#52, February 25, 2010

As soon as I saw the climactic action scene on YouTube, I knew I had to see this movie.

You know the action scene I’m talking about. Nine minutes and forty-nine seconds of destruction, featuring a robot who at one point creates thousands of duplicates of himself that organize into a giant cobra… with machine guns for fangs. That trailer. If you haven’t seen it yet, you need to. Here you go… best action scene ever. Watch it now, I’ll wait.

The surprising thing about Endhiran? It’s actually a good movie. And with a 3 hour run time, that’s important. 3 hours is far too long for one scene, no matter how awesome it is.But no, there’s actually a real story there, about a scientist who designs the most advanced robot in the world, but who loses control of it when he programs it to have emotions and it falls in love.

Love makes us all crazy. It makes robots go mad-ass.

Endhiran (sometimes seen as Enthiran, depending on where you look) is the most expensive Indian film ever made. It’s also the highest grossing Indian film of all time. The star, in a dual role (he plays both the Robot and the scientist who designed him),  is Rajinikanth, one of the most popular actors in India, and the second highest paid actor in all of Asia. His leading lady is played by Aishwarya Rai, a former Miss World and one of the top female actresses in India.

One of the musical numbers (of course there were musical numbers… it’s Bollywood, baby!) was filmed in Machu Picchu. They brought a film crew, dozens of dancers, costumes, and llamas (lots of llamas) to the top of Machu Picchu to film a musical number. For a movie about a robot. Then they went and did another one in Brazil. I love Indian cinema

You need to see this movie. The most fun I had all week.