Why Rajini is the Boss

When Rajini says the sun revolves around the earth, you don’t question him – you take his words as gospel. Because he is the ‘Boss’ and can split a bullet in two and aim it at two different people. So when Robot Chitti shoots a million bullets and brings an entire city to a halt, you don’t get surprised – you just accept it. Yes, we are talking about ‘Endhiran/Robot’, where Superstar Rajinikanth enthralled audiences across the world in 2010.

We need to thank not just Shankar but a host of other artists who opted out of the movie – Kamal Haasan, Shahrukh Khan, to name two; else, we wouldn’t have been able to see The Boss in this movie. If Apple is considered the most fanatically followed brand in the world, we have one right here in India which can give even Apple a run for its money on its best day, and that’s Brand Rajini.

The pre-release hype for 'Endhiran/Robot lasted almost a year. It’s the costliest film ever made in Indian cinema. But when the film released, it broke all records. In Chennai, fans queued up as early as five in the morning to get tickets to the superstar’s flick. Now we all know Rajini is a global phenomenon. In USA, the film’s premiere show tickets were sold for $40. The fanfare doesn't stop at buying tickets, though. Rajinikanth's worshippers even climbed as many as 500 stairs to temples to pray for the success of the film. Advance booking usually opens three days before a big release in India, but, in this case, it opened a good 10 days prior to the movie’s release.

After crippling losses with his earlier films like 'Baba', Rajnikanth appears in 'Endhiran' sans a lot of his trademark gimmickry, something that made him much less an actor than what he probably is capable of. As scientist Vaseegaran - engaged in a decade-long struggle to create an android robot that will not only look exactly like him, but also feel the most basic human emotions, such as love, anger and revenge - Rajnikanth impresses to a great degree.

The film did have Shankar’s touch with excellent graphics and brilliant cinematography by Rathnavelu, but the film’s talking point was clearly Rajini’s performance as Chitti –The Robot. Rajini steals the show as Chitti, goofy in the beginning and exuding menace with his expressive body language and eyes in the second half. We all know that when it is a Rajini flick, it is a complete movie-watching experience.

Wikipedia says the film collected an unprecedented amount of Rs 62 crore in its opening week, becoming the highest-grossing Tamil film and the second highest-grossing Indian film of all time. Rajinikanth’s movies have always been a runaway success in the south, but this was the first time when Bollywood saw fans across India going to theatres to catch a glimpse of "Namma Thalaivar".

After 'Endhiran', we know Rajni can now build an Eiffel Tower in paltry seconds. So when Rajini decides to grace the silver screen in a new venture, you know you just have to bow and meekly pay the price of a ticket.