Endhiran: The man and the magic
Rajini, who began his career playing the bad guy, revels in roles with shades of gray even today, despite being the reigning superstar. After his class act as Vettayyan in Chandramukhi, he once again is in his elements playing the robot.
ENDHIRAN IS not a Rajini movie, it is a Shankar movie, that is, the movie is not made in the long-familiar Rajini mould: no style quotient, no punch dialogues, no gravity-defying stunts—all the action sequences are performed by Rajini, the robot and not by Rajni, the (super)human being. Shankar, whose penchant for using special effects is well-known, has finally found the canvas and money, thanks to Kalanithi Maran, to give full play to his love for special effects in this movie. It is not difficult to see from where Shankar’s idea for the storyline as well as special effects has originated: Hollywood’s Terminator series, Matrix series, and Men in Black-II. However, to Shankar’s credit, he has used the special effects to go with the Indian context, giving them a native hue, in the process making a movie high on technology, though not on content, and on a scale not seen so far in Indian tinsel world.
With a wafer-thin storyline (no wonder Shah Rukh Khan, who was to have originally made and acted in the movie withdrew himself from the project, complaining about the patchy story), Shankar has banked only on special effects and star power to pull this movie through. And that he has managed to achieve it is largely due to the charisma of Rajni, whose screen presence and aura give the much-needed weight to the story.
Then there is Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, who must have had a ball acting in this movie. She has practically nothing to do in terms of histrionics, except for gracing the screen and the scenes clad in trendy attires, looking as beautiful and bewitching as ever, gyrating to some peppy numbers by A.R.Rahman, in the process making the Robot’s ‘love and desire’ for her highly convincing.
With Rajini as the scientist and as the Robot hogging the screen space, and Aishwarya filling the gap, there is not much work for the rest of the cast. Danny Denzongpa and comedians Santhanam and Karunas are just props and never evolve as characters.
Rajini, who began his career playing the bad guy, revels in roles with shades of gray even today, despite being the reigning superstar. After his class act as Vettayyan in Chandramukhi, he once again is in his elements playing the love-obsessed robot in Endhiran. True anyone could have played this role. But they could not have made you love the role, as Rajni does. In the good Rajni versus bad Rajni, fans are found rooting for the bad Rajni.
A word about Raijni fans here. The ‘Rajini mania’ that follows the release of each of his movies is an interesting subject for sociologists. The expression of spontaneous adulation of fans on the movie release day ranges from splashing Rajni cutouts and posters with milk to showing camphor to the matinee idol’s poster to sprinkling flower petals on his cutouts, and so on. It is at once silly and profound. The fans’ acts are rooted in the soil, in their culture. A close look at all that the fans do would reveal that they do this out of love for Raijni (easily the most charismatic Tamil actor), as they do for their gods, parents, and near and dear ones. For example, bathing an image of god in milk (abhishek), showering flower petals on people on festive occasions, shaving one’s head as a mark of offering for the fulfillment of a wish are part of the Indian culture. In a culture, where elders are revered and loved ones are rewarded, it should not come as a surprise that Rajni is feted the same way.
In fact, there is not much difference between the frenzy a pop or rock star evokes in a western country and that a Raijni movie evokes in Tamil Nadu. In the former case, the fans scream, shout, and break into delirium on seeing their favourite star and thus express themselves in a way that is culturally accepted there. In Rajni’s case too, the fans express the same adulation in the way they know, through a culture they are familiar with. Also, to Tamils living elsewhere, joining the ‘Rajini mania’ is a way of relating to Tamil Nadu, their roots, their identity. It is like letting your hair down, leaving your pretensions aside, and getting nostalgic.
 | Previous Post |
Login
 Login through Social ID
|
Not finding what you are looking for? Search here.
