Shankar's Feat "Endhiran" a.k.a "Robot" a.k.a "Robo"

I am a great fan of Director Shankar Shanmugam. All his movies are always super-hits & Blockbusters. Most of his movies are kind of social-awareness movies focusing on corruption, Govt. Scams, etc. Right from the start, he was always a step ahead in reaching the audience expectations.

His Filmography:-

Year	Film	Cast	Notes
As director
1993	Gentleman	Arjun, Madhubala
1994	Kadhalan	Prabhu Deva, Nagma, Vadivelu
1996	Indian	Kamal Haasan, Manisha Koirala, Urmila Matondkar	Indian submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
1998	Jeans	Prashanth, Aishwarya Rai	Indian submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
1999	Mudhalvan	Arjun, Manisha Koirala, Raghuvaran	Also producer
2001	Nayak	Anil Kapoor, Rani Mukerji, Amrish Puri
2003	Boys	Siddharth, Genelia D'Souza, Bharath, Nakul, Sai Thaman
2005	Anniyan	Vikram, Sadha, Prakash Raj	Winner, Filmfare Best Director Award Winner, Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Director
2007	Sivaji	Rajinikanth, Shriya Saran, Suman, Vivek
2010	Endhiran	Rajinikanth, Aishwarya Rai, Danny Denzongpa
2011	3 Rascals	Vijay, Jeeva, Siddarth, Ileana D'Cruz, Sathyaraj	Pré-Production(also in telugu)
As producer
1999	Mudhalvan	Arjun Sarja, Manisha Koirala, Raghuvaran	Winner, Filmfare Best Film Award
2004	Kaadhal	Bharath, Sandhya
2006	Imsai Arasan 23am Pulikesi	Vadivelu, Monica, Nassar, Tejashree
2006	Veyil	Pasupathy, Bharath, Bhavana Menon, Priyanka, Shriya Reddy	Winner, National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil Winner, Filmfare Best Film Award
2007	Kalloori	Akhil, Tamannaah Bhatia
2008	Arai Enn 305-il Kadavul	Santhanam, Ganja Karuppu, Prakash Raj, Madhumitha, Jyothirmayi
2009	Eeram	Aadhi, Nandha, Sindhu Menon, Saranya Mohan
2010	Rettaisuzhi	K. Balachander, Bharathiraja, Anjali
	Anandhapurathu Veedu	Nandha, Chaya Singh, Aryan

His latest release is "Enthiran (Tamil) a.k.a Robo (Telugu) a.k.a Robot (Hindi)". This time, he came up with entirely different project compared to his previous projects. A Sci-Fi, Fiction, Thriller, Action, Comedy, Romantic, ...etc Movie.

As U can see that his previous release was "Shivaji" in 2007. It took 3 years for him to make this movie. That makes it the most awaited movie of the year. That too, the movie casts SRK (It's not Shah Rukh Khan, It's Superstar Rajni Kanth) and Aishwarya Rai. Produced by Kalanidhi Maran and Hansraj Saxena, it is known for being the most expensive film in Asia ever made, officially budgeted at 162 crores. As usual, A R Rahman is the music director. Shankar - Rahman partnership had been successful all the time. It has been going on, right from the first movie "Gentleman" except for the movie "Anniyan (Tamil) a.k.a Aparichithudu (Telugu) a.k.a Aparichit (Hindi)" in which Harris Jayaraj is the music director.

After all that waiting, it was released on 1st October, 2010. The film was opened in 2250 theatres worldwide of which 555 theatres were in Tamil Nadu alone, making it the largest worldwide release for a Tamil film. Upon release, it enjoyed critical acclaim and commercial success across the globe, collecting an unprecedented 200 crores in the first 2 Weeks.

Critics Review:-

Enthiran has received widespread critical acclaim. On the review-aggregation website ReviewGang, the film scored 7.0/10 based on 9 reviews. About its Hindi version, Anupama Chopra of NDTV says, "Robot rides on Rajinikanth’s shoulders and he never stoops under the burden. Aided by snazzy clothes, make-up and special effects, he makes Chitti endearing", while giving it 3.5 out of 5. Aniruddha Guha of DNA rated it 4 out of 5: "The creepy laughter, body language, the sneer under the heavily made up face all create an effect that leaves you spellbound. This a Rajni fest all the way, and it’s not to be missed". Nikhat Kazmi of Times of India rated it 4 out of 5: "Robot is the perfect getaway film, guaranteed to give you a high with its heady over-the-top Tamil flavour. You might just overdose on the pungent masala fare."

My Experience...

Generally I don't watch movies in theatres unless it is my favourite actor's or some big blockbuster. There are some South-Indian directors who makes movies worth-watching in theatres. Shankar is definitely one of them. So I pre-decided to watch the movie before its release. My Bad Luck... The movie is showing in Tamil and Hindi versions in Gurgaon. As I can't understand Tamil, it's better to watch it in Hindi. Thank God...Atleast there is a hindi version. Otherwise I had to watch in tamil and that would be last thing I would. There is no point in watching a movie in a theatre without knowing the language and that too without subtitles ... :)

Actually 1st October is Friday. Weekends in Gurgaon, Life is costly. If U wanna go a movie, take a 500-rupee note. Take nothing less...Expect nothing less. So I decided to go on a weekday. After surfing through internet, came to know that on Wednesday it is just 100 bucks. So Booked tickets to go along with my roommate Santhosh (Santu).

Finally, Watched it on Wednesday night (6th October)...

My Review...

"Mind Blowing Graphics Work, Never-Before Never-After Kind. Very rarely seen in Indian Movies. Great deal of Effort went into making of songs...Beautiful Locations...Stunning costumes of Aishwarya Rai...Ingenious Screenply & Direction...". The song lyrics in Hindi are not as good as they are in Telugu. They sound awkward. Better lyrics would have made some good in Audio Sales.
But I believe that Rajnikanth is not a person for this kind of role. "Shivaji" is his kind of movie but not "Chitti" (This is the name of Robot in this movie) . This is my personal Opnion... No Hard Feelings. Anyhow... Everyone has to accept a truth that it is really a Brave Attempt by him to do such a action movie at a age of 61...Bravo..

My View...

I have my own theory on why Shankar chose Rajnikanth to play the role. To make a movie like Endhiran a.ka. Robot, it takes lot of investment. Producers doesn't want to take chance by hiring some small actor with limited fan base. That is why Shankar approached SRK first(This time, it's Shah Rukh Khan). In July 2007,  Shah Rukh Khan agreed to play the lead role and also to produce the film. But in October 2007, he called off the project. He commented on the script as "Half-Baked" & dull in comparison to his previous projects. But Shankar believes in his script. He always proved himself as a Good script writer too.

Now Shankar wants an actor with very good fan following. "Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Hrithik Roshan, RajniKanth.... Yeah ... It's Rajnikanth. It should be him". Reasons behind it as I think so could be ...

1. Rajnikanth movies always have record-breaking openings in Tamil Nadu & Andhra Pradesh. He has good fan base in Japan, Singapore, Germany too. So Good Collections in Overseas too.
2. He did his previous movie "Shivaji" with him. Great commercial Hit. Maybe he felt that he will be more comfortable making a movie with him as they may have good understanding.
3. He is Tamil director. So prefers a Tamil Actor..... :D
4. Producers can be confident on the investment. "It's Rajnikanth. Money Back Guarantee".

Anyways... The Movie is finally a Great Commercial Hit in the History of Indian Film Industry...Congrats to Shankar & His Team...