we wanted to see the movie as a whole family for the first time.

This really helped going to watch the movie with a very open mind to savour the experience, after allowing all the hype to build around it as well as listening to some moderating comments from some quarters revealing how this is not a typical superstar film characterized by a grand opening scene and / or an introduction song or replete with punchlines that have come to typify even poor imitators of this great man.

I had always believed that this would be an out and out Shankar film given that it is exploring unchartered territories of film making (not script writing) across all film industries in India and hence was even happy to know these things about the movie before watching it.

I am floored by this movie simply for the audacity shown by Shankar in going against all norms usually attached to a Rajni film (which he himself is guilty of in Sivaji) and retaining the core of what was in his heart while envisioning this movie all along.

I am personally tired of seeing the compulsive nature with which hollywood deals with all robotic movies as a clash to save the world from aliens always descending only in New York.

It was such a refreshing change to see the canvas of a triangular love story being used for a science fiction movie.

Also having this as a backdrop Shankar has not gone about doing something silly and actually starts off with a tangible thought of a scientist (Vaseegaran, played by Rajni) using Artificial Intelligence and attempting to augment the Indian Army

with an andro-humanoid (Chitti, the Robot also played by Rajni) with a noble intent of saving lives of soldiers. A true vision which goes out of control.

Rajni essays the character of Chitti astoundingly well. He is a constant companion for Sana who is Vasee's girlfriend(Played by Aish) helping her even cheat in exams. The straight interpretation to the spoken word that he is programmed with evokes so much of levity in the first half that it just breezes past us. The best sequence being with the late Mohd Haneefa who comes as a traffic cop trying to get a bribe from Chitti for keeping the car in a no parking zone.

The train sequence fight to save Aish from the clutches of her hostile neighbour (a nerdy character done quite enthusiastically by Raghav) and his gang of goons is simply stunning for both the graphics as well as for the stunt choreography. The earlier fight with the same gang in a slum area has a hilarious dimension with the goons not knowing what they are dealing with.

Danny (Vasee's senior and mentor) is himself trying to create andro-humanoids for commercially exploiting it by selling it to terrorist organizations, but is very unsuccessful in perfecting the neural schema!!

Danny who is in the approving board for certifying Chitti's fitness for use by the army, gets jelous of Vasee and disapproves it logically by proving that it has no emotion and makes it come within a fraction of an inch of stabbing its own creator at his instructions.

Vasee confounds everyone by building the cognitive ability to develop emotions in Chitti's neural schema (Usually it is my boon/bane to use complex words but this time it is Shankar's script which has these genuinely researched words that fit his script to the tee) and the few scenes that Shankar uses to establish Chitti's emotive side are simply superb.

Danny while expressing that he now has no problems approving also has a sly remark of the impending things to come.

Chitti v2.0 starts from here itself with subtle shades of negativity that is very entertaining.

Chitti starts competing with its own creator in romancing Aish and his emotive side swells into a level of maturity of scheming against the very purpose of his creation. He wantonly screws up his revaluation with the army so that he can be in the civilian world and romance Aish.

An enraged Vasee goes beserk and dismembers (oops...dismantles) Chitti completely and has it thrown into the dumpyard.

Danny who comes to know this goes in search of Chitti's remains and is successful in giving it a new lease of existence and in return has Chitti sharing its neural schema to make his terrorist mission a succes. Shankar portrays this as an emotional compromise by Chitti in contrast to an earlier incident, when Vasee first unveils Chitti in a robotic conference. Danny's attempt to interact with Chitti directly in obtaining its neural schema is so brilliantly put down by Chitti, who can only think straight, that it makes Danny highly embarrased and thinking on his feet to cover up his intent.

Danny adds a twist by giving Chitti additional intelligence to turn totally negative but that turns against him as Chitti goes about replicating himself using Danny's WIP andro-humanoids, even killing Danny in the process who objects to this.

What follows is a scintillating climax episode of 45 minutes which brings to the fore Rajni's ability to portray villainy in the way ONLY he can.

Rajni as the villain completely erases Danny's character from your mind and which is why I am not even able to recall his character name in this review :-)

Infact Danny has done a very chic performance and full justice to his role and yet this is what is the effect Rajni has as the villain.

Chitti goes beserk and abducts Aish from the altar of her wedding with Vasee, loots the city and builds an empire of its own to lead a life with Aish. The scene where Chitti explains his vision for his life with Sana left me in a daze as to how intense Rajni can portray a character if he chooses to.

Vasee dressed as Chitti infiltrates into Chitti's kingdom as one of its clones and works himself into Aish's room to serve dinner. He is forced to prove himself to her by cutting his hand to show his blood. 

Subsequently when Chitti sees the drop of blood and Aish explains it as her own, he corners her with his ability to match it with her blood group. The villainic sarcasm portrayed by Rajni in some of these scenes are a treat.

Chitti has all his clones assembled in an attempt to find THE BLACK SHEEP among them. This sequence to me is the best episode of the film w.r.t the spine chilling villainy portrayed by the superstar especially the way he expresses his dismay at only finding a robot midway and eventually his glee at having found Vasee.

Just when he is about to finish off Vasee, the police force enters with counter acting weapons (apparently with Vasee's inputs) that neutralizes chitti and his clones for a brief while and enables Vasee to escape with Aish.

Shankar the visionary takes over from Rajni at this point in delivering the most scintillating climax Indian cinema has ever witnessed with Chitti fighting a battle

jointly with all his clones.

The way Chitti aligns all the wirelessly networked clones into multiple chain formations to decimate the police force trying to contain him leaves everyone in the audience gasping for breath and spell bound. Visual effects of the highest order that we have been used to seeing only in hollywood movies till the good fortune of having been "Endhiraned".

I think anyone seeing this movie on pirate DVD is a double distilled idiot just for the sake of missing the visual effects of the last 20-30 minutes and therin lies Shankar's brilliance of execution. Hats off to him for having gone global to where the talent and resources are to create this spectacular fare(and thanks to Sun Pictures for trusting this venture and allowing him the scale to do so).

Vasee fights with Chitti from a remote van trying to inject worms / virus to dismantle Chitti and his clones. Kudos to Rajni for accepting to play the character of Vasee, which Shankar has had the guts to conceive in full touch with reality and not having any heroics reserved for him other than his ability to fight Chitti with his intellect. To me this is what has made Chitti the hero, comedian and villain all rolled into one.

After a brilliant sequence that finally neutralizes Chitti, Vasee manages to evict the negative chip from Chitti.

Vasee is convicted by the Court with capital punishment for wreaking havoc on humanity but then Chitti who is now restored back to his pristine glory by Vasee comes to the rescue of his creator(who he considers his God before being corrupted by Danny) as witness and even intelligenty argues that law considers all forms of material evidence acceptable.

Chitti through his eyes projects the episode which he has captured in his memory of Danny mentioning his evil plans of making Chitti go beserk so that the blame falls on Vasee and hence saves Vasee from any sort of punishment by further arguing that loss of life due to a machine should only be deemed an accident.

But owing to this admission, the court pronounces that Chitti be dismantled in the presence of law enforcement agencies and kept encapsulated in a safe zone as the country is not yet ready for such an advancement.

Shankar underlines Chitti's emotional side with a subtle nuance to the final scene when it interprets Vasee's inability to execute the court order and volunteers for help. Vasee with a broken heart asks Chitti to dismantle himself causing a lump in everyone's throat.

The scene where Chitti dismantles himself part by part while still consoling and apologising to all others around is truly the icing on the cake for this spectacular movie. It makes the whole movie linger in your mind forever.

What a film this is. Shankar take a bow. You are a marvel.

You have not thought big just in terms of technicality but also in terms of the boundaries that Rajni can scale and given us a version of the superstar whom we not only celebrate but ADORE.

You have the audacity to actually ask, why the hell should a Rajni film have an introduction scene or introduction song to celebrate him, when you can pack in the punch and deliver a whole movie that celebrates him not just as a star but also as the genuine performer that he is.

Yes, Endhiran is a celebration of Rajni's talent in all its intensity.

I usually take pride in declaring how many times I have watched a super star movie and try to better the previous release. But this time I make an open promise to myself....I am not even going to keep a count :-)

Cheers,

Mahesh