The title "ROBOT" appeared to me initially as an attempt by the South to literally jump into something new, but typical local style. There have been numerous South Indian films which in the past have merged technology and animation into their films, with an aim of drawing eyeballs from all over the country, but weren’t that successful. It was only when I saw the television premeire of this film on the 13th of March, 2011 on Sony entertainment television that I realised that the’hype’ created around this film was not for nothing. And, the most obvious reason for this is the’God of South Indian cinema - RAJNIKANTH’.
Apart from being the most expensive Indian film ever with a total budget of Rs 180 crore, it also turned out to be one of the most successful, drawing worldwide attention.
Plot/Story
Dr Wasigaran(Rajnikanth) is a gifted scientist who is on a very ambitious project on making an andro-humanoid robot like never before. The opening scenes show him along with his assistants in the process of making the robot. Simultaenously, his girlfriend Sana(Aishwarya Rai) tries her level best to contact him, but fails. As the robot is almost complete, skin masks of the head and body resembling Wasigaran is fitted to the robot and’there it goes - the robot looks a 100% human with superhuman capabilities.
Eventually, Wasigaran introduces his robot to everyone from his parents to girlfriend to AIRD(All India Research & Devpt) and names it as "Chitti"(Rajnikant). Chitti exhibits wonderful superhuman abilities as no robot ever before. He can dance, sing, fight, cook, perform complex calculations, display extraordinary intelligence and more. He often describes his speed as 1 Terahertz and memory 1 Zettabyte. Wasigaran’s aim is to send Chitti to the military and use it for constructive purposes.The first half of the movie shows Chitti demonstrating his wonderful abilities to the world.However, Wasigaran’s professor, (also his rival in the movie) Dr Vohra(Danny Denzogpa) envies his success but fails to create a robot even a fraction as good as Chitti.
Eventually, Chitti is bestowed with human qualities and falls in love with Sana. Later, he rebels against Wasigaran for which in rage, he dismantles and discards Chitti. This is where Dr Vohra finds and reassembles Chitti and in an attempt to discredit Wasigaran, installs a destructive program within him. Chitti, which had the strength and intellect of 100 humans now becomes as much destructive. His main aim is to marry Sana.On the day of Wasigaran’s and Sana’s wedding, he kidnaps her and this creates a lot of havoc as he leaves behind a trail of destruction behind him. Worse, he begins to program several dozens of’Chitties’, each as powerful as him.
He finally kills Vohra and and overtakes AIRD with his army of robots. Wasigaran, along with the police develop a master plan to finally bring Chitti under control. He styles himself as Chitti to know his plans and to free Sana. The last part of the movie shows a lot of action where Chitti and his army battle against the paramilitary forces. Finally, Wasigaran manages to remove the destructive program within Chitti and turns him back to normal.
Finally, the court sentences Wasigaran to death by hanging for creating a destructive robot, but Chitti at the last minute saves him by revealing the truth that it was Dr Vohra who made him destructive by inserting a red chip inside him. The film ends when Chitti completely dismantles himself.
Best Scenes
This is the first time I am including this section in any of my movie reviews. However, for this film, I felt it is a must. Although there was hardly a moment where I ever felt bored, the following are some of my favourite scenes in the movie:-
1) The opening scene of Wasigaran and his assistants making the robot.
2) The scene when the robot gets completed successfully and introduces himself.
3) When Wasigaran introduces his robot to his parents and the subsequent scenes.
3) The scene when Wasigaran gives a demonstration of "Chitti" to the audience in a conference.
4) Sana taking Chitti to the old age home and the subsequent scenes of Chitti demonstrating his abilities.
5) Chitti rescuing Sana from the goons in the train after a bitter fight.
6) Chitti helping a pregnant woman to give birth in the hospital.
7) Wasigaran implanting human emotions to Chitti through a hormone stimulation software.
8) Chitti falling in love with Sana and goes to the extent of capturing the mosquito which bit her in the night while asleep.
9) Dr Vohra rescuing and reassembling the dismandled Chitti as well as implanting a destruction program within him.
10) Chitti kidnapping Sana from the wedding hall and battling it out with police forces on the way.
11) Chitti building his own army of robots and overtaking AIRD.
12) Chitti trying to find out the real Wasigaran who disguised himself as one of the robots in order to rescue Sana.
13) The final set of scenes where Chitti has a tough battle against security forces(the animation and graphics in this set of scenes impressed me the most)
Music, Direction and Performances
AR Rahman composed the soundtracks of this movie. In all there were 7 tracks, including a couple of catchy ones llike "Boom Boom Robo Da" and "Naina Miley". The movie’s first song "Paagal Annukal" had a beautiful background music and is in fact one of my favourite songs.A.R Rahman, Javed Ali, Vijay Prakash, S.P Balasubramanian, Shreya Ghoshal were some of the singers who lent their voices for the tracks. The choreography and cinematography of these tracks too were done in a typical south style(added with a dash of modernity).
Coming to the direction, Shankar(who is quite well known down south) has done a marvellous role of imagining and directing a plot where a Robot is bestowed with and exploits human qualities, besides having superhuman abilities. This is only paralled to few of its Hollywood counterparts like The Terminator series.
Focusing now on the performances, the man who steals the show is none other than the legend, Mr Rajnikanth himself.Normally, in most of the movies prior to this, he has the typical look as one would identify him with, but in this movie, his looks have been enhanced, both as Dr Wasigaran and the robot Chitti.His ability to carry the body language of a robot in his performance was the X factor.Next, Aishwarya Rai too portrayed an intense role, not just that of a fiancé, but one who suffers torments inflicted on her by Chitti after his revival by Dr Vohra. Danny Denzongpa, essayed a negative character effortlessly and conveyed the effect.I guess, all the other actors have done good justice to their roles.
Graphics/Animation
A lot had been spent on the animation sequences of this film to give more life and thrill to it. Designers from San Winston studios(USA) who worked on many Hollywood and other international projects were roped in to do major portions of intense graphics and animation.Animators and designers from Hong Kong and China too were roped in for the same. In addition, the sets, mainly for the some of the song sequences too were designed specifically.