Revisiting Enthiran: The movie Rajinikanth-Shankar talks about the audience who get their money's worth

"Spectacular," "magnificent," "huge," are the terms commonly used to describe a Shankar film. Greatness is what an average audience expects from Shankar, no matter, if he has a good story, a captivating storyline, beautiful songs, memorable performances to offer. He may not satisfy a large audience across the country if he does not present his film on a large scale. That's James Cameron from Indian cinema, you see. We are not satisfied with him less than impressive sets that we do not see in other Indian films.

Shankar as a filmmaker is constantly under pressure to continue making bigger films. Even in a political drama like Mudhalvan (1999), he includes a song like 'Mudhalvanae', where he created a CGI universe filled with giant snakes with a human face.

What to expect when Shankar associates with the superman of Indian cinema, Rajinikanth? Nothing less than greatness. This is what we got when the duo of actors-directors collaborated for the first time in 2007 for Sivaji. The film was an ordinary cauldron on self-defense justice but mounted on a large scale.

Rajinikanth had retired to his "cave" after the box office disaster of Baba (2003), in which he looked physically weak and small. He rebounded with Chandramukhi (2005), but the filmmakers still have not managed to find him an impressive wig.

In 2007, Shankar made a breakthrough with Rajinikanth's makeover. This gave the audience a stronger and younger Rajinikanth. Something that could cause Abbas to faint over the Superstar (by screaming "What's a man?") As he did at Padayappa (1999). The backdrop of each song (beautifully created by Thotta Tharani), AR Rahman's music and Shankar's expertise in making justice films for vigilantes, have all been so successful in entertaining the audience. Rajinikanth as Motta Boss to the climax allowed the audience to leave the theater with the feeling of getting value for money.

Three years later, Enthiran: the robot was released. In 2010, it was the most expensive Indian film ever made. Once again, the focus was on its "grandeur", the money spent hiring Hollywood special effects experts, the star cast, Aishwarya Rai who played Rajinikanth for the first time, and so on. More attention has been paid to its logistics and less to its content.

Rewatching Enthiran on a streaming site was a different experience than on the big screen. I was more tolerant of the mistakes of filmmakers, who were in a hurry to show a robot that he was developing his cognitive abilities, that is, falling in love with his master's girlfriend so that they can access the most interesting parts of the film: a humanoid robot wreaking havoc. in the city.

Shankar takes his time to set the stage for the main conflict. But, once he goes there, he maintains a very engaging rhythm. He integrated the whole movie with very memorable little sequences. Like the scene that takes place in a ghetto setting, in which Chitti attracts all that is metal. Or all the action that happens on the trains running.

In the second half of the film, we will see Rajinikanth's Chitti going through a period of massive transformation. A "man", who loves a girl, is abandoned by his own creator and allowed to "die". He has risen from the "dead," but he is now pure evil. Blinded by desire, he kills everything that happens between him and his lover. And then, finally, find the reason with a 'heart' excused. With the exception of Chitti, no other character in the film undergoes such an important transformation during the film. Even Dr. Vaseegaran is terribly subscribed while Shankar is struggling to accommodate two Rajinikanths in the screenplay.

Aishwarya Rai as Sana can only flourish in the expensive songs of the dream duo. Shankar wrote for Aishwarya a crazy scene, in which she asks Kalabhavan Mani to be her boyfriend one day (as the chief minister of one day in Mudhalvan). And why? For that she can brighten her boyfriend Vaseegaran, who is in mourning. Shankar needs to work on his ideas for writing scenes for female characters.

The characters of Santhanam and Karunas do not feel natural in the whole. The Bohra of Danny Denzongpa, "the main antagonist", is extracted from the script unceremoniously for the convenience of the story.

But we did not buy tickets to see a strong female character, a nuanced villain and be thrilled by comedy. Shankar knows that we paid for Chitti to turn red and Shankar did a solid job in this regard. In the pre-climax sequence, Shankar let his imagination riot with hundreds of robots working in unison, taking forms of anaconda, a giant man and so much more. . Rajinikanth dropping his hair and channeling his inner MN, Nambiar, did what Motta Boss did to Sivaji. This gives the public a sense of satisfaction at having received their money.