Saving the World Superhero Film with a Difference. Review on 2.0

The sequel to Enthiran titled 2.0 is a lot to take in, for a superhero film that clocks in at around 3 hours. Essentially, it is Shankar’s ode to the nature, metaphorized by “Pakshi Raja, ” a bird-loving ornithologist, gone rogue and out to destroy everything cellular. Think an extension of the bit we see in the 2.0 trailer, where everyone’s phones go flying into the orbit. We suspect, seeing the vulture figure in the trailer scene, that there is some high power out there controlling this phone assemble. He also tears down cell towers, and before you know it, the city is phone-less. That applies to even Dr. Vaseegaran, the scientist who created the Chitti robot. He is being called to the Center to find out what this phenomenon is and what is causing it. He terms it the “fifth force, ” essentially an excuse by the makers to get back our ROBOTIC MAN into the mix. Vasegaran says only Chitti can fight “Pakshi Raja, ” something which only a Center politician may doubt. However, there comes a time when even he has to break the protocol, and permit using the once-expelled robot for the military cause, and that is when the Akshay Kumar character has done the mass destruction. Enter Chitti, and things become interesting.

What follows is a spectacle that fiddles with big ideas, terrific performances, and repetitive yet enthralling action. The reason for the villain’s actions are backed by Shankar’s favorite theme in movies – vigilantism for a social cause. Just that this time it is hard to empathize with the Akshay Kumar character, in part because he makes “Pakshi Raja” a menacing villain. Besides the flashback scenes that explains why Pakshi Raja does what he does, we get very little of Akshay Kumar. However, behind all those prosthetic make-up is a fabulous performance, and a character that gets better as the film motors on. At least, Shankar’s good versus evil, man versus nature versus machine versus man, parable cannot be blamed for a lack of vision. It is a bit too much of a good thing, a bit too good to be true. However, it helps that he gave our Pakshi Raja wings to fly, with an incarnation myth that gives him the qualities of a phoenix bird. This is when the Shankar ideas marry the big spectacle. Every time I think Shankar, mind goes back to Mudhalvan, his best film to date. The scene where the Arjun character Pughazhendhi interviews the Tamil Nadu CM played by Raghuvaran is terrific, yet one of the overlooked scenes in that film is the one where Pughazhendhi fights a bunch of hooligans. With his body covered in mud and Arjun stripped off his vanity, it is a metaphor to the kind of mud he has entered reluctantly – Arasiyal/Politics.

Shankar’s midas touch is still in there somewhere, though we suspect with 2.0 he mistakes big for great. Still, what a spectacle!

Where the Shankar film loses track, the Rajnikanth film sizzles. That famous laugh of Chitti. That walk. That charisma. 2.0 is Style Mannan at his best. While the Shankar fan in me was not overjoyed, the Rajnikanth fan is! It is not that Shankar does not try, his Pakshi Raja is a dazzling creation and Akshay Kumar knocks it out of the park, too. To conclude, despite the flaws, I enjoyed 2.0.

P.S. The “A R Rahman musical” is one of those PR poster stunts. We get one good song, but it comes after the darn movie has ended. Wait, that is not even the real joke of 2.0. It is Amy Jackson as Nila, an expression-less Robot.