Shahrukh Khan in Robot, directed by Shankar of Sivaji
What will SRK and Shankar do to science fiction?
I m no lover of Bollywood movies. Or Tollywood movies, for that matter. Sure I can sit through most of them, but that is because I do not expect to see logical stuff. I enjoy them the way I can enjoy a good farce.
But science fiction is a bit closer home. I remember long back, when I went to watch a Mithun movie in a cinema hall in Thiruvananthapuram. Then, the villain pointed towards a huge multi-coloured, tall, oblong object on its end and said, “ye dekho atom bum.” The horror has stayed with me since then.
Then, there was Koi Mil Gaya. By then I had learnt to accept Hindi movies for what they are. Still there were moments were I cringed. That bluish creature with the metallic voice was from the 70s. And aliens communicating through “Om”. But I could take it still; what better way to introduce science fiction to the masses than using such devices. Rakesh Roshan obviously knew who his audience was, and I suppose as a lover of science fiction, I should be happy if even dumbed-down stuff is give to India. After all you can’t offer Close Encounters of the Third Kind in villages.
Shankar uses a lot of CGI, and has been very successful in India. But CGI is not sci-fi - and can Shankar come up with a credible sci-fi movie which makes sense, as well as is a hit? His past record does not show anything of the sort. Sivaji - a huge hit, but its a Rajni movie made for showing off superhuman Rajni, and you can’t take that as any sort of benchmark. Shahrukh will do a good job of whatever he is given, by what will Shankar give him?
Will he go the Rakesh Roshan way, and happily play to the masses; or does he have it in him to give us a credible sci-fi movie in Robot which can raise the standards a bit?
