Robot (Endhiran, 2010)

holyoutlaw convinced me to see this Bollywood science fiction movie after he saw the trailer. I didn't take much convincing. We had to venture once again to the Totem Lake Cinema, which is an old eastside mall cinema that shows Bollywood films to the local South Asian diaspora. We saw Chandni Chowk in China there in January 2009, but we still managed to get lost on the drive over this time. It's not an easy place to find.

We were once again the only non-Indians in the theater, although there were more people this time than for the earlier movie. Robot is apparently a big deal: the biggest budget for a Bollywood movie so far, and the first movie by S*U*P*E*R*S*T*A*R (according to the opening credits) Rajnikanth in a couple of years.



This is only the third Bollywood movie I've seen, and there's still a lot I don't understand about them. Just now on Facebook Catherine Crockett compared them to a British pantomime: "There has to be something for the whole family, or no-one goes." And so you get a little bit of romance, a little bit of comedy, a little bit of melodrama, a little bit of action, a dash of horror, several music videos, great fashion, blood, car chases, martial arts, dreamy profiles of the stars, tragedy, social commentary, slapstick ... it just goes on and on, for nearly three hours (with intermission).

So I guess it follows that if there is something for everyone, there's also going to be something that bores everyone, but none of it lasts for long. I found my attention drifting and pulled back quite frequently. The story is about a scientist who invents a humanoid robot (both parts played by Rajnikanth), which he hopes will be a superweapon for the military. Aishwarya Rai plays the scientist's love interest who ultimately captures the robot's heart too when it learns how to feel. None of the science fictional material is all that interesting, although there are some good gags as when a traffic cops asks for the robot's address and it gives him an IP address, which got a big laugh out of the no doubt techie crowd. The comic relief stooges were kind of lame. There are, however, some great action scenes, and some of the music videos -- which basically stopped the narrative in its tracks every time -- were great as well. Made me want to dance like a robot. In Peru. (In Peru?!!!)

Kind of mixed bag, all in all, but a fun expedition outside our usual white bread art house circuit. Can't help but make you feel that there's a huge world of cinema waiting to be explored. Wonder what Anjaana Anjaani is about ...