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characters played by Rajni in his illustrious and
box office dominating career but Rajni pulls it off
brilliantly proving that he is not just the undisputed
king of entertainment but also a brilliant actor.
The insecurities that we see of Dr. Vaseegaran when
his fiancée Sana (Played by Aishwarya Rai)
takes a liking towards Chitti the Robot (also played
by Rajni) and the manner in which he runs away from
fighting Kalabavan Mani in another scene were fresh
and wonderfully depicted and very different from the
usual Rajni that we see on screen. To alayman a Scientist
is geeky, shows little emotion, and often forgets
the world around him as a result of being engrossed
in his line of work and Rajni brings out these emotions
quite brilliantly via his character of Dr. Vaseegaran.
As
for Rajni’s portrayal of Chitti the Robot, well,
what can I say that has already not been said? I run
out of superlatives when talking about Rajni as Chitti
the Robot. Watching his body language and characterization
of Chitti, it is clear that Rajni had done an enormous
amount of home work to present himself as an andro
humanoid Robot and all his efforts paid rich dividends
as he has come out with a breath taking performance
as Chitti the Robot. His transformation from Chitti
the innocent Robot to the menacing Chitti 2.0 was
scintillating to watch and left the audience spell
bound. After a hiatus of many, many years we were
taken down memory lane and had the honour of watching
Rajni in a negative role as he brought the house down
with an electrifying acting performance for the ages.
We all are fully aware of the fact that Superstar
Rajnikanth is Indian Cinema’s number 1 entertainer
and king of commercial cinema. While most directors
tend to take full advantage of Rajni’s larger
than life persona when depicting his character in
their movies, one has to applaud director Shankar
for utilising the full repertoire of Rajni’s
tremendous talent both as a brilliant actor and the
undisputed king of entertainment, in this movie.
The coming together of the first time paring of Rajnikanth
and Aishwarya Rai was much anticipated and looked
forward to by all and sundry. From my point of view
this paring signified the coming together of Indian
Cinema’s two biggest Superstars (actor and actress)
and even before the movie’s release I was confident
that the dream-team paring of Rajni and Aishwarya
Rai will bring Endhiran unparalleled box office success
and as a result I was not the least bit surprised
when I heard that Endhiran has gone on to beat every
established box office record for an Indian film both
in India as well as the UK and US and more than recovered
it’s mammoth budget of 175 Cr in just its first
week.
Through Endhiran, Superstar Rajnikanth once again
proved that age is just a number and that he is still
the undisputed king of entertainment and the box office
in Indian Cinema. Similarly Aishwarya Rai who is nearing
37 years of age proved that she is still without a
shadow of doubt the most beautiful woman in the world
who is equally talented to effortlessly essay a character
driven role or a girl next door role. None can match
the grace with which she makes her presence felt on
screen even for the most simplistic of scenes. To
say that Endhiran’s lead pair of Rajni and Aishwarya
basically presented to the audience the actor and
actress with unmatched screen presence in Indian cinema
would be an understatement. It is already a massive
task for a heroine to hold her own when facing one
Rajni on screen but to expect that of her when there
so are many Rajnis on screen would be a massive to
impossible task for any heroine but not Aishwarya
Rai. I have no doubt in my mind that if there is one
heroine in Indian Cinema who can stand toe to toe
with a colossus like Rajni that has to be the woman
who is the single most popular Indian move star in
the world, Aishwarya Rai. Hold her own in Endhiran
is exactly what she did opposite Rajni and she did
it efficiently, gracefully and beautifully as Sana.
Most Indian heroes would give an arm and a leg to
be the most bankable box office Superstar like Rajnikanth
when they are 40 let alone 61. Similarly most Indian
heroines would give an arm and a leg to be the top
directors’ number 1 choice and be as bankable
at the box office as Aishwarya Rai is on both counts
when they are 25 let alone 37 and married. Hats off
to Shankar for bringing this powerful and legendary
pairing together on screen.
All of you who have seen Endhiran like me would have
been spell bound with the visual effects, stunts,
picturization of the songs and of course the climax
that has now earned the distinction of becoming the
mother of all climaxes in Indian Cinema. Endhiran
is a once in a life-time, never before seen (on Indian
Cinema) visual experience that we will remember for
a long time to come. I still get goose bumps when
I relive in my mind the scene where Rajni as the menacing
Chitti 2.0 yells out “who’s the black
sheep” and goes about locating Dr. Vaseegaran
with that mahhhhhhhhh chant! That particular scene
and Rajni’s acting as Chitti 2.0 overall was
as creepy and scary as some of the scenes enacted
by the late Heath Ledger in his Oscar winning portrayal
of the ‘joker’ in The Dark Knight. If
Hollywood has Spiderman, Batman, Superman, James Bond
and the fantastic four then we in India have all of
them rolled up in one avatar called Rajnikanth. Superstar
Rajnikanth is India’s original and ultimate
super hero that will be hard to match let alone surpass.
Director Shankar or more appropriately ‘Mr.
Blockbuster’ has done a tremendous job in delivering
a very advanced and complex subject in a simple manner
that even the common man in an Indian village could
understand. To be able to do that is what makes director
Shankar a genius. Endhiran is a movie that has truly
taken Indian Cinema to the World Stage in the Sci-fic
/ Action flicks genre and has set the benchmark for
others in the Indian film fraternity to try and emulate.
Within 24 hours after the release of Endhiran’s
sound track the album went on to achieve the coveted
number 1 slot in the iTunes world music album charts
thus becoming the first ever Indian music album (film
or otherwise) to do so. Within 72 hours of Endhiran’s
world-wide theatrical release the movie went on to
conquer the box office and become the Indian movie
with the highest opening weekend collections of all
time beating Salman Khan’s Dabangg and Amir
Khan’s 3 idiots comfortably. Endhiran also had
a record breaking opening weekend in the UK and the
US achieving the number 1 status in terms of per screen
collections in both Countries with Endhiran’s
dubbed Hindi version Robot coming in at 2nd place
in the US box office behind its Tamil version in the
same category. Endhiran / Robot’s US opening
became the largest ever opening weekend collections
for an Indian film of all time in the US box office
surpassing SRK’s My name is Khan. Two years
ago Kalanithi Maran took on this ambitious project
and effortlessly dished out 175 Cr to make this move
come alive on the screen. Within just the first week
of its release Endhiran has already recovered it’s
cost and is heading for a whole lot more in the days
and weeks ahead as well. At the end of the day Endhiran
has become one of the rare movies where everyone from
the movie’s cast, the director and his team,
the producer and his team, the distributors, the audience,
Tamil Cinema and lastly Indian Cinema have all emerged
as winners. As fans of Indian cinema let us enjoy
every second of this rare phenomenon for we do not
know when we will get this unique opportunity to rejoice
and celebrate in unison again. If I am a betting man
I would say that this opportunity will come our way
again when Rajni and Shankar come together for the
third time and announce their next movie, a sequel
to Endhiran titled ‘The Return of the Robot’.
Until then we shall wait with bated breath enjoy the
coming together of Diwali and Christmas in the form
of a theatrical juggernaut called Endhiran!
Shoaib Mohamed in London
Incredibleshoaib33@yahoo.co.uk
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