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!!

A peep into the songs of Enthiran!

I run the risk of giving out a review on an album of Rahman on the very day of its release. A few days might be all that would take for my own self to contradict with whatever I feel now. Still I am continuing with it for two reasons:
1. I have got nothing else worthwhile to do at this time of the day.
2. I somehow feel this is one album which wouldn’t grow on the listener as well as the past ones as there is not much mesmerising/creative stuff which has the tendency to grow on the listener. The first impression would stay for Enthiran.

Off to the review after a look at the spiked-wig!

Pudhiya Manidhaa (SPB,AR Rahman)
This one begins slowly , gains tempo and some beats on the way and the ritual of SPB singing for Rajni happens – Only this time in a song that isn’t to appeal to the senses of the masses. The initial part of the song has all robot / machine sounds sprinkled all over it. You almost get to hear all sounds that are part of the Science Desktop theme of Windows 98! It gets better when SPB starts his show. He shows why he is still the Boss managing high pitch & low pitch stuff with absolute ease. There are a lot of filler lines though, and the lines go astray with respect to the tune – The song just passes muster. I can’t help thinking how so much of sophistication can still not win over Ilaiyaraja’s simple Vikram..Vikram which falls in the same category.

Kadhal Anukkal (Vijay Prakash,Shreya Ghoshal)
The guitar bit & organ have unmistakable resemblance to Rang De Basanti’s Luka Chuppi & Yuvvraaj’s Zindagi respectively. This kind of repetition is something I have not observed much with Rahman and it was disappointing. Some novel interludes and lively renditions from Vijay Prakash and Shreya Ghoshal save this song to make it fall in the ‘listenable’ category.

Irumbile Or Irudhayam (AR Rahman,Kash n Krissy)
This song falls in the genre of songs you get to listen to when you do shopping in one of those posh cloth stores! It is definitely a new kind for tamil songs and Rahman has pulled it off decently. Still, that kind of music doesn’t seem to go well with Tamil lyrics and there surely is a disconnect even though Rahman gives an invigorating rendition. I wish he doesn’t repeat attempts of this type.

Arima Arima (Hariharan, Sadhana Sargam)
My pick of this album. This song has grandeur written all over it. One could imagine how huge Shankar would have picturised this song singing praises of the hero. Hariharan’s vigorous singing, ably supported by Sadhana Sargam helps the song’s cause. The chorus portions add oomph to the minutes. This probably is the ‘Mudhalvane..vane’ of Enthiran.

Boom Boom Robo Da (Pradeep Vijay,Pravin Mani, Yogi B)
This is THAT song in the album where Rahman rules with his techno stuff. A rap, interspersed with violin & piano orchestrations and if that is not enough to bowl you over, there is a good dose of Jathis sung in Slumdog Millionaire’s Liquid Planes style.Thumbs high up! Credits to Pravin Mani as he is accredited to the additional arrangements in the album cover.

Boom Boom Robo Da (Yogi B, Keerthi,Swetha,Tanvi)
This one is distinct from the the other version of Boom Boom Robo. With some stylish beats, santour , latino sounds and heavy metal for support, the crooner carries the main portion in style. The sudden change in ragam in both the stanzas is a pleasing shocker. Yogi B does the rapping. I am not a big fan of his. He brings déjà vu and I would have preferred to listen to Blazee’s crooning of the rap anyday.

Kilimanjaro (Javed Ali,Chinmayi)
This one is a run-of-the-mill Rahman duet but the fact that an ordinary Rahman duet can be as enticing as the best of others stands testimony to the heights the man has scaled. One interesting thing in this song is the smartly rhymed verses. The humming is typical Psycho stuff Rahman brings now and again – the choice of hums being enjoyable & puzzling at the same time.

Rahman started 2010 stretching the limits of the romance genre like only he can with insanely versatile songs in Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya. He followed that up with a woods-centric album in Raavanan/Raavan that suited the film’s needs to a T. He is probably signing off the year with Enthiran and I can’t help feeling that he is doing it on a low considering the quality of the other two albums. Make no mistake, the tunes are commercially viable and will definitely be a rage among the audience.
While fans of Rajnikanth can rejoice, Rahmaniacs would be left wanting more!