Endhiran

We saw Endhiran movie last Friday. I don’t want to give a review here. Lot of people have already given their reviews. I want to write here what went through my mind while watching the movie:

Rajni started his movie career as a villain. If this is his last film, he will end his career as a villain.

This is a regular Tamil masala movie with comedy, songs, dance, romance, and fights. While I am enjoying this for entertainment, suddenly I see this super quality special effects which are certainly better than any Hollywood films.

The reverse is also true. While I am enjoying this super quality special effects which are certainly better than any Hollywood films, I am brought back to the real world with comedy and songs.

A. R. Rahman music? I think he has done a better job in other films. One stand out song is Kilimanjaro.

Cinematography by R. Ratnavelu is excellent.

Director Shankar failed in the second half. The whole movie is focused on special effects and Rajni only. No good story. The good turns bad and the bad turns good. The good gets trashed in the end. I did not feel so connected in the second half with the story.

Last 45 minutes will give hard core Rajni fans a thrill of a lifetime.

We saw this movie in San Jose, California. Rajni fans are Rajni fans wherever they live. When his name was shown on the screen and whenever Rajni walks (in his own unique style) the whole theater went bonkers - shouts, claps, whistles, and more shouting of “thalaivaaaa” (Oh my leader).

The movie was disconnected for 4 times in the first 15 minutes. I think the theater’s projector did not work well.

There was English subtitle on the screen. But the English lines were delayed by about 6 minutes. Therefore, non Tamil speaking audience could not follow the screen and the dialogue.

Good to see quite a few Japanese in the audience and a lone white woman.

Sunday morning read the following in the web and other magazines:

A song-and-dance sequence (Kilimanjaro) was filmed in Machu Picchu (A very favorite place of a friend of mine.)

Special effects were done by Stan Winston Studio which provided the animatrics for films like Jurassic Park and Avatar.

All the stunts have been choreographed by Yuen Woo Ping, the Hong Kong based action director who created the high-adrenalin stunts of classics like Kill Bill and Matrix.

Slate, an American magazine wrote about this movie and Rajni, on September 27, 2010. The following is the title and the beginning paragraph:

SUPERSTAR Rajinikanth!

The biggest movie star you've probably never heard of.

Jackie Chan is the highest-paid actor in Asia, and that makes sense. But the No. 2 spot goes to someone who doesn't make any sense at all. The second-highest-paid actor in Asia is a balding, middle-aged man with a paunch, hailing from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and sporting the kind of moustache that went out of style in 1986. This is Rajinikanth, and he is no mere actor—he is a force of nature. If a tiger had sex with a tornado and then their tiger-nado baby got married to an earthquake, their offspring would be Rajinikanth. Or, as his films are contractually obligated to credit him, "SUPERSTAR Rajinikanth!

I agree.