Shankar and Stan Winston studios have served a stale dish with Rajini’s Robot. A little bit of Iron Man mixed with Robin William’s Bicentennial Man topped up with a Transformers style climax – and the result is Rajini’s Robot.

What’s it about: Scientist Vashikar (Rajinikanth) creates an Android Human which is a mirror image of his own self and names it Chitti (Rajini – the robotioc version). Vashikar’s aim is to make Chitti Indian Army’s first robotic soldier. In his bid he is thwarted by Dr Bora (Danny Dengzopa). Dr Bora has his own plans of using Robots for terrorist activities. When his sub-standard research fails him, he resorts to smuggle Chitti and make it his own. Here Shankar adds a twist to the tale by making Vashikar induce human emotions into Chitti. In the process Chitti falls Sana (Aishwarya Rai), who as fate would have it is in love with Vashikar. The rest of the story is a triangular love conflict of Vashikar-Sana-Chitti. Trust me readers, I felt weird writing the previous sentence.

What is Good: Chitti in the first half is a delight for Rajini fans. Rajini simply rocks in the robotioc version. He defies laws of Physics. Shankar, with the robotic character at his disposal now has a legal license to suspend your sense of belief. And boy does he make use of it! He goes one up on all the marvel comic characters that Hollywood has dished out. In the sequence where Chitti saves Sana, the robotic Rajini fights a mob of thugs in a manner that reminds you of the train sequence in Spiderman II. Shankar’s tongue in cheek humor is evident in the way Chitti uses his magnetic powers to make himself look like an Ammoru. The other plus point is A. R. Rehman’s music score. The songs (though not hummable) are easy on your ears. And Aishwarya shakes her booty enough to complete the visual part of the song-and-dance sequence.

What is bad: The movie destructs in the second half. It begins with Chitti, the robot with a human-like heart falling for Sana the human (with a machine like mannerism). The grim looking Danny (is mercifully) killed by a “red-chip” Chitti. And as if that were not enough, Shankar tests the viewer’s patience by making Chitti villainous enough to create a new race of Robo-sapiens. And guess how he does it – by impregnating Sana with robotic sperm (don’t ask me how please). By then you know Shankar has strayed the line of genius and wandered into the territory of madness. The Robo-sapiens are a 1000 Rajini clones who twist and morph into all the wire-frame models that Stan Winston Studio has at its disposal. After 30-odd torturous minutes Vashikar ends the nightmare by removing the “red-chip” in Chiiti (and preventing our brains from getting fried).

Technical Departments: : Well what can one say about Stan Winston studios…. They had a role in Avatar for god’s sake. Needless to say they excel. The rest of the movie revolves around the magic that the special effects team has created. If only Shankar had penned a more credible second half, this movie would have rocked.

Final Point: Shankar’s Rs. 150 crore+ extravaganza is another example of trying to prop up poor cinematic content with star power (albeit an ageing one). They tried hard, but like the main robot character in the film, they were way too many bugs in the way their characters were created.