‘Robot’ takes Indian film back to the future - Movie Review
October 5, 2010
Starring Rajinikanth, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Danny Denzongpa
Romantic fantasy, moral conflict, outlandish costumes—what took Indian cinema so long to do science fiction? The two make perfect sense together. Robot—the most expensive Indian film ever made—is a glorious step into the future of sci-fi reinterpreted.
It's not the first Indian science-fiction film, but there haven't been many—and mostly of the alien and superhero varieties. Robot, on the other hand, focuses on the most elemental sci-fi fixture, which is fitting, given that the film is sort of a first of its kind. Why not begin where the genre began—with a scientist trying to make a human out of a machine, a story that goes all the way back to Frankenstein?
Robot was nearly a decade in the making. Award-winning Tamil director Shankar, known for big-budget films, announced the project back in 2001, but it took years to put together the massive financing needed for it. Which was probably for the best, since it allowed time for special effects to develop. There's been some disastrous CGI in Indian movies in the past, but the effects in Robot are polished like a gem.
Bollywood stars Preity Zinta and Shahrukh Khan were, at different times over the last 10 years, reportedly signed on for lead roles in the film. Aamir Khan, Priyanka Chopra, and Deepika Padukone were also reportedly considered for the leads. By the time shooting began in 2008, Shankar had settled on Rajinikanth and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan—both actors with whom he'd previously worked—and he couldn't have chosen better.
Rajinikanth is a superstar in Tamil cinema—which is distinct from Bollywood. The Tamil-language film industry, sometimes referred to as Kollywood, is based in the Kodambakkam district of the city of Chennai. Bollywood films are made in Hindi by the film industry in Mumbai. This particular film was released as Enthiran in Tamil and Robot in Hindi. The wildly popular, 60-year-old Rajinikanth plays a double role as a science professor and his robot—a triple role really, since the robot has two personas—a "version 2.0" that emerges later.
Bollywood’s Bachchan plays a few different versions of herself as well, or rather overplays them. But overdone is a virtue in a film like this. Here, she is alternately a put-upon girlfriend, a bubbly college student, a sex kitten, and a damsel in distress—and she shape-shifts from one to the next almost like a computer-generated figure. For good or bad, Bachchan's appearance is always part of her performance—and if anyone could make a machine feel love, it would be her.
The art direction is retro-futuristic. There's a subtle 1960s Jetsons aesthetic, a hint of British-mod innocence, a feeling of Eisenhower Eden—back when little boys imagined wearing jet packs someday and the American president talked of going to the moon. The robot, named Chitti, even sports an Elvis bouffant and beatnik turtlenecks.
Everything about Chitti is cool. He can cook, dance, fight bad guys, save lives from burning buildings, even deliver babies. He knows the answer to every question and his literal understanding of human speech, which gets him into trouble, makes him funny. Even though he's completely stiff, he's utterly endearing—a testament to Rajinikanth's charisma. Chitti is a much better companion to Sana (Bachchan) than her boring, neglectful boyfriend, Chitti's creator, Dr. Vaseegaran. After Dr. Vaseegaran programs Chitti with the capacity to feel emotions, the suddenly smitten robot competes with his maker for Sana's affections. Meanwhile, the professor's jealous mentor Bohra (Danny Denzongpa) wants to steal Chitti's technology to develop his own robots for evil purposes.
What follows is a visually spellbinding, adrenalin-overloaded man-versus-machine showdown. But it isn't all technical spectacle. Great sci-fi is really about human nature, and Robot has plenty of heart.
Robot is rated Must See.
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