Enthiran - My 2 cents!

In what it aims at offering, Enthiran is no Gentleman,no Mudhalvan,no Indian & no Anniyan;It aims at offering sheer entertainment – like Jeans. And in that , it is successful. What’s more? It offers ethereal entertainment enclosed in a clout of spellbinding creativity. The Shankar, Rajni & Sun Pics combination deserves praise for not trying to make a film for Rajni like Shankar did, rather unconvincingly, with Sivaji.

 

The story could be explained in one or two lines. There is not much in that front. Robot Chitti devised by scientist Vaseegaran fails a litmus test for not being able to reciprocate feelings & the scientist’s move to feed feelings into it turns against him making the robot fall in love with the scientist’s lady love Sana. When this goes beyond limits, Vaseegaran destroys his brainchild or so he thinks only to find that it has somehow gone into bad hands and has turned calamitous. How he gets the robot back to what it was forms the climax.

Sundries first; The villain is a bore delivering mundane near non-existent thamizh words like naasa velai, theeya velai etc!. Karunaas and Santhanam are of no use to the film and could have easily been done away with. People in the other small roles fit well.

Editing by Anthony was good within sequences but the between-sequences editing could have been much better. The second half sags a bit and the portions involving Kalabavan Mani and Kilimanjaro song could have been chopped off. The film doesn’t offer much scope for Cinematography and it was adequate.

Now to the bigger ones; The special effects team and its creative head – which I guess and hope is Shankar deserve ovation for the breathtaking efforts they have put into this film. The graphics work is not glaring at all and is quite a few notches above the graphics of Dasavathaaram. This is a good thing which shows that we are progressing on that front. Art work is brilliant. The Robot looks charming and believable at the same time. The Stunts are good and aren’t high on exaggeration. The make-up on Rajni is good too considering there had to be much work on that departmental front. All songs of Rahman FIT amazingly well to the manner of the film & the background score is not exemplary but is enjoyable – apt for an enjoyable entertaining film. The special background notes are the Arima Arima orchestration in the climax and a funny little Two Point O bit for the version 2.0 robot.

Now to the biggest ones; Aishwarya Rai plays a pivot in the story but doesn’t command much screen space (Not even the scientist Rajni does!). Whatever she does, she does it well and in the song sequences she dances like a charm! This makes us take our eyes off an uncomfortable Rajni in the dance shots. She looks gorgeous and the hour-glass shown in Kaadhal Anukkal song to epitomize her structure is only apt.

Shankar is a smart director and he proves that yet again. Something has definitely told him that another Sivaji wouldn’t work & thus, he seems to have modified a script to fit Rajni into an entertainer of his style (This is definitely not the Robot script he would have shared with Kamal those 10 years ago). He has done some smart tweaking to satisfy both hardcore Rajni fans and people who had come to see the Shankar film in it. Some prominent Shankar touches are:
1.    All the robot scanning methods.
2.    Robot’s answers to the scientists (Hare Paradox, DNA gyaan, Raagam identification etc..).
3.    Kannaathal koil, fire-fight & Mosquitoes scenes.
4.    The grand forms the robots take in the climax.
5.    The final scene at the museum,2030 – Final answer on why he was dismantled!
6.    A small bit this – When Chitti tries to save Sana, while moving through compartments,the robot stamps on the mouth of a person who tries to spit gutkha pan out of the train door – A nach one-second Shankar touch!
There are quite a few other samples indicating that Enthiran is authentic Shankar stuff made with no compromises. Some negatives are the winding police fight portions when the Villain robot abducts Sana & an abrupt end to the climax & some of the logically inconceivable superman stunt efforts of Chitti.Considering the film’s reach worldwide, he must also have avoided small spelling glitches that appear ('Neural' is spelt 'Nueral' in one of the two scenes in which the word appears; 'Programming' is spelt 'programing'; Mistakes not expected of  Shankar.)

Now to the biggest of them all. Even though I am not that big a fan of Rajnikanth, I couldn’t stop myself from screaming when his name appeared on the title card,when he got introduced in the film – The man carries so much aura around him. It is such a pity that he hasn’t done so much justice to whatever talents he has. Let’s forget that for the time being as he has done incredibly well in Enthiran. He looks convincing and comfortable on screen. At the age of 60, to perform whatever he has performed is incredible. He doesn’t mouth punch dialogs and that is a huge relief. He has understood that there is ample scope for heroism with the Robot’s role & remains quiet as the scientist.
As Chitti he is a riot on screen with his comic timing and talents used to the fore. As Vaseegaran he displays a sufficient portrayal & the highlight of the VERSION 2.0 Robot is Rajni’s voice modulation & Villainy – So typical of his ruthless yesteryear self, though the deja vu effects of Chandramukhi’s Vettayan makes it go overboard at times.

I went in to watch Enthiran with the aim of wanting to give a mouthful of bashing to all ardent Rajni fans after expecting to watch another Sivaji like attempt but Shankar and Chitti have bowled me over and I am only happy for it! As the song line goes Enthiran Veezhvadhillai indeed!Enthiran enthralls,entrances,entertains!!