Enthiran is a 2010 Indian Tamil-language science fiction action film written and directed by S. Shankar. It is the first instalment in the Enthiran franchise. The film stars Rajinikanth and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan; Danny Denzongpa, Santhanam and Karunas play supporting roles. The soundtrack album and background score were composed by A. R. Rahman while the dialogues, cinematography, editing and art direction were handled by Madhan Karky, R. Rathnavelu, Anthony and Sabu Cyril respectively.
After being stalled in the development phase for nearly a decade, the film's principal photography began in 2008 and lasted two years. The film marked the debut of Legacy Effects studio (which was responsible for the film's prosthetic make-up and animatronics) in Indian cinema. Enthiran was released worldwide on 1 October 2010, along with its dubbed versions: Robot in Hindi and Robo in Telugu. Produced by Kalanithi Maran, it was India's most expensive film up to that point.
The film received generally positive reviews upon release. Critics were particularly appreciative of Rajinikanth's performance as Chitti, Rathnavelu's cinematography, Cyril's art direction and the visual effects by V. Srinivas Mohan. Enthiran emerged as the highest-grossing Indian film of 2010 and is among the highest-grossing Indian films of all time. It won two National Film Awards, three Filmfare Awards, seven Vijay Awards and two Screen Awards. Enthiran was followed up by its standalone sequel, 2.0, which released in 2018.
After a decade of research, the scientist K. Vaseegaran creates a sophisticated humanoid robot with the help of his assistants, Siva and Ravi, to commission it into the Indian Army. He introduces the robot, named Chitti, at a robotics conference in Chennai. Chitti helps Sana, Vaseegaran's medical student girlfriend, cheat in her examination, then saves her from being assaulted by a group of thugs in a local train. Vaseegaran's mentor, Professor Bohra, is secretly engaged in a project to create similar android robots for a German terrorist organisation, but has so far been unsuccessful. The terrorists give him a month to have the robots ready, otherwise they will kill him.
Vaseegaran prepares Chitti for an evaluation by the Artificial Intelligence Research and Development (AIRD) Institute, which is headed by Bohra. During the evaluation, Chitti attempts to stab Vaseegaran at Bohra's command, which convinces the evaluation committee that the robot is a liability and cannot be used for military purposes. Vaseegaran's effort to prove Bohra wrong fails when he deploys Chitti to rescue people from a burning building. The robot saves most of them, including a girl named Selvi who was bathing at the time, but she is ashamed at being seen naked on camera. Though Vaseegaran puts his coat around her, and the girl's mother tries to convince her to come back, the girl flees, only to be hit and killed by a truck. Vaseegaran asks for one month to modify Chitti's neural schema to enable it to understand human behaviour and emotions, to which Bohra agrees. While nearing the deadline, Chitti becomes angry with Vaseegaran, demonstrating to him that it can manifest emotions.
Chitti uses Sana's textbooks to successfully help Sana's sister Latha give birth to a child. Bohra congratulates Vaseegaran on the achievement and allows Chitti to pass the AIRD evaluation. Bohra then tells Vaseegaran that problems start from now on. Chitti develops romantic feelings for Sana after she congratulates Chitti by kissing it. When Vaseegaran and Sana realise this, Sana explains to Chitti that they are only friends. Saddened by Sana's rejection, yet still in love with her, Chitti purposely fails the evaluation conducted by the Indian Army the following day. Frustrated with Chitti's performance in the evaluation, Vaseegaran chops Chitti into pieces, which are dumped by Siva and Ravi into a landfill site.
Bohra visits the site to retrieve Chitti, which has now reassembled itself, albeit in a damaged state. Bohra embeds a red chip inside Chitti while reconstructing it, converting it into version 2.0, which is more aggressive and ruthless. It then gatecrashes Vaseegaran and Sana's wedding, kidnaps Sana and fights off numerous policemen on the way who chase him. He then creates replicas of itself using Bohra's robots, and then kills Bohra after he attempts to kill Sana. Using its robot army, Chitti occupies AIRD and causes mayhem in the city. After informing Sana that it has acquired the human ability to reproduce, Chitti wishes to marry her so that a machine and a human being can give birth to a pre-programmed child, but Sana refuses. It eventually finds Vaseegaran, who entered AIRD to stop the chaos, and nearly kills him just before the police appear. The ensuing battle between Chitti's robot army and the police personnel leads to a lot of property destruction and many casualties. While fighting the police personnel and the army, Chitti and his robots attack in various formations like a sphere, a snake, a wall and a large human-like figure. Vaseegaran eventually captures Chitti using a magnetic wall and accesses its internal control panel, whereby he instructs all the other robots to self-destruct. He then removes Chitti's red chip, calming it.
In a court hearing, Vaseegaran is sentenced to death for the casualties and damages caused by the robot army, but Chitti explains that it was Bohra who caused its deviant behaviour and shows the court video footage of Bohra installing the red chip. The court releases Vaseegaran, while ordering that Chitti be dismantled. Left with no choice, Vaseegaran asks Chitti to dismantle itself. While saying goodbye, Chitti apologises to Vaseegaran and Sana who forgive it, before dismantling itself.
The film's setting then shifts to 2030. Chitti is now a museum exhibit. A curious school student on an excursion trip asks her guide why it was dismantled, to which Chitti responds, "Naan sinthikka arambichen" (I started thinking).
Casting
- Rajinikanth as K. Vaseegaran and Chitti
- Aishwarya Rai Bachchan as Sana
- Danny Denzongpa as Professor Bohra
- Santhanam as Siva
- Karunas as Ravi
- Cochin Haneefa as the traffic police officer
- Kalabhavan Mani as Pachaimuthu
- Delhi Kumar as Vaseegaran's father
- Raaghav as the neighbourhood bully
- Devadarshini as Latha, Sana's sister
- Revathi Sankaran as Vaseegaran's mother
- Sabu Cyril as Shah
- Sugunthan as the police inspector
- Shriya Sharma as the curious student
- Chaams as one of the barbers working at The Park Hotel
- Devadas Kanakala as K. Bhajanlal, a customer at The Park Hotel
