Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Endhiran - in my eyes...

Well.. the blog title wouldn't have left any doubts as to what this post is going to be about. With less than 72 hours before the movie storms theatres worldwide, I want to share my thoughts about endhiran...what it has been and what it could be...my two cents!


A whole lot has already been written about its never-heard-before budget, the awe-inspiring star cast, the master at the helm who has had the highest success rate (mightve been a 100% if not for the debacle that was 'Boys') in Tamil cinema (on a different note...for the love of God please refrain from calling it Kollywood) both commercially and in satisfying the so called 'class' and 'mass' audiences, technical crew comprising of prominent names from Hollywood etc, etc.,

I am a Rajni fan from childhood (who is yet to forget the disastrous Baba). As much as I enjoy his style, screen presence, smile, charisma and comical sense, I hate to see him do stuff that insults the viewer's intelligence. That is not because am this super sensible person who looks for logic in everything. My threshold is a bit higher. I can happily watch him thrash ten thugs, can understand how he always gets back on top, whose anger (and in some cases violence) is warranted. All this because those that he beats, defeats or shows his anger on are bad, bad people (according to the script!). Bad men ought to be beaten up...I am elated to see that someone who looks just like another stranger-uncle on the road has the courage to do that. Thats to me heroism!! But of course stopping bullets in mid-air, sparks flying off his shoes, etc., are too much. Sometimes ONLY because it is Rajni I just smile them off even if not in complete acceptance.

Coming back to Endhiran, never before has such a hype been created before the release of any Rajni movie..of course goes without saying.. not for any other Tamil movie either. In 2007, the same thing mightve been said about Sivaji. But one thing is for certain the furor that Sun pictures has managed to create wins hands-down as compared to the scale of publicity undertaken for Sivaji. Just to drive my point home, audio-launch in Malaysia for which 200 odd people were flown on the producer's expense, a trailer release function which was ticketed, footage being allotted to any news related to the movie on prime-time news are things which Sun family alone (or one of the few people) can generate. Agreed that all this banked on Rajnikanth's star value...but no other producer until this date has utilized its potential to the fullest. For all commercial purposes, the movie will gross its production cost in 3-4 days easily..but the bigger point is whether post-release Endhiran will remain the phenomenon that it is pre-release. As a Rajni fan, I am excited and nervous! Excited because this euphoria is unmatched and I am very happy to be celebrating my matinee idol...and nervous because it is very difficult to match up to the amount of buzz that is currently being generated.

Firstly, I would like to take a dissectional approach at the trailer...



0:04 - Credits of 'Superstar' Rajni - BGM extremely mediocre - heavily lacks any power whatsoever...
0:12 - Endhiran says ' Hello world' - why use such a cliched first line? shud the first thing the robot speak be programmed to match the first-ever program? Doesn't spell excellence...mediocrity again...Again it might not matter as much as the BGM!
0:26 - Title credits - whatever happened to Rahman?! where is the music man?!
0:41 - The mosquito character is classic Shankar - HAS to show his creativity - and ONLY by spending money..am sure those 10-15 frames wudve taken 2-3 months of CG work...but i can argue on the other side too...creative attempt which overall adds to the technically and visually rich experience of the movie..hence the cost and time intensive CG is warranted!
0:50 - 'nakkal illa nickel'- mokkai of the century!
0:54-0:59 - good dialogue! shows pride and admiration in equal measure :)
1:19-1:27 - crisp line again!
1:28 - really...what was the necessity?! if the robot had to have a pistol in its finger how wud it be loaded? am sure...in certain scenes it might be disarmed when it'll forget about its built-in pistol...its accepted that in a rajni movie all this adds to visual pleasure but even in sivaji the gravity-defying bullet trick featured only in a dream sequence...but from the looks of it this bullet shot is definitely a part of a fight sequence which is supposed to happen in real-time...why intentionally include such a flaw that is bound to attract criticism Shankar?!
1:30-1:40 - very very good line! i am tempted to think this was written by the late Mr. Sujatha
1:47 - good work there..
1:53-2:02 - this is gotta be the equivalent episode to the Rajni trying to become fair one from Sivaji...this is bound to be well received by the audience
2:03 - superb dialogue delivery! Villainy comes naturally to Rajni! that laugh is what is called evil+vain
2:07 - Finally Rahman wakes up!!
2:18 - Adhu!!
2:21- Finally we got a dialogue which is not just contextual to the movie
2:23-2:35 -most likely to form a part of the CG-intensive highly imaginative and technically accurate climax...that is touted to be the toughest part of the movie to film and is definitely gonna redefine technical standards of movie-making for quite some time..thats the Shankar stamp!
2:38 - Again when the title appears...there isnt enough support from the music department
2:40- 'an one man army' - worsht english! Shankar shouldve known better...afterall this isnt expected of a man who is renowned for his perfection
2:42 - style i say!!

Next, my prediction of what the movie could be. I wanted to give it ahead of release cos if I say something after the movie releases, critics may cry foul. The movie of course begins with Vaseegaran (what a name he had to choose!!) all unkempt in TR like hairstyle! (from the stills) working hard on developing this robot (pudhiya manidha song)...first few seconds of the trailer+ all those portions which show the robot speaking, dancing (chitti dance showcase..might just be a small bit), doing karate etc. In parallel, Sana character is introduced. Seems like shes a doctor. This would be followed roughly by Vaseegaran getting Endhiran to read books, etc and formally introduces him in the conference where villain (Vaseegaran's mentor) gets to meet endhiran. Endhiran's capabilities will be showcased following this - all the cleaning, pedicuring, cooking, grooming Sana, etc. (boom boom robo da song..background only) Endhiran further interacts with Sana, they go out to this slum-type place where there is a fight probably (train chase sequence)..and that night endhiran sneaks into Sana's house to see her. Slowly emotions that were programmed into him are being realised. He probably even visits her at her hospital. On the other hand, things go steady between Vaseegaran and Sana...(kadhal anukkal song). By then endhiran is head-over-heels in love and the three have to get to a party before which endhiran dresses up, tries different get-ups etc., At the party may be it becomes official that vaseegaran and sana are a couple and endhiran is distraught. The interval block is the altercation between vaseegaran and endhiran with Sana in the moonlight and endhiran won't take no for an answer and leaves with anger. Thats when he encounters the villain and hes taken. Post-interval is the engagement of vaseegaran-sana (kilimanjaro song). Villain reprograms endhiran and is involved in making a clonal colony of endhirans. Sana meanwhile fearing endhiran might harm vaseegaran plays along with endhiran and pretends to reciprocate his feelings (irumbile oru irudhayam song). Further yet to decipher events happen and finally endhiran abducts sana from the marriage hall which will presumably followed by an elaborate fight sequence (mercedes benz) and gets her to villain's den (arima arima song). Endhiran creates havoc in the society (anaconda, drill, firing ball etc etc). Villain now makes Sana a captive to get whatever he wants to be done by Endhiran. Now the colony of endhirans, mostly with some help from Vaseegaran finally destroy the villain and endhiran gets destroyed in the process?! Sana and Vaseegaran live happily ever after :)

This is completely my version....how much the movie may/may not correlate to this is not guarenteed ;)

Anyway...statutory warning to hardcore fans: this might not be an out-and-out Rajni entertainer...for other viewers, the endhiran effects might look a bit too exaggerated to accomodate for the Rajni image. If indeed Shankar manages it this time, it definitely deserves a pat on the back!! Thalaivar seems to have immense confidence in this movie, for its technical and visual content..going by his body language in the trailer video. Lets have our fingers crossed and above all lets enjoy the moment... for Rajni movies have become few and far in between!!

Thursday, September 9, 2010

where are you when i need you?


how ironic is it that the things you want to get out of your system happen to stay the longest within you....how often are you geographically and emotionally disconnected with the people whom you thought you could confide everything into...how hard is it to find someone who will understand the complexities and the multitude of the layers involved in your thought process....how many times have you wished for someone/anyone to understand you despite knowing that their understanding has got nothing to do with the predicament itself...why is it that some situations have no way out of them...how difficult would it be to own up to your choices....