Review: Rajni’s ‘Robot’ sets the screen on fire

Spicezee Bureau

Rajnikanth, who enjoys demi-god status in India, has hit it big again. His latest film ‘Robot’ is a roller-costar ride, where you will see not one Rajni, but hundreds of them eating up helicopters, smashing cars, battering planet earth and creating havoc, like never before. Touted as the baap of all sci-fi, ‘Robot’ creates a whole new genre of cinema that promises to blow your mind away with some unimaginable action scenes with super quality special effects and also a good storyline. In the movie, Rajni plays Dr Vasi, who creates a robot who can not just serve tea and coffee but one who can be of great help for the welfare and goodwill of the nation. However, trouble ensues when he adds an element of emotion and feelings to his creation. The result is that the robot falls in love with the professor's girlfriend, Sana (Aishwarya Rai). Situations become uncontrollable for Rajni when his own creation becomes a formidable opponent and love rival, thanks to the red chip installed by Rajni’s nemesis Danny Dezongpa. Now, will Rajni be able to tame the rogue robot or will the world have to succumb to the vicious intentions is a million dollar question. Anyone who has seen a Rajnikanth film understands that often it is not the story that makes the film a success, but Rajni's antics. There are plenty of them in the film. And, for once, his conception as a robot gives Rajni the logic, to lack logic. There are gravity defying stunts, shooting with a finger, running horizontally at high speed on the side of a train, flying cars and bikes, corny but hilarious dialogues -- e.g. after grabbing and pointing scores of guns at the police, he says 'Happy Diwali' before firing a salvo of bullets; or when the robot is asked his address and gives his IP address. It's not just god, the universe and its logic itself is recreated in the film. Director Shankar who has a penchant for double image, multiple images and split images of his heroes returns this time with hundreds of images of Rajnikanth. The inspiration of Hollywood, most predominantly the "Matrix" trilogy (stunts choreographed by Yuen Woo-ping of "Matrix" fame), "The Mask", "I, Robot", and many Frankenstein movies are evident, but not overbearing. Where Shankar scores is the ingenious conception of stunts. The allegedly 'poorer' cousin of Bollywood, the south Indian film industry, has been growing leaps and bounds in the special effects department. And with a little help from Hollywood, like in "Robot", it soars. Aishwarya's character is as conventional as expected. She's the chaste love interest, the damsel in distress who has time and again to be saved from being raped, and who is nothing more than eye candy. The movie is budgeted at a whopping Rs 190 crore with Rs 15 crore being spent for the promotion alone. Overall, expectations are high from the Tamil version ‘Endhiran’, which also opens today with tickets being booked in advance for several weeks. Rating: Four star for this one