The biggest superstar of our times,probably the most beautiful women on celluloid in recent memory,and the best director on hot chair with Vfx experts having a terrific repertoire.You should be expecting a hurricane.But through the eyes of a Hindi Movie audience who also is well versed with Hollywood counterparts in such genre,it clearly is a case of missed opportunity.
If you want to know one good thing about the movie,i shall tell you two:
1. Rajni-The Robot: Expresses more than Rajni,the scientist,is lovable,adorable,condemnable and a One-Man Army,can assume various shapes and sizes,can shoot with the index finger and can run at lightning speed on the sides of a train.
1. Rajni-The Robot: Expresses more than Rajni,the scientist,is lovable,adorable,condemnable and a One-Man Army,can assume various shapes and sizes,can shoot with the index finger and can run at lightning speed on the sides of a train.
2. The certain scenes where the concept projected is commendable.Viz-The Last scenes,The train
scene. Such Scenes had panache,a certain elan but the rest of average stuff kills more of the fun that actually could have been presented.
The movie and its story are not important here.What is important is a flaw in the conceptualisation.All superhero/superhuman movies have a distinctive good character and a distinctive bad character,the clash between them is a treat to watch,the result of which always signifies the victory of good over evil. Robot treads on a path where one half is a tribute to the Good,the other half showcases the Bad-both characters of the same person.The problem that arises is a loss of any format of connection that the audience builds with the good protagonist.The urge for the bad to be defeated here,that arises in the viewer’s mind is not apparent. Such movies should have a strong emotional connect,it might just be that a Hindi movie audience like me who feed on regular BW stuff have a pre-conceived and pre-meditated feeling towards the southern products.
Another glaring flaw is in the consistency of the quality of special effects.Some scenes are elegant,others look from the era of ‘Judge Dredd’. The problem of Indian Visionaries is that they give more important to the grandiose of Special Effects rather than the finesse of it.The attention is more on the highfalutin rather than the refinement.Matrix is a very good example of refined Vfx,Lord of the Ring combines both grandeur and finesse.but the grandeur is more.Robot demanded refined Special effects and not Effects to make look Rajni more than special. But all in all,some scenes are truly worth appraisal.
The biggest drawback of Robot is its Songs and the frequency and Number of it.The Editors of Hindi Version have done a pathetic job. When you cater to a Hindi Belt Audience,you don’t put much stress on idiotic songs with useless insertion into the flow of cinema and at irritatingly regular intervals. Rehman,the maestro is losing it,SM was nothing special,Dilli 6 was just fine,CWG track was disaster and Robot’s Hindi Version has terrible songs and Lyrics.Except ‘Naina Miley’s’ few lines and ‘Electron Neutron’s few lines,the music department is a mess.Rehman played casual this time.Don’t know about the Tamil Version,but my views regards the Hindi Version might just be close to the truth.
Another potent flaw is Aish,she is a misfit.Her dialogue delivery style might please Tamil audience,but Hindi Audience,atleast in the hall i was in,was making a butt of joke about her,regards her plasticity and strange display of facial expressions. Only beauty saves the day for her in a movie where Rajni overshadows all,sometimes himself too.He grows bigger than the movie,takes the movie in his hands,merges it in his signature style and not only saves the day for ROBOT,but also for the rest of cast and crew.He is enchanting and does hold your attention most of the time.
The message part at the end is good,but given the lack of emotional connect prior in the movie anytime,it just sounds preachy rather than anything emotional and touching to the heart. The undertone of A.I. vs Humans is shown in a typical Indian manner, immaturely,but then i liked it.The conceptual flaws are apparent,but the efforts to project a certain concept is worth praising.
All in all,worth a watch.Reason: RAJNIKANT-THE SUPERSTAR. Somewhere i do admit that he has been now pushed in an arena where he plays roles just to gratify a certain aura associated with him,style associated with him…the iconic Rajni is now for the history books!!
Just My Views!! :-)
ReplyDeleteWelcome to FS Milind! Thanks for sharing your views - our first user Enthiran review. I have no idea why the reviewers have loved this film so much, a few have spoken about the OTTness but most are full of praise. Maybe if you expect silly and get silly then it is OK.
ReplyDeleteNo pardesi,i never expected it to be silly.i was impressed by the reviews.I was helluva impressed.But then it is patchy and god in parts only..plus the gruesome length of the movie with those kilimanjaro and mohanjodaro songs..they marr the fun.The movie is enjoyable..the last scenes are a treat to watch..but then a movie is not as good as the closing scenes..is it? But woth a watch once IMO!
ReplyDeleteand thanx!
ReplyDeleteMilind/Anupam, why do you have two names? :P
ReplyDeleteI think it could very well be BW critics being patronizing because they expect stupidity from South movies anyway. The same way Hollywood critics treat BW movies. They grade on a curve. :D
Hahaha I agree with Nia there.
ReplyDeleteMoreover I think that nowdays all reviews are paid off, so when Shankar was making a 160 cr movie, he must have included the paid off amount to critics as well, because as far as effects are concerned, not even in the trailers, I found one scene closer to grandiose of Magadheera, yes I am a fan.
But a very good review, Milind, pretty much sums up the movie, and TBH not really a shock for me. I expected a stupid silly movie only, which is unintentionally funny. Like I said before, if I had to watch something so mindless, I would rather watch Khichdi. But I think best movie of the week should be Do duni chaar, the one we totally ignored :D
Also, Rajini's fan following is at a different level altogether, I don't think any other actor, spl BW actor, will be forgiven of so much of silliness. But I have to agree that sometimes even I enjoyed such silliness, like in Sivaji. But such stupidity is only funny in parts, not as a 3 hour movie.
This movie further underlines the cultural gap between South and North.
BTW, Welcome to FS, Milind.
^^I think Salman might be forgiven a lot of the same type of stupidity but you never know. I don't understand at all what critics saw in Dabangg either. I can understand regular folks liking it but critics are meant to be... critical.
ReplyDeleteThat is a very interesting point. Why do they cut Salman so much slack but not Akshay? He is dubbed "jackass" by same critics who love Wanted, Dabangg, Robot...
ReplyDeleteBut Pardesi, if you take out YRF, almost all big movies are only praised in media. And Salman till very recently was always bashed, it was after his apprenticeship with Aamir that he has also understood the game.
ReplyDeleteMay be Aaki also needs some prep to get awesome reviews. Anyhow, I think all critics are bought, I do not give them 2 hoots anymore, not even Masand.
Salman was never really bashed per se. His films did poorly because he himself had no interest in making them work. The only exceptions I can think of are Partner and No Entry. Big films are bashed - I think Kites got soundly bashed, and even MNIK had its share of critics, also let us not forget the big film KANK! :-P
ReplyDeleteKANK, MNIK got rave reviews, very undeserving. I must say.
ReplyDeleteThough yes, Kites was bashed, but even there I think revies were notas bad, at least HR was hailed by one and all.
I think KANK got quite a lot of FLAK from reviewers. Yes Masand and Raja Sen liked it, but not the entire collection of reviewers. I wish Allbollywood was up so I could get the data. As for Dabangg - except for Raja Sen, no mainstream reviewer went against the film as far as I can recall. That was not the case for KANK. I should also mention Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi - saw poor reviews across the board. Now that was most undeserving!
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth, I think YRF are among the very few who do not buy reviews. They don't even spend money on promotion so there is little to no chance they pay for positive reviews. Adityda Chopra does not even speak to the media and in the real sense. (Unlike Midget Khan who would call up the media to tell them he does not talk to the media, lol) Whatever one thinks of the type of films they make, as an organization they have more integrity than most in BW.
ReplyDeleteEven their better efforts get roundly bashed by critics, many times unfairly.
MNIk and KANK received good reviews . one was 71% at allbollywood and other 65% . CDI was at 71% too and in general all KJO movies get good reviews because of the way he handles Media .
ReplyDeleteYRf of late r making as trashy films as others r making but its their lack of media goodies which has resulted in them getting poor perception in minds of people . infact i would take LP and Rocket singh over most films released this year .
Reviews are a matter of corporate and media interest....this has led to deterioration in the quality as well as belief on reviews!
ReplyDelete