Movie: 2.0
Direction: Shankar
Cast: Rajinikanth, Akshay Kumar, Amy Jackson, Sudhanshu Pandey
Music: A R Rahman
Cinematographer: Nirav Shah
Editor: Anthony
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi
Rating: ∗∗½
What is it about: It’s a sequel to the blockbuster Enthiran (2010). This film revives the character “Chitti” which was previously dismantled. The film follows the stand out between “Pakshi – Akshay Kumar” and “Chitti – Rajinikanth”. How they battle out their conflicts forms the crux of the story directed by Shankar.
Why it’s disappointing: A film which has been in the making for more than 4 years, also the way it was projected and the hype built around it was enormous. Even though the promotions were grounded and were not aggressive. Still it had all the factors which had the audience in knots to know what’s in the store. But unfortunately it didn’t live up to what was promised. The budget was humongous, unlike any Asian film for that matter. So everyone had some expectation which we believe was not lived up to.
The film was quite strong on the VFX and the companies involved in making the VFX were the ones who have worked with major studios like MARVEL, DISNEY, LUCASFILM. Still you end up wondering why it was not fluid but we got to see a render where the fights were too robotic like we used to watch back in those days. The VFX was not smooth; I was in splits when I saw the names involved in making. It was absolutely disappointing. And then there was this mentioned that the film was shot in 3D to give you better depth of field. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any difference in experience in spite of watching it on a screen which is the most advanced in the town.
Let us get to the characters. None of the characters were convincing, all were just incepted to fill in the requirement. Pakshi Rajan was not given the due respect it deserved, the film took too much time to establish it, and in the second half it rushes through to narrate his back story and just presents it “BAM!” in front of the audience. Akshay Kumar was wasted in a role which could’ve become an iconic character. Later the Chitti revives and tries hard to re-create the villainous trait from “Enthiran” but doesn’t quite strike the note which it did with its predecessor. Enthiran may have been low on VFX but it had a great premise and writing was top notch which kept all the ingredients intact. The character Vaseegaran had a play in the first part but the sequel didn’t do much.
After a hiatus series of mishaps they add another dimension 3.0. The design derived for that latest version was very bad. They could’ve conceived a better design. Few parts of Chitti and 3.0 seemed like they were right out of MEMES.
The film dulls out story wise, also loses its credibility on VFX which was not you get for spending a whopping 600Cr. The dialogues in the movie were poorly constructed. There were few instances it sounded really bad, especially the scene involving the Politicians. The comedy was forced and didn’t work at all. The film being commercial sci-fi with Superstar in the lead didn’t have anything which established the magnanimous.
What to watch out for: Among all these there were few in fact very few factors which were pacifying in the film. Amy Jackson was apt for the role of NILA and she did justice to it. Apart from that the background score and music by AR Rahman was good. Cinematography by Nirav Shah was quite delectable.
The design of Chitti 2.0 and the Birdman of Pakshi was good. But that consistency was not maintained for everything.
Verdict: Director Shankar, could’ve made this sequel more stronger and paved a way for a Franchise which could’ve went down in history. But the sequel succumbed to the obvious curse of being bad. And couldn’t hold a strong ground. Understood it’s a pride of Tamil Cinema, but didn’t do justice for the budget spent. It was aching to see a visionary losing it out, Sujatha is dearly missed in his films.
