With AR Rahman’s music for ‘Robot’ (Endhiran in Tamil and Robot in Hindi) already reaching the expectations of AR Rahman’s as well as Rajinikanth’s fans, the much awaited release of the expensive Asian film, Shankar’s ‘Robot’, is all set to hit the screens on 24th September with a worldwide opening planned by Kalanidhi Maran’s Sun Pictures that will surpass any other releases of Indian, Asian for that matter worldwide films. It need not be a surprise to all of us who have already seen the extravagance, Shankar ensured for his box office success, ‘Shivaji’, which also had the combination Shankar-Rajinikanth-AR Rahman that has repeated in this film.
Endhiran/Robot which is the result of two years of hard work by the most famous people of Indian films like Shankar, Rajinikanth, Aishwarya Rai, AR Rahman and Kalanidhi Maran involved shooting in different countries including USA, Brazil and Peru apart from northern, western and southern parts of India. The special mention for shooting at one of the world wonders Machu Picchu in Peru and more than 1500 graphic shots are said to be the highlights of the film and of course apart from Rajinikanth’s unique style. There are talks that the graphics are aimed at bettering what we have seen in Hollywood films like ‘Mummy’ and ‘Spiderman’.
Well, the movie goes like this. A scientist develops a ‘Robot’ and gives it certain capabilities that will be equal to around 100 people. One can imagine when one such ‘Robot’ mingles with the crowd and the resulting effects. Fun and awe are the basic ingredients of the film for which Rajinikanth had to spend atleast 4 to 5 hrs for make-up alone every time he ventures on shooting. This is the first time Rajini has taken up one such strenuous assignment needing such long hours for make-up. His role got further complicated due to his doing three different characters in the movie. Normally we hear Kamal Hassan dawning such tough assignments who has permanently hitched a place in history for doing many such films.
An ardent fan of Rajinikanth, Aishwarya Rai has conveyed her happiness in many interviews for doing a movie with her idol, so one can expect a very good chemistry on the screen. Such a powerful combination needed a capable and promising cinematographer R Ratnavel. The picturesque scenes of all the locations the movie was shot would certainly please the audience. Stunts by Chinese stunt master Yuen Woo Ping and choreography by Raju Sundaram also play important role.
A word of praise should go to Kalanidhi Maran who has now gambled with his total fortune of more than Rs 150 crores for making this film and his confidence on the crew which gave rebirth to the film that almost shelved.
The successful combination of Rajinikanth-Shankar-AR Rahman which showed its capability through ‘Shivaji’ is now again at work, but this time, with yet another successful man Kalanidhi Maran. So, one can hope that there will not be any dearth of money as well as efforts and thus the quality. Rajinikanth is a big brand in the south and Endhiran/Robot with quite a bit of experiments first time in his movie carrier may test the loyalty of his fans.
