Movie Review: Robot

Mind it, this is the Yanna Rascala movie of the year!

Dr Vasi is at the cusp of his ten year old dream. He has created the ultimate robot - with unparalleled intelligence, strength and survivability, and the looks and behaviour of a human. A humanoid, Chitti, who looks and talks like him. However, when the regulators (led by the unscrupulous scientist (Danny)) deny him permission to operationalize it as the Indian Army's ultimate fighting machine, he teaches the machine to feel.


That's when trouble begins! Chitti falls in love with Vasi's girl friend, Sana (Aishwarya) and ends up learning to disobey his master, fuelled by his ever-growing yearning for Sana's kisses. Things rapidly go out of control, and when Chitti is modified by the addition of a "destruction chip", all hell breaks loose.

Will Vasi be able to curb the robot menace rapidly threatening to consume Chennai, or will machine win over man?

The movie has an interesting plot, that keeps you rooted to your seat as the crescendo builds up to an explosive end. The SFX are top class, rich in detailing and quality, and fantastic in their ideation. The mad car chase, and the climax scene at the end with the hundreds of Chitti clones working in tandem to take on the might of the security forces are just amazingly designed and executed. The visuals are also top-notch, the locales used for some of the songs, real or SFX, are also mind blowing. (Interestingly, in a couple of scenes though - the SFX is so pedestrian, it's almost like the stuff one saw in Vikram and Vetaal on DD in the 80s!)

Of course, being an indestructible robot, Rajni gets to add tremendously to his incredible exploits :) Shooting through this finger, growing wheels and running sideways on trains, turning magnetic to zap out weapons from his attackers, and having intimate conversations with mosquitoes are just some of his special skills. Not to mention romancing a woman less than half his age. The Rajni mania just got bigger!

Ash disappoints again, I have never understood those constipated looks on her face. But if you can ignore that, she's not too bad. And that's not too difficult to do, since the Robot gives you plenty of interesting stuff to look at. Danny is under-utilized.

The biggest disappointment for me though, was the sound track. Very forgettable, except for a couple of numbers - most of the song and dance sequences are shot lavishly in exotic locales with extravagant colors and rich visualizations, but Rehman creates more noise than melody. The movie is fantastic in the first half, but needed some serious editing in the second.

Overall, a must-see movie for its SFX and visualizations, a wonderful treat for your senses. Mind it, don't miss it!