Robot 2.0 Review

2.0 Movie Story: An ornithologist who commits suicide returns as fifth force to wreack vengeance on mankind for harming birds with mobile phone radiation. The only thing that is standing in his way is 2.0, the upgraded version of Chitti, the robot. 

2.0 Movie Review:

style="background-color: white; font-family: , "calibri"; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.5px;"> Like the title suggests, Shankar's latest venture is quite literally the 2.0 version of his earlier film Robot. The film revolves around the familiar theme of a wronged individual taking revenge on the people who ruined his life - and Shankar gives us a film that has a blend of sci-fi, horror and a whole lot of special effects. 

The film begins with an old man committing suicide from atop a mobile phone tower. And then, in comes Dr Vasigaran (Rajinikanth), a scientist, along with his assistant Nila (Amy Jackson), a humanoid robot. Soon, mobile phones start flying off the shelves and out of everyone's hands, and Vasigaran is called in to investigate this mysterious occurrence. And when a giant bird, made up of mobile phones, starts attacking the city, the scientist is forced to bring back Chitti, the now dismantled robot.

There's no element of surprise in 2.0. For most part of the first half, we're just running through the motions, searching for mystery in the supernatural occurences that we see. We are forced to wait for the mandatory flashback involving Pakshirajan (Akshay Kumar), the ornithologist who is the old man who we saw at the start of the film - but when it does come, it doesn't make the impact it should. 

But, by now, plot is not what we go to Shankar's films for these days. It is the grand canvas in which this director mounts his oft-told stories that makes us look forward to his films. And in 2.0, we get spectacle that is satisfying. There are some striking visuals in the first half - mobile phones crawling on the road, a forest of glowing phones, a monstrous bird that crackles with energy. There are also visual nods to Hollywood films like Aliens, Terminator 2 and even Ghostbusters.

And yet, despite the entry of Chitti (Rajinikanth), the film seems to be missing a je ne sais quoi. We get an extravagant clash between Chitti and the giant bird, but that's all. 

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Unlike its predecessor, the film doesn't find a way to inject humour and inventiveness into the proceedings. The sub-plot involving Dhirendra Bhora (Sudhanshu Pandey), the son of the first film's villain, Dr Bhora, is also underdeveloped and unconvincing. It's only the entry of 2.0 that injects some much-needed life into this film but it happens a little later than it should have. There is even a punch line that he utters after Nila tells him that he is no longer the No 1, that sends fans into a tizzy. 

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Akshay Kumar makes his presence felt with a solid perfomance as the antagonist whose heart is in the right place. The climatic battle between the two titans - 2.0 and Pakshiraja - ensures that we get the bang for our buck. If only he had introduced these characters earlier in the film - 2.0 would've been the spectacle it deserves to be.