Rediff’s Rajaneesh Vilakudy says,

If top industry sources are to be believed, Shankar will work with Rajnikanth in Robot, which was planned to be shot with Shah Rukh Khan in the lead and as producer. But the project apparently did not work out owing to ‘creative differences’, with Shah Rukh himself confirming the separation.

In any case, going by what I know about the movie, its not Thalaivar material at all.

Though the film’s thread is not confirmed, the name ‘Robot’ and widely-speculated media reports suggest the story is about a maverick scientist who creates a robot and later runs into trouble with his pet creation.

Thankfully (even if you don’t agree with me that Thalaivar should not touch this even with a pole), Rajaneesh also reminds us to take this piece of news with a pinch of salt with his parting shot -

Interestingly, a search on ‘Robot-Shanker-film’ throws up many actors’ names as the heroes of this dream project — the latest being Ajith of Billa fame in the lead.

So, thanks for nothing!

Shankar’s movies have not veered away from the populist path, save for Kadhalan and Boys, to some extent. Sivaji should have joined that pantheon of Shankar movies where the common man suffers and makes the baddies suffer for subjecting him and the rest of the world around to the suffering. Except that in this case, Thalaivar is actually a rich man. Shankar twists the formula and subjects a rich do-gooder to the same abuse and suffering that the every-man hero went through in his other movies. The result is a movie that sometimes lacks binding logic, but more than makes up for all these shortcomings by exploiting the charisma of the leading man in question.

The movie opens anonymously, literally. We see a man driven to jail and is instructed by a police officer to cover his face lest people see his face and go wild. But, since we are not exactly Klingons, we all know who he is. A few minutes later, when he turns around for the first time, all of us know why we are there today. A multitude of whistles rise up almost in one and the ride begins. Well, what a ride it is. More than three hours later, we walk out, thoroughly spent physically, throats dry and hoarse.

Thalaivar carries this movie on his broad shoulders with minimal help from Shankar’s story and screen play. After a break from procedure in Chandramukhi, where he was absent from the screen for almost 20 min at a stretch at one point, Thalaivar hogs the screen once again here. But the average Thalaivar fan like me cannot complain at all.

Thalaivar rocks the scene in the action sequences. Look out for the scene in the roadside tea shop. And watch out for the sequence where Thalaivar says “singam da, single a dhaan varum”! Goosebump alert! The scenes where tosses the coins up to land into his pockets and the chewing gum popping sequences are very standard Rajini, aimed to rouse the audiences. But as usual Shankar goes a bit overboard on the special effects in some of the sequences and that sort of killed some scenes for me.

As if to offset, Shankar really scores on the song sequences. While Rajini’s past intro songs have set a really high bar, Ballielaka is a nice intro number by itself, with ample references to Rajini’s usual “son of the soil” role. Nayantara looks really hot. Sahana and Vaaji Vaaji have brought out the best from Thotta Tharani (and Shankar’s AVM’s pocket) with stupendously detailed backdrops. Oru Koodai Sunlight has Thalaivar in a blond wig and is part of the comedy gag. Athiradi is clearly inspired by Roberto Rodriguez’s Mariachi trilogy, complete with the machine gun in the guitar and the rockets in the guitar case, but Thalaivar is a sight to see in this song. Awesome picturization. The choreography credits include Lawrence, Raju Sundaram and Brinda and if you watch closely, it is very easy to identify the choreographer for each song. On an added note, Shreya looks gorgeous in every song (actually in the whole movie).

The make up leads one to think that Shankar has perhaps actually managed to reverse Rajini’s ageing process. If I had one misgiving about the movie after seeing the promos, it was about the hairdos. But after watching the movie itself, I think that my misgivings were unfounded. The blond wig still put me off, but the situation demanded it and is amply backed up by the lyrics. The sequences that have Thalaivar with the shaved head are the best, if you ask me.

Vivek adds to the movie, playing Robin to Thalaivar’s Batman and raises quite a few laughs. The best among these sequences has to be the one where he interrupts Thalaivar and complains about every Tom Dick and Harry uttering punch lines on screen and then proceeds to reel out one such line himself. As usual, Thalaivar is himself a part of the comedy track and shows his comic touch in the “Fair and Lovely” gag that runs through most of the first half of the movie. And watch out for the sequence where he mimics some other Tamil cinema icons. Solomon Paapaiah is part of the laugh track as well. And towards the end of the movie, perhaps for the first time in a Thalaivar padam, you see a trio of actors who came into prominence by mimicking the likes of Thalaivar.

Suman’s portrayal is understated and hence more menacing than a lot of villains we have seen in Rajini’s movies. Kanal Kannan makes the now almost obligatory appearance as the negative protagonist in a fight sequence. Pyramid Natrajan, Raghuvaran, Vadivukarasi and Manivannan walk in and out of the movie, while Shreya looks ravishingly gorgeous in a slightly meatier role as Thalaivar’s love interest and key plot device.

But as I mentioned earlier, this is a movie that sometimes lacks binding logic. And it is good that it is a Thalaivar starrer, for no one other than Rajini will be able to pull it off with such a handicap. But you should be really foolish to expect any logic from most Indian movies. So the standard Rajini padam disclaimer applies here too – Watch it with an open mind. This movie is no different in that aspect from a lot of Tamil movies and if you take my advice, you will have some three hours of solid fun.

Personally, I am hunting for tickets to have three more hours of solid fun tomorrow!

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The first impression – Thalaivar rocks. A desi co-worker who walked into my cube exclaimed – Is that Rajinikant? He looks 30 maan! ‘Nuff said……

Part 1 of 3

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For the remaining parts,

Part 2 of 3

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Part 3 of 3

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P.S: Special thanks to “Ilaya Naadhaari” Praveen for letting me know about the news report!

Ek hi chaand hai, raat ke liye…

I must be the only thalaivar fan who did not post anything yesterday. But then, I am humble enough to admit that I cannot be as big a fan as someone who created this and this and this and this and this.

Kanna….
Aalu rounda iruntha podhathu..
Aatathula all roundera irukkanum…

Amaidhikku Babaji..
Adidhadikku Sivaji!!

Thanneerai Killa Mudiyuma ?
Sivajiya vella mudiyuma?

Paambey patha padaye nadungum….
Indha Sivajiya paathu… pambe nadungum!

Phone adicha ringu…
Indha Sivaji adicha sangu.

==================================

Don’t know if this is the real thing, but thalaivar punch-ey punch!

Amit, you understood just one word, since the rest were all in Tamil! Hmmm…

Since this post seems to have mysteriously cropped up on this week’s blog mela (I wonder who nominated it, so will just thank Amit), I have to add, for the benefit of all you non Tam readers, that the above is a set of lines, supposedly from Thalaivar’s forthcoming movie, Sivaji.

Again FYI, Rajinikanth (or Thalaivar, as he is fondly called) usually has a number of such punch-lines in his movies. Usually one of them gets repeated throughout the movie like this one from Baasha – Indha Baasha oru dharava sonna, nooru dharava sonna maadhiri (A single word from Baasha is as powerful as a hundred words). Or this one from Padaiyappa – En vazhi thani vazhi (My way is unique). Simple and yet, powerful. And their hundred different hidden meanings are totally lost in translation from Tamil to English.

The Superstar (who gives this blog part of it’s URL), along with Mithun da in Hindi and Megastar Chiranjeevi in Telugu, forms the Holy Trinity of Indian cinema. Watch their movies, even if you cannot understand a word of that particular language. I guarantee that you will come out feeling contented that it was money well spent on entertainment.

After much deliberation and a review of available finances, we decided that the original intention of driving to NJ early Saturday morning to watch the noon show at the Pathmark 13 Cinema at North Bergen was not viable due to the high insurance costs for the rental car. We decided to shoot for the 10:30 show on Friday, returning back to our base at Newark in the wee hours of Saturday. It was decided that I would drive us back to Newark, while S, being the more experienced driver would drive us down there. The tickets were booked and the car, an Altima, was commandeered from one of the local Enterprise offices.

Two hours before we were due to leave, I decided that this road trip would be incomplete without appropriate music blaring out from the car’s CD player. I had heard so much folklore about a memorable road trip made by other Thalai fans between St. Louis and Chicago (a 4 hour drive each way) for the first show of Baba a couple of years ago, that we, at ChRRaNam had to simply do something equally huge. Again, whether we did or not, seems irrelevant now, but I like to think we tried. So, I hustled up Thalai’s intro songs from previous movies and compiled a CD with classics like “Oruvan Oruvan”, “Podhuvaga En Manasu” right up to “Devuda”. Of course, there were one or two exceptions (i.e. non intro songs), but memorable thalaivar songs nevertheless.

Five or six miles into our drive, we ran into our first snag that brought forth continuous ribbing from the others directed towards the self proclaimed “World’s Best Navigator”, i.e. me. We, rather I, missed a sign board and we found ourselves on I-295 rather than I-95. A good hour before the show, we found ourselves approaching exit 18W (NJ 3 toward Secaucus/Rutherford). That was due to the lack of vital info in our map, a redundant detail usually, but made very relevant by the fact that all of us were new to New Jersey. A close shave followed with a huge trailer bearing past us on the left fork with its horn blaring. Another close shave followed, this time a car braking hard to avoid us on the right. I think the driver realized our predicament and merely reversed a few yards to avoid us and continued on his way on 3 East. We however decided to go on 3 West and ended up in the parking lot of a stadium complex (seemed to be the Continental Arena, the home of the New Jersey Nets). We took a 15 minute drive back in the opposite direction, took a U turn and proceeded on 3 East. Another wrong turn later (with half hour remaining now), we pulled into a gas station on NJ 1/9 South and were told to “take a U turn at the second light and drive in the opposite direction to go to the theatre”. What followed was a nightmare, with around 2 miles of traffic proceeding at about a meter at a time, due to road work!

By this time, the guys in the other car, who had been a mile or so behind us when we were on I 95 had already reached the venue and started directing us to the Plaza 12 theatre over the phone. We gave up after a 15 minute drive in the general vicinity and went into a gas station. By this time, we realized that the guys in the other car could be at the wrong theatre since the ad that I had printed out, was for “Pathmark 13 Cinemas”. The gas station attendant directed us to the cinema, which he said was just a 5 minute drive. We landed finally at Pathmark, a good 35 minutes after the movie started, with the other guys already inside (they were in there, but had been confusing Plaza 12 with Pathmark 13, while directing us!). We staggered into the empty foyer and were directed towards Hall 1. By this time, I was thoroughly pissed after my navigating gaffes and the subsequent ribbing (which I realize now, on hindsight was totally good natured) and decided that another couple of minutes would not matter and made my way to the loo. Ya, that’s right, I chose the loo over a Thalaivar movie. Sacrilege, I know, but that was how “pissed” I was.

I walked into Hall 1, a few minutes later and found the whole hall reverberating with “Repeatu”. The other ChRRaNaM members were still waiting to see where we could sit and I pulled them towards the second row, which seemed to be the only place where there was a group of seats available. We sat down and I leaned over to the guy in the next seat (was sitting at the end of the group) and asked him how much I had missed. My grin matched Thalai’s on the screen as I heard the words “Maximum 10 minutes, Sir”. And that was when I realized that all was not wrong and the movie had been delayed by half hour! I then had the whale of a time whistling in response to Thalai!

I walked out during the interval and then got the first taste of the pleasant bizarre experience that has since made me term it as a “bizarro Thiruvizha”. I was accosted by two different people who converged on me at the same time with the words “Dei, nee enna da inga panra” (What are you doing here?). One was a friend’s brother and the other, an acquaintance that I had made during our IMS CAT coaching classes at Stella Maris. And looking around, I could recognize at least two other people who I knew from Chennai, but who probably did not recognize me. I also saw a girl from my days in Thanjavur, but being a “Mechu P**** Mavan” (as Badri calls me, referring to my degree in Mechanical Engineering with the word “Mechu”), I could not obviously approach this gal without getting raised eyebrows from her (if she still remembered me). He he! I then found a friend from school, sitting three rows behind us, who grinned at me as soon as I noticed him. Another 5 minute catching up followed before the movie resumed again. But that was not all, driving back to Newark, I met a junior from Shanmugha who had been at the same movie and was driving back to Philly. We met at a rest area where we stopped to catch some dinner to fill our growling stomachs. Whewwwwwwww!.

As for ChRRaNaM, I think we will disband it as soon as we settle the financial issues arising out of this trip. So, do you think ChRRaNaM served its purpose?