Parts of the film are superbly entertaining, the scale is spectacular, the story is ambitious and special effects are impressive, but the theme is same, a typical Indian love triangle but with a twist or I would say with ‘tarka’ of Hollywood influence. Still I would strongly recommend you to see ‘Robot’ to enjoy the fantastical ride in writer-director Shankar’s imagination and to rejoice the sheer force of nature that is Rajinikanth.
In ‘Robot’ Rajinikanth plays a double role, Dr Vasi, who creates a Robot like him, infused with human emotions named ‘Chitti’ who falls in love with his creator’s girlfriend, Sana played by Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. And from there begins a crazy, heart-hitting story of ‘Robot’.
There are gravity defying stunts, shooting with a finger, running horizontally at high speed on the side of a train, flying cars and bikes, corny but hilarious dialogues. For example, when the robot is asked his address and gives his IP address. This shows it’s not just god, the universe and its logic itself is recreated in the film.
Robot most grabbing or I would say cutest feature is the character of chitti, who wants to live and love like all of us. He is also tragically flawed, capable of blinding hubris and horrific destruction. Besides, Shankar also uses him to make a comment on the human condition. Director Shankar who has a penchant for double image, multiple images and split images of his heroes returns this time with hundreds of images of Rajnikanth. The film is futuristic and does seem to be inspired by Hollywood flicks ranging from I-Robot to Blade Runner to Frankenstein to Matrix but it has some ‘as-usual’ typical Indian masala.
As far as Aishwarya’s character is concerned, it is nothing more than eye candy, the conventional damsel in distress who has to be saved by the hero.
The music fails to capture attention. A.R. Rehman’s decision to rely on Robotic sounds, which we have already heard three decades back in films like ‘Robocap’ failed to inspire.
But with Rajinikanth, who makes no mistakes, the film is a good time-pass for the weekend,
But make sure to save some popcorn for the end, as it might become too exaggerated. So you can rely on your popcorns 😉
Robot is like a roller-coaster ride that should be experienced. Action-packed, fun-filled, adventurous but at the end you feel you don’t have more energy left and you just want it to end.
