'2.0' Review: Rajinikanth and Akshay Kumar starrer provides spectacular visuals but does little for the soul

Film: 2.0

Genre: Sci-Fi/Action/Thriller

Cast: Rajinikanth, Akshay Kumar, Amy Jackson, Sudhanshu Pandey, Adil Hussain

Direction: S Shankar

Written by: S Shankar

Duration: 2 hours, 30 minutes

Language: Hindi, Tamil, Telugu (U/A)

Critic’s Rating: 2.5/5

Story:

At the end of Robot/Enthiran, Dr Vaseegaran (Rajinikanth) dismantles his creation, the smart robot Chitti (Rajinikanth), lest it ends up harming mankind. In 2.0, an evil force or the fifth force, Pakshiraja (Akshay Kumar), an ornithologist (simply put, a bird lover) takes his war to the greedy men, who are destroying other forms of life with their technology (cell phones, to be more precise). To counter and neutralise this threat, Vaseegaran reassembles Chitti. However, this time around, the robot is a much-advanced version who has to fight hard to finish Pakshiraja. Who wins? Chitti or Pakshiraja?

Review:

Mega-hit maker, S Shankar has mastered one film-making formula – good v/s corrupt. Each of his movies (Gentleman, 1993; Indian, 1996; Enthiran/Robot, 2010) repeats the same formula. Sometimes, the hero and the villain are men, at other times they are robots. Or men with artificial intelligence. In this latest outing, Shankar, who has concentrated on world-class VFX (3D) and SFX (4D) and mixed it with a birdbrain script, stays true to his pet formula.

So, we have a jilted bird lover taking on the avaricious cell tower culprits who care nothing about the ill-effects of radiation. All they are interested in is killing the population with mobiles! And, of course, the susceptible human, who constantly needs some ‘fix’ or the other, is happy to stay glued to his mobile. Who cares about the negative effects of radiation?

So you see, Shankar’s story is pedestrian, plebeian and even plain puerile. But the visuals and sounds are compelling enough to keep you mesmerised at least for a bit. The first half is a little slow with lots of blah, blah on the harmful effects of radiation. However, in the second half, when Akshay Kumar comes on in the form of a magnificent bird and begins his fight with Chitti, the film becomes as exciting and compulsive as a video game between bird man and iron man played out on a huge arena!

For tech geeks, this one is a visual delight. Watching mobile phones fly out of hands, cars and what-have-you and taking various shapes is definitely a first on Indian screen. And the climax with robots, mini-robots and the monstrous bird (that is a cross between an eagle and a crow) provides for some spectacular visuals.

While Akshay sinks his teeth into the role and patiently waits for his shine-on moments, Rajini walks through with ease. Frankly, 2.0 has been designed for him and whether he is man or robot, he wears his charm easy.

For his fans, there is a hurray moment, when he utters a dialogue that goes, “No 1, 2 and 3 are games that are played by children. I am the only one.” Deafening whistles and claps reverberate through the auditorium. However, this aside, Shankar’s film does little for the soul. If you don’t die of radiation, you may just die of boredom in the slow-paced moments.

Verdict: If you wish to pat Indian cinema on the back for getting their 3D right, watch this one. Else, go watch James Cameron’s Avatar (2009) again!