Enthiran/Robot

[Roshanrocks]

of course there are some people who didnt like the movie , and some people who donot want to like the movie

[The Dark Horse]

Shivaji was more of a Rajni film than a Shankar film, now its the other way around. Better watch it in theatre for the sheer visual pleasure more than anything else.

[SachDan]

Meet India's biggest film star Balding, paunchy, 61-year-old Rajinikanth is an unlikely leading man. But his new film, out this week, looks set to break all records By Andrew Buncombe in Delhi In Mumbai, the print of his film was driven at dawn to a temple by horse-drawn carriage in order for it to be blessed. In Chennai, the 4am showing of the film sold out, forcing fans to hustle to get tickets for the 5am slot. In Milton Keynes, movie reviewers were charmed, and in the US, hard-to-get tickets were reportedly selling for up to $40 (£25). This is how things are in the world of Rajinikanth, an Indian movie star of utterly larger-than-life proportions whose every film is a guaranteed hit. Remarkably, while he may be little known outside India, Rajinikanth is the second highest-earning Asian actor, pipped for the top spot only by Jackie Chan. This weekend, the 61-year-old veteran of more than 150 films is earning even more money. The star's latest film, Endhiran – English title The Robot – opened to good reviews and huge, adoring crowds who queued overnight outside cinemas across the nation to watch the latest, high-adrenaline adventure. Inside, the audiences shouted and cheered at their hero's unlikely moves while outside fireworks were set off and drums played. But this movie is different for several reasons. Not only is it the most expensive Indian movie in history, costing around 1.6bn rupees (£23m), a vast sum for a film in this country even if it's nothing compared to Hollywood. But the film was also simultaneously released globally at more than 2,000 cinemas, the largest ever distribution for an Indian film and a decision that underscores the star's appeal with south Asian communities around the world. "He has a tremendous following. I'd say he is the ultimate Indian movie star," said Taran Adarsh, a leading film critic. "Other film stars could not get away with what he does in films – he shoots with his fingers, he swallows helicopters and he turns into an anaconda – but whatever he does the fans love." Even by the usually brash standards of popular Indian cinema, Rajinikanth is no ordinary star. A balding former Bangalore bus conductor who makes no effort to hide his paunch, the actor has a connection with fans that his rivals can only wish to match. He famously makes little effort at realism in his films. Rather, they are usually unbelievable stories in which his performance is completely over the top. There is lots of comedy as well, and plenty of music and dance routines. The actor's trademark move is to throw a cigarette into the air, catch it deftly between his lips and then light it, all in one move. "He is no mere actor – he is a force of nature," said Grady Hendrix, writing in the online magazine Slate. "If a tiger had sex with a tornado and then their tiger-nado baby got married to an earthquake, their offspring would be Rajinikanth." What makes the actor's story and record-breaking success even more intriguing is that he is not even a product of Bollywood, the much-celebrated Hindi-language movie industry based in Mumbai. Rather he comes from what is sometimes known as Kollywood, the Tamil-language film scene based in the city of Chennai. In Chennai, formerly known as Madras, Rajinikanth's new film opened in 45 cinemas on Friday. For years, Rajinikanth, whose real name is Shivaji Rao Gaekwad, worked as a struggling stage actor. Once he made his breakthrough, he never looked back. There have been occasions when directors have tried to kill off one of his film characters and fans have responded by threatening to burn down cinemas. His new film tells the story of a robot, played by him. The film's team includes Yuen Wo-ping, who worked on The Matrix, Stan Winston Studios, which worked on Jurassic Park, and the Academy Award-winning composer AR Rahman, best known in the West for the score to Slumdog Millionaire. First reports say the sci-fi movie's technical effects and graphics are better than in any previous Indian movie and for the first time are of international standard. It's also estimated that this latest offering will set a new box office record for the nation. The legend of Rajinikanth is set to soar even higher. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/meet-indias-biggest-film-star-2096273.html

[Nova]

^ Rajnikant is only big in South India. "If a tiger had sex with a tornado and then their tiger-nado baby got married to an earthquake, their offspring would be Rajinikanth." :haha:

[ZodiaC]

now this makes me want to wait for the DVD than spending $30.

Don't waste your money on DVD. Though the movie is way below average, only worth watching in theaters. In DVD its gonna suck more.

[Anonymous]

Congrats Shankar on making the most retarded Rajni movie in recent years..you could have rather made a chitti chitti bang bang with robot chittti and what the feck was Ar Rahman thinking..Only positive was the brief glimpse of Rajni's pure acting talent in the second half. A funny incident happened..At the ticket counter (watched it in Birmingham), a brit looked at me perplexed when I asked him for the tickets for Endhiran..He was like "I dont know who the hell has acted in this movie, but people are going crazy. Have never seen so much frenzy!"..lol

[mastana]

Khichdi - the movie is better. :phehehe:

[EnterTheVoid]

This is the Telugu version, looks pretty gay --- [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvh1-XgTZbI]YouTube - Robo Official Telugu Trailer (2:58 Minutes) - Rajinikanth, Aishwarya Rai[/ame] Also looked like they plagiarized off 'I Robot'

[mastana]

This is the Telugu version, looks pretty gay --- Also looked like they plagiarized off 'I Robot'

Whats new lol?

[fineleg]

Nice movie! I liked it. More of a shankar movie like it has been mentioned. But the negative Rajini has acted very well, and its a good entertainer. Aish is beautiful Computer Graphics! :two_thumbs_up: for the movie AR Rahman :thumbs_up: Music

[Roshanrocks]

Rajni vs Rajni vs Rajni in Endhiran: The Robot 03 October 2010, 05:27 Like all larger than life Indian actors, Rajnikanth doesn't act with other actors at all. He pretty much acts all by himself in a movie. This - along with the fact that the legend has slowed down his movie projects with age - makes a Rajni movie an event. In the deliriously entertaining, all crazyiness on deck film Endhiran: The Robot, director Shankar acknowledges this fact by making Rajni face off against two of his own selves. He throws in Aishwarya Rai for good measure but more on that later. A word on the magic of Rajni. I used to be a big fan of the Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan before said filmmaker became a bit mired in his own lasciviousness. Egoyan used to often show his scenes out of time sequence in his movies. Thus when you saw a scene, you didn't know what was going on until you got to a later scene. Subsequently the brilliant American filmmaker Steven Soderbergh miniaturized this technique in one of my favorite movies - Limey - by showing parts of the same scene out of time sequence. I saw Robot in Tamil (and I recommend everyone do the same) and the English subtitles would show up a good 30 seconds to a minute after the words were spoken. Thus often I couldn't tell what was going on in a scene until the scene that came after. Robot ended up achieving the same effect effortlessly that awesome filmmakers struggled all their lives to perfect. Such is the brilliance of Rajni that everything - even unintentionally - becomes brilliant around him. Rajni is introduced in this movie with individually punched out characters that spell "S-U-P-E-R-S-T-A-R-R-A-J-N-I" in the opening credits. This is a great time to get into the movie because its usually accompanied by some of the best hooting. Rajni I plays a geeky professor who has no qualms keeping his super hot girlfriend Aishwarya on hold while he hangs out with two dweebs and a waiter robot called R2. Rajni I wears a wig full of plumes and often unleashes the charming Rajni megawatt smile. Rajni II is the robot Rajni I creates - a stoic, strait-laced machine that charms Rajni I's girlfriend Aishwarya. But, in a rather beaten storyline, Rajni II is unable to decipher human sabhyataa. To address this limitation Rajni I pumps Rajni II full of hormones. Inexplicably, lightning strikes Rajni II. Rajni II falls in love with Aishwarya. He flunks Rajni I's effort to pimp him out to the military. Rajni I chops Rajni II up. If you aren't still with me, you aren't a Rajni fan. You should leave now. Later Rajni II is rescued by Danny Denzongpa and enhanced with a destructor chip. This gives rise to Rajni III - a smirking, badass robot with a runaway swish of white through his hair and lightning bolt sideburns. Rajnikanth clearly enjoys this third reincarnation the most, giving his character a delicious misguided sleaziness. Rajni III then goes berserk and in homage to his superstar self, creates Rajni III through Rajni CX. These other Rajni's are clearly children of a lesser Rajni because they aren't as smart as Rajni III. But they have tremendous magnetic bodies that form all kinds of awesome shapes in tandem. They all then buckle down to the business of harassing the living daylights out of Aishwarya. In the final half hour of the movie, director Shankar pulls out some nascent fascination for Godzilla flicks (not to mention a fondness for the Mummy franchise) and shapes his army of Rajni's into all kinds of funky shapes: a ball, a drill, snakes, a massive giant. This part of the movie made my jaw drop - with its sheer ambition and total dedication to taking nuttiness one step further. Rajni does a great job dilineating his three characters. Operating with an outrageous wardrobe, Aishwarya looks wonderful and brings her trademark sincerity to the role, making everything around her appear even more crazy. In this regard, her casting works. For all its swirling madcapness, Robot is rather cleverly structured. Much like the gold standard for simple storytelling - Baywatch, in which a simple story was an excuse to take you from one set of boobs to another - Robot takes you from one massive Rajni moment to the next. Its the ultimate assertion of storytelling by showcasing your star (a style which Bollywood milked so well in Dabangg). The scenes themselves serve wide swaths of the audience demo. There are dhaasu fight scenes - the best of which is a fight scene in a moving train. Then there are beheno maate moments. These are mapped out as sequences in which Rajni II goes about pleasing women. He pays attention to a woman when she's talking. He makes her problems his own. He cooks a feast for them. He cleans house. He delivers a baby and saves a mother's life. He does everything Rajni I doesn't. Rajni II - in his newly minted "young adult" phase also spends some time showing smirking adults around him just how smart he really is. Endhiran's greatest trick is that it has a version of Rajni to appeal to all of us: men, women, children, geeks and badasses.

[Roshanrocks]

Endhiran rocks... dot! Ok, first things first. Rajnikanth in Endhiran has dared to deviate from the formula and storyline his films revolve around. Director Shankar has made Rajnikanth do something he has never done before. Having grown up in Chennai fed on a regular diet of the superstar's movies, I just couldn't digest the fact that Rajni had one of the most unassuming entrances in a film. His film's Annamalai (1992), Yejaman (1993), Badsha and Muthu (both 1995), Arunachalam (1997), Padayappa (1999), Chandramukhi (2005) and Sivaji (2007) have some of the best entrance scenes of the star. Muthu and Badsha being my personal favourites. Another thing that struck me was the total absence of punch lines and talaivar's (as he is called by crazed fans like me) tricks. If he made coins spin horizontally, and take a chewing gum on rebound in Shivaji, Endhiran has no such things. Endhiran is all about style, packaging, slick editing and mind boggling special effects... and of course Rajni. As my friend put it, it's a Hollywood film in Tamil. The fight sequence in a local train, is something which is unmatched even by Hollywood standards. It will surely take a few more years till the technical wizardry is replicated in India. The car chase where the deviant humanoid (Chitti also Rajni) makes cops drive around most of Chennai is easily on a par or even better than some of the best made even in Hollywood. And of course the climax where Rajni becomes almost all the super hero's to ever appear. In a film where Rajni's enemy is another Rajni, it's only natural that fans get to see more of him. If Chitti has shades of white, grey and black, as Dr Vaseegaran (his creator), Rajni is shown as a man on a mission and an upright citizen. If one Rajni wasn't enough the fade the stars who share screen space, Endhiran gives his fans a double whammy. With a screen presence comparable only to MGR, Rajni pales into insignificance, stars like Aishwarya and Danny Denzongpa. No film of the superstar is complete without him showing shades of black. Beginning his career as a villain, he is also probably one of the best actor in negative role. As Chitti, he gives his fan the shade of an obsessed lover, criminal and a killing machine. In Badsha and Mani Rathnam's Talapathi (1991) he is Robbinhoodisque in his acts but he also played as a full fledged villain as the inimitable Alex Pandian in Moondru Mugam (1982) and Apoorva Raagangal (1975). For talaivar fans like me, it's mandatory to watch the film once more followed by many more times till the next film releases. With an unblemished record for nearly 10 years of watching first day first show, it was surely an experience to watch the star in action. Endhiran is a must watch and it's for family consumption. The arms distance romance scenes with Aishwarya and bloodless action scenes won't make mummy, papas cringe. I personally think Endhiran is all set to be Rajni's biggest grosser ever. The best place to go this weekend is the hall in the neighbourhood to catch up on Endhiran.

[yoda]

Saw it this evening. Pretty good. Excellent acting by Rajini, especially that one scene where he is in "search of the sheep". Very colorful song sequences with catchy tunes. Aish was pretty as ever. CGI and technology was excellent except that I have a few complaints: 1 Robo isn't shown as man/machine enough. Too much of just Rajini made up as Robot. 2 Climax involves too much of the multi Rajini formations instead of other special effects as well 3. The mosquito scene was unnecessary I really loved the baby delivery scene and to some extent the fire scene. Overall I would say it is a very good special effects movie, but could have been marginally better for the budget.