Review of movie Robot 2.0

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Rating:3/5

What would it be like if the characters from Endhiran find themselves inside the plot of a typical Shankar movie? 2.0 is what you would get. Using his pet theme - a wronged individual taking revenge on the people who ruined his life (or in this case, the birds he cares for) - the director gives us a film that is part sci-fi, part horror, part vigilante movie and part special effects spectacle. 

The film begins with an old man committing suicide from atop a mobile phone tower. We are then introduced to scientist, Dr Vasigaran (Rajinikanth) and his now 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 (Rajinikanth), the now dismantled robot.

The plot of 2.0 feels familiar; in fact too familiar. There is no mystery in the supernatural occurrences that we see on screen, and for the entire first half, 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. Even the flashback doesn't hit us hard emotionally the way similar episodes in the director’s Indian and Gentleman made us feel. There is a distinct sense of just going through the motions in the first half, which unfolds like a generic horror movie - except that here, the spirit gets a sci-fi explanation and is described as a person's aura, made up of micro-photons.