Enthiran

Enthiran (2010)

Runtime: 174 minutes (no, not a misprint)

Directed by: S. Shankar

Starring: Rajinikanth, Aishwarya Rai, Danny Denzongpa, Santhanam

From: Sun Pictures

Alright, here’s a review of something that’s rather strange but yet it’s timely, and not just because I’ve talked of some foreign flicks as of late. Last week I first heard about this movie on a website where a pair of videos were posted. I didn’t watch them… which was a mistake. Suddenly, on Thursday the 27th the second video that was posted went viral and was talked about on various sites, due to the fact that you saw action scenes that were SO wacky and over the top and yet because of that, it was great beyond words. I looked around and found out what the movie was called. It apparently was released in a few places in the US a few months ago, but I had not heard anything about it. I looked around some more, and magically, someone uploaded the entire film to YouTube, and with English subtitles! How nice of that person. Of course, that got taken down but as I’m typing this late Sunday night, someone uploaded the movie in 12 parts on YouTube, in better quality and subtitles for the songs too. You just have to know what they’re singing. Here’s Part 1, to put it out there blatantly.

So, I watched it that way, and what an experience. Now, even though it’s from India, it’s not a “Bollywood” movie. Rather, it’s called “Kollywood”, or Tamil to be more specific. I don’t really know how it’s different, as you still get random extravagant musical numbers like you do in Bollywood flicks. Also, at random points the cast will speak a few words in English before returning to their native language. This happens often, and I have ZERO idea as to why.

Besides those things, though, the movie is rather straightforward. A scientist (Rajinikanth) creates a robot in his image. He has a hot girlfriend (Rai). The robot does many amazing things… in fact, to a preposterous degree, but it works in this universe. So, the scientist wants the robot to become a weapon of the state, but there’s reservations. It becomes injected with emotions, and that causes problems, as you might expect. The robot starts to fall for Rai too; at least that is understandable. As you can see, I find her to rank high on the attractiveness scale. Now there’s another person who has tried a few times to break into the Western world, but when those films are The Last Legion (trust me, I’ve seen it and it’s not all that great) and The Pink Panther sequel… I’m sure she doesn’t mind still being a huge star in her homeland.

Anyhow, there’s also problems with rivals who wish to have the technology themselves. To give it away (hey, the videos went viral, after all, so you’ve probably already seen it), the robot gets trashed and thrown away, only to end up in the wrong hands, and that’s how you end up with many copies of it.

Much of the movie isn’t action-related at all. Besides the musical stuff there’s also drama, romance and comedy. But, what action you do see is in those two videos I linked to, and what insane action it is. You see many preposterous things… and yet most of it was just so damn COOL! Most of it I had never seen before (or even thought of) and while it’s videogame-like, it doesn’t look bad at all. It’s not like they have ILM magic working for them so you can’t expect stuff comparable to the most recent and biggest Hollywood blockbusters. It works for the movie.

The other stuff is also fine. The story really wasn’t all that original if you look at it closely; who cares, though, if you’re entertained by it? There was enough for me not to be bored, even with it being almost 3 hours long. The songs… they’re wacky, so for that reason alone you shouldn’t be bored by that particular aspect either.

So, whether you want to watch it that way or wait for DVD or what have you, if it sounds interesting for your tastes, go for it.

I'll be back Thursday night with a new review.