Enthiran

There was a time , when I was a Chiranjeevi fan, to an extent that I even defended his flop movies such as Rickshavodu, Big Boss and others of the same ilk. For me he was was the ultimate star- the superstar. And hearing tales of Amitabh Bachchan from my father did nothing to alter my views on Chiranjeevi's superstardom

Towards the end of my graduation, that is circa 2005 in April, two movies released- Mumbai Express and Chandramukhi. I went to Mumbai Express for the first day first show and was not impressed. Rajnikanth, coming off a colossal flop called  Baba  and Chandramukhi was touted to be his comeback vehicle. Since we had nothing to do, we dragged ourselves to Chandramukhi and I was impressed with the fact that as a superstar, he allowed the female protagonist to run away with the credit

Well when Sivaji released, I got to see Rajni mania first hand and what a sight it was! I was in Bangalore and there was a serpentine queue to procure the tickets. The sheer magnitude was such that I never saw that queue before and never after again. When I went to watch the movie, I was totally impressed with the fact the biggest screen in PVR was converted in a cat-whistling contest and the atmosphere in the Audi-1 to describe the least was electric


In that movie, Shankar had to succumb to Rajini's superstar capabilities rather than go full pelt at the story. Three years after that movie, the same combination comes up with a movie called Enthiran and they do a reversal of sorts- as Rajni surrenders his superstar image and performs as an actor

Produced on a budget of 140 crores, it is undoubtedly the most expensive Indian movie ever made and before the movie released , doubts were expressed as to how the investment could be recovered. Well Rajnikanth being Rajnikanth ensured that the returns on investments were made in a week. Accepted that it was nearly released in 3000 theaters but without the kind of popularity that Rajnikanth enjoys, it would have been tough to get such a publicised release

Coming to the movie itself, it's pretty different in the sense that Rajini sheds the cloak of superstardom in the first half and tries to be a natural. For the hard-core fans, it might be a disappointment but it goes a long way in adding hordes of fans to his burgeoning list. Well for the old-timers and the fanatics, there is an element that takes them back in time. Back to the roles, which helped Rajini achieve his stardom

Actually the movie theme is such that it's not insular and it connects with people of all ages, which perhaps explains the collections of the movie

PS 1: My friend after watching the movie said that he was surprised to find that even robots get erections

PS 2: If you come looking for reviews here, please don't! I won't give out the story