This is too cool: the Enthiran that wasn't from 1998.

A Facebook site called Tamil Film Updates posted this folder of promotional images for Shankar's "Robo", with the following description:

Years back, Shankar started "Robo" with Kamal Haasan & Preity Zinta to play the roles of Rajjinikanth & Aishwarya in the present Enthiran. But the project didn't take off at that time due to some issues. These are the exclusive pics from the photoshoot.

This was in 1998. I imagine the film would not have been half as epic as special effects, Shankar's greatest love next to a good social message, weren't exactly fully developed in the late 1990s, but I would've enjoyed this pairing, if nothing else, in these roles. In my Enthiran review I didn't give very high marks to anybody in this film for acting, including Rajnikanth. Aishwarya's lack of acting could largely be blamed on the abysmal writing for the character. Regardless, it's an interesting "what might have been"..

I recommend you check out the rest of the album, if nothing else than for the late 90's sci-fi get-ups.

Robot or Endhiran - no rest for the lithium-powered.

I was psyched, absolutely psyched to see Robot at my annual film festival blast of Indian films. Usually they only have Hindi films on display, usually only one, but this year they delivered big time with this, 7 Khoon Maaf and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, which I'll review once I've seen it. I'd been anticipating Robot for ages - it was Shankar, it was big budget, it looked like it'd be crazyfun, so to see it in theater was a dream come true.

The audience certainly delivered, as did the surround sound in the theater. I think most Finland-dwelling Tamil speakers made the showing and put up an impressive display of whistling and cheering for the Superstar, and of course at every mildly naughty suggestive line of dialogue. No, it wasn't seeing the film open in a packed Madras cinema, I'm sure, but it was the closest we could get to such an experience in this cold country.

So what about the film itself? Well, it was Shankar alright. Rajni pulls triple-duty for the joy of his fans, as he's both the titular robot Chitti as well as his creator Vaseegaran, and even the version 2.0 we see on the second half. The big budget allows Shankar to go all out and I really do mean ALL OUT - besides the nice-looking visual effects, there are lavish song sets, foreign locations, and a climactic showdown unlike no other, in both good ways and bad. There's a certain insane visuality to Shankar films that everybody who's seen one recognises. That's all here, too.

So if I wasn't smiling ear-to-ear, I was laughing, clapping my hands, despite myself, even doing the clichéd slapping of the knee. But the full enjoyment of the film as a watching experience doesn't sadly take away the problems the film has. While I definitely think it's a must-watch for the insanity, the megalomaniac budget and the sheer show of Rajni-mania (the fans cheer him when he's good, but they also cheer for his villainous avatar!), these are some of the reasons why it doesn't quite jump on top of my must-buy list as well.

1. Aishwarya Rai dances gloriously but her character is underwritten to say the least. She throws nonsensical tantrums, her romance with both the creator and the robot is bland, her character is materialistic and acts bizarrely at best, annoyingly at the worst. She's just not very fun to watch.

Shankar's never been known to write fantastic female characters, but at least some of his heroines, like Sada in Anniyan, seem to have a good head on their soldiers. Aishwarya's Sana is merely a prop to allow for Chitti, then Vaseegaran to display different facets of their characterizations. Yes, even the robot is infused with more genuine personality traits than the female lead. This veers on insulting, to be quite frank.

2. As silly as it sounds as a criticism for a Shankar movie, as the dude is all about visuals, the story is hopelessly hollow. Gone is the usual social message, placed with a couple of moralistic conclusions towards the end. Usually the visual effects are a side-show, gratuitously used but only one of the tools that Shankar uses to tell his story. This time, they play the lead role.

I want to hope that because of the visuals, whatever story there was, I merely missed it in the flurry of eye candy. But I'm afraid that if I look again, there's very little there to hold onto.

3. Last but not least, and cover your eyes in Tamil Nadu because this might be blasphemous for the Rajni-fans: he's a good actor, so why not let him act? Sure, he hams it up on the second half and there's a couple of choice moments here and there, but while the whole point (and this I get) is that he's playing a robot, not known to emote very well, I still wonder why there was barely any effort to carve a real character out of the man who created him.

Or is this a gripe like you could level at many actors, that once they become famous, they become famous to such an effect that say, Rajni the Actor had to take a step back to make way for Rajni The Star? Pardon me, Superstar.

Point being, I really need to watch older Rajni films as it seems that he's not cast to act in these films: Shankar's merely putting him on display for the fans. And for me, the Star has little appeal unless I also get a glimpse of the Actor inside.

But as I said earlier, if you've not seen this one, for goodness' sake, do!

Like a Sega fight! Sivaji: The Boss.

S. Shankar's megalomaniac project Sivaji: The Boss (now ain't that some title, people?) is a Tamil masala extravaganza that looks like money and tastes like entertainment. The Superstar Rajnikanth plays the typical omnipotent NRI hero who wants to do his blessed homeland some good with his earned riches. His uncle (the brilliant comedian Vivek!) meanwhile helps him find a very "Tamil-cultured" bride, played by the gorgeous Shriya Saran, and naturally we have a villain, who has corruption and thirst for power running through his veins.

Throw in glorious, glorious song picturizations (soundtrack by A.R. Rahman!) and a boatful of meta-Rajnikanth jokes, as well as some references to other Tamil cinema heroes (Sivaji Ganesan, Kamal Hassan, MGR), and stylish action sequences a plenty and you've got Sivaji: The Boss in a nutshell.

In Hindi they have an expression, "paisa vasool" - meaning, as far as I know, "money's worth". The thing I love about Shankar is that he's serving up the crowd-pleasing masala, the incredible visuals and the action in such a large bowl, I wouldn't call it just "money's worth", I'd call it "tip generously!". I especially adored all the Rajnikanth-y Rajnikanth gags, that were all over the place, and was surprised at how much I caught of the more inside Kollywood gags, too.

Vivek's comedy as usual is a mix of English and Tamil gags, but his comic delivery just makes it work, and Rajnikanth naturally also has great timing - the two work magnificently together and the comedy bits were some of the best I've seen in a while.

One may always disagree with the message and the politics of Shankar films (at least those were he has a clear social message), but the man is optimistic and that's admirable. Too bad there is no character such as Sivaji to make India better a country; but perhaps part of the point is to raise awareness of possible Sivajis - that somebody, anybody could take action in the right direction.

My main complaint and the reason Anniyan remains my favourite Shankar movie is that while a lot of things about Sivaji are excellent, the whole lacks something. The over-three-hour film starts to drag at times, and the villain is super-boring. The last hour delivers a few twists to the story, and awesome action, but I was only really engrossed in the songs at that point. The romance could also be tons better, but then, perhaps at this point all of Rajni's on-screen pairings will suffer from lack of believability.

If you want to see what Shahrukh's OSO Rajni-impression was based on, this is certainly one insanely glorious way to educate yourself. (Though I would also recommend Muthu, the first Rajni film I saw.)

The name is Rajnikanth. But in here, it's Muthu.

No Indian film enthusiast should go through life without seeing a Rajnikanth movie. And it still took me around four years of watching Indian movies to get to my first Rajnikanth movie. But boy, was I glad I finally did.

Muthu is a mid-90's goofball masala fare. I don't know where it stands amongst Rajni's filmography, but I really loved it and just for the way it utterly convinced me of Rajni's talent and persona, I'd call it one of his best performances (even without seeing any others). Rajni plays the loyal servant Muthu, Meena plays a drama actress Ranganayagi, to whom Muthu's master falls in love with. At first Muthu and Ranganayagi don't like each other and one of the loveliest treats of the film is to watch them bicker, but due to some circumstances they get stuck together and well, you know the drill.

There is plenty of peculiar, funny comedy in the film and it keeps it fairly light for nearly 2 hours, which I liked - there are underlying tensions the whole time, but they don't bog down the story unnecessarily. Even Vadivelu - the comedian very often featured in Tamil films - amused me a ton in this movie.

Told you it's goofball.

The biggest surprise wasn't really Rajnikanth and the fact that I could actually stomach him despite his lack of looks and his no-lack-of years gone by, it was that I genuinely enjoyed the romance in the movie. Piyaara broke some of the charm by telling me that the actress opposite Rajni actually starred in one of his earlier movies as a child star (uh, that's some age difference) but regardless, it has to be said that the romance is cute and comedic.

I would definitely recommend this movie. It's completely crazy but awesomely entertaining, and has gorgeous song picturizations and catchy music and ..I'll let Meena's sweet face just lure you in.

Oh, and did you know this film is the most successful Indian film in Japan? Because it is, released under the title "Muthu the Dancing Maharaja". Well, they got the 'dancing'-part right, at least.