The Real Endhiran Review

Fri, 08 Oct 2010 04:49:42 +0530

This review has spoilers

Saw Endhiran yesterday in a theatre full of people many of whom didn’t even understand Tamil (you know, when they laugh only at the jokes in English!) It was a wonderful experience, minus all the wolf whistles and dancing seen in a typical Rajini starrer film. Partially due to the fact that it is a relatively tame multiplex audience in Karnataka and partially because it was not a typical Rajini movie with cliched punchlines and mannerism. Instead, it was a good Indian sci-fi movie.

Even though the theme is as old as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Endhiran shows the complexities that a sentient android robot, if ever built, brings in a form understandable even to the masses. It is a genuine attempt at bringing the moral issues of advancing AI technologies and how it can possibly impact our lives. The story or plot is rather an excuse to put together various engaging scenes and brings nothing entirely novel.

To say that Shankar has left enough interesting bits and pieces for the above-average audience would be an understatement. More on that later. I was expecting to a visual effects driven blockbuster movie and was instead surprised by the science fiction aspects of it. There is a lot of detail in the manner the robot manoeuvres i.e. magnetic attraction rather than dumb jet-packs.

The rest of the review has even more spoilers

The Geeky bits

As alluded previously, the movie is sprinkled with plenty of geeky stuff. The problems posed are really hard problems from the fields of machine learning and AI research rather than gimmicky questions. This shows the kind of homework that Shankar (or is it Sujatha?) has done for the movie.

Here is a sample of what the “Robot” can deftly handle and some other geek trivia:

Hard AI and machine learning problems

Hard Robotics problems

Bi-pedal motion
Accurate speech synthesis

Hard Math problems

Largest prime number
Determining if a large number is Fibonacci

Computer Programming

Hello World!
Worms for infiltration of a network rather than a Virus (Take that Hollywood!)

Science Fiction References

Asimov’s Laws of Robotics - The scientist has a clever explanation why it doesn’t follow them. Otherwise this would have ruined the plot.(Thanks Rindo!)
Various Star Wars droids - R2-D2 anyone?

Kudos to the Endhiran team for the laudable attempt.

PS: I wasn’t too far off :)

Endhiran (Robot) Spoilers

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 01:57:19 +0530

I have some semi-informed notions of the Endhiran storyline and even the climax. Don’t worry, the boot-leg copies of the film are not yet out and these are just speculations. However, I have more than 2 decades of film-watching and popcorn-munching experience to back on. My guesses are:

Rajini’s dual roles will be as a scientist and the robot which he will build in his own image.
The robot become ‘self aware’ and will download and assimilate entire Indian history post independence in a scene with jazzy graphics and the camera rotating around the robot Rajini’s face. It will develop stronger moral absolutes compared to the scientist. It will understand through it’s AI brain that the root of India’s problem is… wait for it… Corruption
The scientist realises that his creation has created enemies out of his corporate sponsors who want it to be shut down. He turns ‘villian’.
Meanwhile, Aish the evergreen teeny-bopper develops a crush on the scientist Rajini. However, the scientist being a ‘nerd’ doesn’t have any such feelings towards her.
One fine morning, Aish meets the Robot and mistakes him to be the scientist himself. The robot too develops a special ‘emotional’ attachment towards her. Soon, sparks start flying (… literally).
The robot’s vigilante actions soon attracts national attention and he is feared and praised for his actions. This leads to climax where a major boss-battle with blinding computer graphics take place.
The real climax - Aish later finds out that she was also a robot, which explains her wooden expression throughout (the movie or her entire acting career? ;) ). The mechanical pair live happily ever after.

I can’t wait to see how right/wrong I am ;)

Disclaimer: This post was written purely for humorous purposes. This may or may not reflect the actual plot or storyline. No offence meant to anyone real or imaginary :)

** I have seen the movie now and here is the real review

robot on Arunrocks