Enthiran () is a 2010 Indian Tamil-language science fiction action film written and directed by Shankar. It is the first instalment in the Enthiran film series. The film stars Rajinikanth, who plays a dual role as a scientist and the robot alongside Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in the lead roles with Danny Denzongpa, Santhanam and Karunas in supporting roles. The soundtrack album and background score were composed by A. R. Rahman while the dialogues, cinematography, editing and art direction were handled by Madhan Karky, R. Rathnavelu, Anthony and Sabu Cyril respectively. The story revolves around the struggle of a scientist K. Vaseegaran to control his android humanoid robot named Chitti, after Chitti's software is upgraded to give it the ability to comprehend and exhibit human emotions. The project backfires when Chitti falls in love with Vaseegaran's girlfriend, Sana, and is manipulated by Bohra, Vaseegaran's teacher, into becoming homicidal.
After being stalled in the development phase for nearly a decade, the film's principal photography began in 2008 and lasted two years. The film marked the debut of Legacy Effects studio (which was responsible for the film's prosthetic make-up and animatronics) in Indian cinema. Enthiran was released worldwide on 1 October 2010. Produced by Kalanithi Maran, it was India's most expensive film up to that point.
The film received generally positive reviews upon release. Critics were particularly appreciative of Shankar's direction, storyline, Rajinikanth's performance as Chitti, music, action sequences, production values and the visual effects by V. Srinivas Mohan. Enthiran emerged as the highest-grossing Indian film of 2010. It won two National Film Awards, three Filmfare Awards, seven Vijay Awards and two Screen Awards. Enthiran was followed by a standalone sequel, 2.0, which released in late 2018.
Plot
After a decade of research, scientist Dr. K. Vaseegaran invents a sophisticated android humanoid robot, assisted by Siva and Ravi, intending to commission the robot into the Indian Army. He names the robot "Chitti" upon his mother's advice and introduces it in a robotics conference in Chennai. There, Chitti meets Vaseegaran's mentor, Professor Bohra, who is asking about the former's neural schema to program the latter's robots correctly. Chitti also meets Vaseegaran's girlfriend Sana, a medical student, who seeks its help to prepare for her forthcoming examinations by helping her cheat in her examinations and later, rescuing her from a group of thugs in a train. Bohra meanwhile is trying to create similar robots for a terrorist organisation, but so far has been unsuccessful.
Vaseegaran prepares Chitti for an evaluation at the Artificial Intelligence Research and Development (AIRD) institute, where a committee headed by Bohra would test Chitti and approve its commission into the army. During the evaluation, Chitti stabs Vaseegaran as per Bohra's command and immediately takes the blade out. Bohra fails it by proving that it can be easily manipulated and thus, cannot be commissioned into the army. Later, Vaseegaran deploys Chitti to rescue people trapped in a burning colony to demonstrate that Chitti is capable of saving people. Chitti saves most of them, including a naked girl who was bathing. Out of shame for being filmed by the media, the girl flees and is fatally hit by a truck. Vaseegaran requests Bohra to give him one month's time to modify Chitti's neural schema that could help it manifest emotions. Lacking progress towards the deadline, Vaseegaran insults Chitti, which becomes angry certifying that it can exhibit emotions.
Chitti, having read Sana's textbooks, helps Sana's pregnant friend Latha undergo a successful delivery which doctors declared as complicated. Consequently, Bohra lets Chitti pass the evaluation but warns Vaseegaran of impending problems. Sana kisses Chitti on its cheek with the latter developing romantic feelings for her. Later, at Sana's birthday party, Chitti attempts to kiss her while dancing and is confronted by Vaseegaran and Sana, to whom it confesses its love towards her. They try to make Chitti understand that it is a machine and its love for Sana is against nature and how it is established. Chitti then deliberately fails in another evaluation being conducted by the Indian Army officials by talking off-topic, subsequently resulting in Vaseegaran destroying Chitti and dumping its parts into a landfill site.