Enthiran: Movie Preview

Cast: Rajinikanth, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Danny Denzongpa, Santhanam and Kalabavan Mani.

Director: Shankar

Music Composer: A.R. Rahman

Producer: Kalanithi Maran

Banner: Sun Pictures

Costume Designer: Manish Malhotra and Mary E. Vogt

Choreography: Prabhu Deva.

Lyrics: Vairamuthu

Art direction: Sabu Cyril

Cinematography: Ratnavelu

Stunt Co-ordinators: Yuen Woo Ping and Peter Hein

Special Effects: Stan Wisdom Studios

Script: Late Sujatha, Shankar and Balakumaran.

STORY:

When it comes to Superstar’s Enthiran (Robot in Hindi), everything related to it has to be big. When it’s a movie this big, even its music release must necessarily make a colourful explosion. Hero superstar Rajinikanth, director Shankar, music composer A.R. Rahman, leading lady Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and producer Kalanithi Maran led the colourful audio launch of Enthiran at Kuala Lumpur on July 31st.

Movies like Jurassic Park, Predator and Avatar made history because of their out-of-the-box themes and realistic portrayal of fictitious characters or extinct animal forms. The animatronix technology used in these movies surpassed all expectations, with Avatar outdoing the other two by a huge margin. One of the studios behind this very elaborate animatronix process is Stan Wisdom Studios. And now, we hear that it’s the very same company that has created the robot-avatar of our superstar in Enthiran!

A robot modelled on Rajinikanth right from his skin tone has been created by the Studios, besides many other such electronic wonders that we will get to see in the movie. Technicians at the studio have supposedly remarked that even in Hollywood they have not worked on a movie that has given scope for them to use every bit of the technology they have, as has Enthiran! Tamil Cinema has indeed come a long way in terms of technology and we sure do hope this movie is worth the wait and the crores! Yuen Woo Ping (of The Matrix, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Forbidden Kingdom fame) and Peter Hein are the stunt co-ordinators.

Enthiran (also spelt as Endhiran) brings back the famous duo of Superstar Rajinikanth and director Shankar after their blockbuster Sivaji the boss. Enthiran is also special for its choreography by Prabhu Deva. Lyrics by Vairamuthu, art direction by Sabu Cyril and cinematography by Ratnavelu comprise a regular Shankar team. The director has also roped in Oscar winner Resul Pookutty for sound effects; it is also said that a unique sound effect has been created for the film. The script is by late Sujatha, Shankar and Balakumaran. Other major stars in the film include Danny Denzongpa, Santhanam and Kalabavan Mani. The film is also being dubbed in Telugu and Hindi.

The story of Enthiran as revealed so far: Innovative scientist Dr. Vaseegaran (Rajni), creates a robot Chitti (Rajni again) with artificial intelligence. After some time, the robot behaves more like a human and falls in love with Aishwarya Rai. Now comes the twist. The villains, who are aware of the power of this robot, acquire it to perform evil activities. Knowing the consequences, Vaseegaran sets out on a mission to rescue the robot from evil hands. So will he succeed in his mission? Wait and watch!

Envisaging future fashion fads, costume designer Manish Malhotra and Mary E. Vogt have worked extensively on Rajinikanth’s look in the film. Enthiran will release in 2000 screens worldwide, the highest ever for a Tamil film. The film will be released in over 300 screens outside India, which makes Enthiran the largest worldwide release after Spiderman.

Actually, Shankar’s Enthiran was touted to be a Rs. 100 crore project when it was launched in 2008 by Ayngaran International along with Eros Labs. When Sun Pictures took over (in 2009), the film was said to be a Rs. 150 crore production. Now the buzz is that Enthiran has cost around Rs. 200 crores! The Telugu version of Enthiran, titled Robot, will be sold for not less than Rs. 30 crores.