2.0 - One man's love for machines vs One man's love for sparrows. DOT.

Story -
The city is tormented by an unknown creature that stole every cellphone in the vicinity. When the concerned authorities are trying to figure out the phenomenon, few one per-centers get brutally murdered forcing Dr. Vaseegaran (Superstar Rajinikanth) & the government to reach out for Chitti the Robot for help. How Dr. Vaseegaran & Chitti team up to solve the mystery forms this visual extravaganza.

Movie -
The story takes off by introducing the familiar characters along with the new humanoid Nila (Amy Jackson). Shankar doesn't waste much time and gets on with the proceedings. The whole flying cellphone sequence is handled well and the mystery behind this kept effectively hidden. Though, this particular aspect is over stretched, the way Shankar & team presents it visually holds our attention. The link to Endhiran (prequel) is cleverly connected without having to deviate much. Cliched characters and scenes are there but don't hamper the narration. The murders that occur promises old school Shankar. The dramatic elevation till Chitti's entry is notable. The reveal of the person behind disappearing cellphones is terrifically done in the interval shot.

Second half starts with Pakshiraja (Akshay Kumar) narrating his backstory. This whole segment gives the much needed emotional connect to the proceedings. The flashback is true Shankar's trademark, which reminds us off all his main blockbusters. Unlike those films, where the victim turns a super vigilante, a face for the common people, Pakshiraja turns against the common people. The concept taken is the battle between positive and negative energy which is more literal, or to say visual. The pace drops during the flashback as it needs time to establish the emotional depth and the social cause without too much into preaching.

What you get post the flashback is real visual spectacle. Shankar ties up one action sequence after another. The whole Dr. Vaseegaran (Pakshiraja) vs Chitti battle holds our attention thoroughly. Once evil Chitti is resurrected, it is all Superstar Rajinikanth magic on screen clubbed with never seen before visual effects. The whole 20-25 minutes prolonged climax is in a way tribute to the prequel's climax fight, upgraded to the extreme. It is this segment that justifies the title 2.0. Shankar clubs socially relevant message in a sci-fi entertainer in his own style.

Performances -

Superstar Rajinikanth is fine as Dr. Vaseegaran without an iota of heroism. Superstar is good as Chitti who is in his elements. Superstar as evil Chitti brings the house down giving paisa vasool entertainment as expected. All in all a committed performance indeed.

Akshay Kumar is very good as Pakshiraja, both as the old Ornithologist as well as his evil self. Honestly, going by the story, it's his character who is the HERO in this story. He brings in a controlled performance in both the characters and it's commendable.

Amy Jackson as Nila brings in couple of chuckles as she gets couple of good one liners. Other than that, she's sidelined for most part of the film.

Sudhanshu Pandey as Bora's son from the prequel is average in a cliched weakly written role with hardly any scope.

Adil Hussain as Prime Minister is passable. This role is no challenge for him.

Mayilsamy as Minister's PA is routine & so is Anant Mahadevan.


Background Score & Sound Recording - 

A special mention has to go to Resul Pookutty & team from 4D SRL for delivering perfectly, a one of a kind sound mixing. The real paisa vasool comes from this new technology. Even the minute sound is captured, just elevating the scene. Even in the loud action sequences, attention to detail to each of the element [Talking about the big climax fight] was simply hair-raising. I got my money's worth thanks to the sound recording.

Direction - 

Shankar's vision definitely needs an applause. This time he went back to his stronghold, an emotional backstory to make this a meaningful outing. While, Shankar the visual genius gets full marks, Shankar the story-teller stumbles post interval. Mainly because the writing gets him into a tight spot where he has his usual "hero" with a cause mounted as a super villain instead of super vigilante and has been pitted against the "hero" as well as "anti-hero" of the Endhiran universe. This hampered the emotional connect in the visually grand action set pieces in the second half.

But then, a film with this budget and it's visual world, can only be conceived by Shankar. No other Indian director would dare to think about this let alone pulling it off.

Pluses - 

1. A true blue 3D film. The effects are "neat". The budget spent on VFX really shows.
2. The sound recording is exceptional. Gives an entirely different vibe to the experience.
3. Superstar Rajinikanth as Chitti 2.0 & well, let's keep this a surprise.
4. The funny one-liners which also gave a Nithyananda's epic speech reference.
5. The Pakshiraja - Chitti - Vaseegaran face off in the second half.
6. To an extent, Akshay Kumar's backstory as Pakshiraja.

Minuses - 

1. Cliched screenplay.
2. Lack of emotional connect.
3. As audience, we are made aware who is the hero and we are also forced to support the robot to destroy the actual "hero".
4. Just like first part, the way film ends is very underwhelming.
5. Uneven dubbing for Akshay Kumar in one scene where the lip-sync has taken a beating. The film of this stature, it's unforgivable.
6. The "Scientific Explanation" of Pakshiraja might not be appealing to all. Also, this segment slows the narration.

Final Rating - 2.5/5 [+0.5 for the one of a kind visuals & background score.]

Final Words - It is one man's love for chitta kuruvis (sparrows) buried under an army of robots. Dot

Race 3 - Next level of disappointment.

Story - 

It follows the dysfunctional family of Shamsher Singh (Anil Kapoor) a kingpin of arms business and his attempt to keep his family together amidst hatred, betrayal and the illegal businesses they own. It's a race to the finish to reveal how the family stays together in the usual Race franchise template of greed.

Movie - 

Let me be honest. This tacky screenplay and lazy writing still could've easily worked. The lack of experience and inability to handle the biggest megastar of the industry has made the final product end up as an unforgivable mess.

So let me list out why the scenes which otherwise could've worked, failed big time.

1. The lengthy introductory action scene designed for the main cast. Sure, it was meant to introduce Salman Khan in the usual larger than life manner. But, this action sequence is prolonged due to introducing each of them, Daisy Shah, Saqib Saleem, Salman Khan & Bobby Deol individually. And mainly this action scene follows a lengthy car chase scene which was designed to introduce Anil Kapoor's character. What was supposed to generate WOW factor, gets tedious soon.
2. The follow up love story after this lacks spark. There is zero chemistry between Salman Khan & Jacqueline Fernandez pulls down the scenes. The slow number I Found Love just doesn't fit in, severely impacting the pace of the film.
3. By the time, Party Chale On is over, the RACE template of revealing a twist comes out bland because of the poor dialogues and the slow pace.
4. The first half ends on a stale note with another twist to justify the RACE brand. Sadly, the pace remains sluggish, the characters uninteresting and the tone seriously questionable.

Now, what made the entire first half terribly boring was the complete lack of entertainment. It's a downhill right after the lengthy action scenes. No proper scenes provided to choose which character to root for. Anil Kapoor's Shamsher Singh came out as a typical whining dad whereas every other character including Salman Khan's Sikandar was painfully one dimensional. The entire first half completely fails in establishing why should the audience care for any of these characters. No actor could've done justice to the terribly written dialogues and that remains a major turn off throughout.

Coming to second half,

1. The makers kinda relied on audience to give the writing the benefit of doubt considering how the entire reason for the heist planned looked so silly. But the story slightly picks up for some action to happen on screen worth noticing with the chartbuster Heeriye.
2. The predictable twist and another slow number Selfish not filmed on Salman Khan takes the center stage before the crucial and lavishly shot action sequence which is supposed to be the highlight of the film even takes off.
3. Complete lack of elevating the scenes on dramatic front hurts the action scene. In the end, you just see Salman Khan kicking butt without really feeling the need to care for it.
4. The film finally gets saved (hardly) by the much needed twist, something the entire screenplay is built upon. The pace quickens and the action mode is turned on. Too late ofcourse.

The second half is not as terrible as the first half. The twists do work to an extent, no matter how predictable they are. The problem here is the fact that we as audience still don't feel to root for any of the character. Once again I repeat, one of those character is The Salman Khan. Instead of the crisply executed thrilling scenes and carefully designed suspense, what we get is lavish sets and expensive stunts. Even the final action scene, a Salman Khan trademark one, turns out to be a rehash of all the shirtless fight scenes in this decade minus the fun part.

My biggest complaint will be regarding the lazy dialogues written. This is an event film to be this careless. If you felt mocking "our business is our business, none of your business" then you aren't ready for some of the gems like "Dil nahi Dell kholke dikhao" or frequent use of the word "bro" which would even put Aishwarya Rai from Dhoom 2 to shame for abusing the word "like". Who told them, using English in every sentence was necessary? or would make the characters sound cool? Salman Khan mouthing words like "See you later, alligator" or throwing "what is their modus operandi" out of nowhere just because of one dialogue which said he studied in Oxford was not enough to justify. Even if using English to sound cool was indeed the case then why over use the Awadhi dialect?

Pluses -  Since I am only bashing in the name of honesty.

1. Anil Kapoor lives his character and he justifies perfectly.
2. Action scenes are really well shot.
3. Final twist involving Anil Kapoor.
4. Saansein Hui Dhuaan Dhuaan song in the background.

Performances - 

Anil Kapoor excels in his role with few shades. Not much of a challenge but he has brought his A game.

Salman Khan is fine but his role is extremely one dimensional. The kind where he says "parivar, insaniyat, mohabbat" as a counter reply to Anil's "mere paas daulat hai, power hai". The struggle is evident to fit him into the Race franchise and it doesn't look good because he just never fit in.

Bobby Deol again suffers from one dimensional character. But the main problem is, he is made the parallel lead to Salman Khan. When you write the two lead characters to be this weak, then it's just going through the role without leaving any impact. It's a comeback role for him and Bobby Deol is committed. If only he was offered a better role & a better film.

Daisy Shah surprisingly gives it all to her character. Sadly she gets to mouth most of the badly written dialogues but it is commendable to see her try to bring out a noticeable performance despite everything. Again her character too is strictly one dimensional.

Saqib Saleem hardly gets anything to leave a mark. Unlike Daisy's character, all he gets is to whine about his brother and when he's not doing that, yell. The other scenes strictly have him one toned.

Jacqueline Fernandez sticks out as a sore thumb. She does pole dancing well. But she hardly tries to do anything for her terribly written confused character. She's there for the songs and she's there during action scenes. A weirdly written weirdo character.

Sharat Saxena gets one scene to say his dialogue. Freddy Daruwala without a doubt is wasted in a thankless role.

Direction -

Remo D'Souza fails in understanding how to handle the biggest megastar. Sure, as a fan he is aware of all the on screen moments featuring Salman Khan that were welcomed by strong whistles and hooting. Dabangg shirtless scene wouldn't have worked without elevating the scene dramatically. Same with other blockbusters. Those aren't deliberate pauses. Those are the necessary ones to make the tacky scenes whistle-worthy. To leave the desired impact.

Further, he failed to realise it's not about random twists. The importance of maintaining the suspense between one twist to another is completely omitted. Sure, the content he got was weakly written. But weak content doesn't have to be devoid of entertainment. The same scenes could've been elevated if he had realized the cuts he approved weren't really working. In Race 3, it was every other scene which didn't involve stunts. And the one thing that worked, was backed by strong writing. [Anil Kapoor's track]

Final Rating - 1.5/5 [0.5 for the action scenes, 0.5 for Anil Kapoor & 0.5 for the laughable dialogues.]

Final Word - It is the audience who will feel the next level of disappointment.

Oh the 3D! The TIPS logo in the opening credits is the only thing that justifies the 3D conversion.

Note: The entire heist is planned to steal an hard disk comprising of sex footage of politicians with call girls. There's a scene where the photos are spread across the table while the father & children (Anil, Daisy, Saqib & Bobby) are looking at it getting hysterically happy. This cringe worthy scene in an Salman Khan starrer with the biggest following from conservative family audience. Without the Salman factor also this scene was yucky and the makers thought of inserting it in Bhai's EID-wala event film?