For anyone and everyone who has ever complained that Rajnikant's onscreen antics are overblown of heroism, director Shankar this time justifies his larger-than-life screen persona by making him a robot and imbibing him with fanciful superpowers.
Unlike every Rajnikant film where he has a very flamboyant and gimmick-oriented entry, the superstar makes a very casual and unassuming entry in this one. But before you start assuming that Rajni has gone reticent in Robot , director Shankar introduces Rajnikant's prototype in the form of a mechanical andro-humanoid who is the real hero of the film. Post that Shankar starts his blitzkrieg technique of nonstop bombardments of eventful episodes through its runtime and there's no looking back.
Dr Vasi (Rajnikant) is a scientist who has created an andro-humanoid robot named Chitti (Rajnikant again) who is programmed to fight, dance, drive, speak and do everything that humans can. Vasi has designed Chitti with the intention of offering it to the Indian Army as a machine which can fight wars in place of humans and avoid casualties. However his invention is rejected by senior scientist (Danny Dangzongpa) for the machine's inability to understand human emotions.
So Vasi upgrades Chitti's processor and simulates human emotions in it without realizing the implications. With its new acquired human ability, Chitti discovers the feeling of love and falls for Vasi's girlfriend, Sana (Aishwarya Rai). As sentiments of jealousy and revenge corrupt his assessment, he becomes uncontrollably wild and violent, wrecking havoc on the city.
For a pleasant change, director Shankar doesn't delve into his favourite theme of bureaucratic corruption like he has been doing over the years in Sivaji, Anniyan, Nayak, Mudhalvan and Indian . However by means of the mechanical robot, he almost creates a superhuman alter-ego in compelling contrast to the vulnerable scientist, like he did with the split-personality protagonist in Anniyan . And then he makes his superhero so strong that you start idolizing him over his creator, even if it turns endlessly evil. Interestingly through the first half the Robot remains the best buddy of the scientist and very soon in the second half the two are pitted against each other.
Whether it's the storytelling, stunts, special effects or song picturizations, Shankar exactly knows how to keep the audience engaged. The story gets to the point from scene one without straying into unnecessary subplots. The romance between Rajni and Ash is already established and not much screen-time is expended on their love story other than the customary song-n-dance ritual which the director can't do away with. The screenplay has a lot to offer with the major highlights in the first half being an extended fight sequence on a local train and another derived from Spiderman where the Robot rescues humans trapped in fire. And perhaps this would be the only film other than 3 Idiots where a delivery operation on a woman in labour pain earns as much applause from the audience, if not more.
The second half is no short of excitement with a hilarious sequence where the Robot has a negotiation with (believe-it-or-not) mosquitoes and another extended freeway action sequence. The climactic combat where a hundred Rajnikant clones attack, assuming different colossal contours (like in the Hollywood flick Transformers ) is visually mind-blowing. The visual effects take a cue from Hollywood films like Terminator, Spiderman, The Mask, Godzilla and many more but amplify it to gigantic proportions and full-blown sequences.
Shankar used the expertise of Hollywood technicians like Vance Hartwell ( Lord of the Rings ) and Allan B. Holt ( Terminator Salvation, Iron Man 2 ) for makeup, Mary E. Vogt ( Men in Black series) for costume designs, Woo-Ping Yuen ( Kill Bill, Matrix ) as stunt coordinator and Stan Wilson Company ( Avatar, Terminator, Jurassic Park ) for animatronics technology and ensures that the visuals don't look corny or tacky at any instance. And despite the action and effects, the movie never gets too intense and keeps amusing you through its amazing and unusual sense of humour. R. Rathnavelu's cinematography is magnificent, Anthony's editing is flawless and Sabu Cyril's art direction is impressive. The scale at which Shankar mounts his film and the outcome that he achieves is simply unmatchable.
On the downside, the song picturizations, like in any Shankar film, are spectacular but act as major distractions from the plot and even A.R.Rahman's music can't pull you back. Rahman's score is absolutely uninspiring this time and there is no single chartbuster in the entire soundtrack. While the dubbing isn't bad, Swanand Kirkire is so chaste with the Hindi translation of dialogues that at times the dialect sounds heavier than in a normal Hindi film. The pace of the narrative drops intermittently at the start of the second half with the Robot's romance track but soon picks up. And Aishwarya's seduction song in the climax is the most clichéd pretense for the hero to intrude the villain's den.
But all these inconsistencies are overshadowed by Rajni's aura. Not only is Rajnikant a superstar in every sense, he comes up with a superlative act. He immaculately adapts the body-language in the grab of Robot. His action, dance, style, grace and histrionics need no substantiation. You love to watch him as the good-intentioned robot and adore him as much in his villainous act. His vicious laugh reverberates his evil intentions. Aishwarya Rai is supposed to look gorgeous, which she ably does throughout the film. Danny Dangzongpa is able to hold his own in front of Rajnikant which is commendable.
Beyond all the visual extravagance, Shankar succeeds in ending the film with a simple message on how human emotions can manipulate a machine. Thankfully he conveys it effectively without getting preachy, lending a lot of heart to his heady science-fiction. Robot is the flawless combination of biggest superstar and best special effects ever on the Indian screen. Watch it and watch again.
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