Abstract
Technological advancement worldwide has impacted the cinema’s narratives, and Indian cinema is no exception to this. Science fiction is one of the fascinated genres of the Indian film industry. Incorporating science concepts in plots with the usual commercial elements provides a unique platform for the creators. This hybridisation by the creators instigates imagination among the audience. This paper explains the scientific concepts handled in the sci-fi genre of contemporary Tamil cinema (2010–2020). The study aims to track down how science concepts are dealt with in contemporary Tamil films. Films are classified into five categories based on the themes identified from the plots. A survey was conducted among the Tamil audience to know their opinion about Tamil sci-fi films.
Introduction
The history of science-fiction films in the world film arena dates back to the end of the nineteenth century with the short film ‘The Mechanical Butcher’ directed by Lumière Brothers (Hardy, 1984). It would not be an exaggeration to say that Georges Méliès was a pioneer in experimenting with sci-fi concepts with A Trip to the Moon (1902) and The Impossible Voyage (1904). In earlier days, around the world filmmakers experimented with sci-fi concepts including Metropolis (Lang, 1927), Woman in the Moon (Lang, 1929), Godzilla (Honda, 1954), La Jetée (Marker, 1962) and Solaris (Tarkovsky, 1972). Hollywood has extended supremacy in handling sci-fi because of infrastructure, big budget and wide distribution (Fritzsche, 2014). The experimentation on sci-fi concepts by world cinema continues.
Science, Technology and Tamil Cinema
Tamil cinema is one of India’s prominent industries, and its history dates back to 1918 with the first silent film Keechaka Vadham. Kalidas (1931) is South India’s first talkie. The development of Tamil cinema was immense, especially in the 1970s–1990s, the arrival of young auteurs like K. Balachander, Balu Mahendra, Bharatiraja and K. Bhagyaraj revived Tamil cinema (Thoraval, 2000). Since the 1990s, globalisation and liberalisation have influenced Indian society and economy, which is also present in the Tamil film industry. Tamil cinema concentrated more on showcasing wealth, consumerism and modernity by shifting its plots from rural to urban society (Krishnan, 2008).
Before knowing about science fiction films in India, understanding technological development in India is imperative. The Indian economy developed after globalisation in 1990, and technological developments started to sprout immensely. Many scholars researched the inequalities in ICT’s reach and usage (Compaine, 2001; Hendry, 2000; Hoffman, 1998; Warschauer, 2002). ICT resulted in social changes that impacted various sectors, including cinema. Unlike western cinema, Indian cinema has a peculiar fuse of plots with dance and songs, and absentia is a rare case. Tamil cinema targets Tamil-speaking audiences with local themes (Simpfendorfer, 2015). Tamil sci-fi films are no exception to the custom of incorporating songs and local themes. The sci-fi genre is not new to the Tamil audience; the fancy over sci-fi was started in 1952 with Kaadu (the jungle) about the abnormal behaviour of animals and featured mammoth. India’s first space film Kalai Arasi (1963), is from the Tamil film industry. The story is about an alien invasion from an exoplanet to get a teacher to teach the performing arts; it depicts aliens, futuristic space technology and space weapons. Tik Tik Tik (2018), the second space opera, was again from the Tamil cinema after 55 years.
However, with the advent of modern writers such as Sujatha, sci-fi has become popular. Sujatha was a precursor of sci-fi concepts in Tamil through his stories, novels, columns and screenplays (PTI, 2008; Ramakrishnan, 2021). Due to former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s plan of action on economic growth and modernisation by technology, Tamil cinema has incorporated technological developments in its narratives besides sci-fi films (Subramanian, 2015). Late 1990s narratives led studied computer courses privately or at colleges. In Kannedhirey Thondrinal (Ravichandran, 1998), the heroine attends a computer course privately; Kathalar Dhinam (Kathir, 1999) had more scenes in the internet hub and the song ‘Oh Maria’ depicts that love can blossom through the Internet. In Alaipayuthey, the hero is a software engineer who starts a start-up with his friends (Ratnam, 2000). To audiences, Singaravelan (Udayakumar, 1992) showed that age progression is possible through computers and Jeans (Shankar, 1998) showed that computers could create someone alive through graphics.
Tamil cinema had a fascination for engineering courses. Films like Inidhu Inidhu (Guhan, 2010), Nanban (Shankar, 2012), Kadhalil Sodhappuvadhu Yeppadi (Mohan, 2012), and Meesayai Muruku (Aadhi, 2017) have wonderfully depicted the college life of engineers. The screenplay of films like Velaiilla Pattadhari (Velraj, 2014), Velaiilla Pattadhari II (Rajinikanth, 2017), Ivan Thanthiran (Kannan, 2017), and Tamizhuku En Ondrai Azhuthavum (Rayappa, 2015) conclusively state that engineering is not just a course, and anyone can be an engineer if they understand the concepts. Specifically, Ivan Thanthiran, Tamizhuku En Ondrai Azhuthavum, firmly holds up this message, with its heroes as tech-savvies from a middle-class background. Tamil cinema depicts IT employees as comparatively wealthier than non-IT, with tip-top appearance, modern lifestyle and nightlife engagements. For example, Simbhu’s character as an IT employee in Idhu Namma Aaalu (Pandiraj, 2016) and Karthi’s character in Madras (Ranjith, 2014). In Madras, the hero is short-tempered, quarrels frequently and engages in political troubles with his friends. If he goes to his office, he will be quite the opposite. Contrarily, characters from non-IT jobs predominantly lead an ordinary or difficult life. Male are predominantly ruffians and has an inferiority complex – Madhavan from Minnale (Menon, 2001), Surya from Sillunu Oru Kaadhal (Krishna, 2006) and Dhanush from both Velaiilla Pattadhari I and II.
Science fascinates people, and Sci-fi movies may be a potential tool for teaching science. Students can better comprehend science once they observe and inspect the scientific concepts depicted in such films (Dubeck et al., 1990; Dubeck et al., 1993). This study examines how sci-fi Tamil movies depict science as content. The analysis considers thirteen post-millennial films released between 2010 and 2020 since sci-fi films were frequently released in Tamil cinema from 2010, on average, a movie under the genre per year. The content analysis method describes how sci-fi films depict science and technology. Table 1 shows the list of films taken for the study with the lead male and female details. Additionally, a survey was conducted among the Tamil audience to know their opinion about the sci-fi genre and Tamil sci-fi films.
List of Sample Films.
Recent Tamil Sci-fi Films
The sample has thirteen films. The following sections explore the scientific concepts depicted through fictional narratives. In the genres, the collaboration of action with sci-fi frequently occurs, comprising 42.9%. The combination of action and sci-fi with a zombie apocalypse is new to Tamil cinema. The other combination of genres occurs once in the sample. Tamil cinema has blended other genres with sci-fi to give the narratives flavour of entertainment and commercial aspects to avoid the documentary style of filmmaking (see Table 1). The following section explains the thematic elements present in the narratives.
Concepts and Themes
The analysis categorises narratives as concepts and themes. The sci-fi concepts depicted are space opera, robotics, biological experiments, time travel and chemicals. The themes of space operas have outer space, space vehicles, weapons and astronomical bodies, and an exoplanet with a human-like alien; robotics has an andro-humanoid robot; genetics and neuroscience were in biological experiments. Themes of chemicals are drugs and biohazard chemicals. Time travel illustrates types of equipment and their usage. Considering Hollywood as a pioneer in the sci-fi genre (Fritzsche, 2014; Langford, 2005), the sample plots related to Hollywood films are briefly compared in the commentary section.
Space Opera
Irandaam Ulagam (Selvaraghavan, 2013), Appuchi Gramam (Anand, 2014) and Tik Tik Tik (Rajan, 2018) deal with space opera. Irandaam Ulagam is a romantic sci-fi film with isekai, dealing with humans on the earth and a human-like alien on an unidentified exoplanet (see Figure 1). The film starts with Albert Einstein and Michio Kaku’s sayings that ‘this universe is vast and there could be billions of earth similar to ours. Similarly, there are possibilities for human-like inhabitants to live on other unidentified planets like our earth’. Based on this, the director has developed a romantic story.
The hero Arya [as Madhu Balakrishnan on Earth, exoplanet one (E1) and exoplanet two (E2) and Maravan on (E1) and Madhu Balakrishnan (E2)] and heroine Anushka [as Ramya on Earth, Varna on (E1) and a girl on (E2) in the climax] were present both on the earth and the exoplanets but are not related to each other. The plot follows parallel narration linked by romance, where the heroes want to woo their respective heroines. Madhu on earth loves Ramya. After her demise in vain, he mysteriously reaches E1 from Earth in an uncrewed old car, where Maravan lives. Madhu helps to blossom the love between Maravan and Varna. The picturisation lacks clarity on how the car reaches E1. In 160 min, Madhu woos Ramya and helps Maravan to woo Varna. In the climax, Madhu reaches E2 mysteriously through a river from E1, where he meets a look-alike of Ramya. The auteur differentiates E1 using bluish violet and sepia tone, E2 in blue tone. The plot has nothing scientific but a romantic story on different planets. The story prominently happens on earth and E1. The plot emphasises that a world would perish by praising and guarding women.
The next film is Appuchi Gramam (2014), a disaster-style film about the hit of an astronomical object and fear among the villagers. The villagers considered the astronomical object of the first impact as Amman (South Indian Hindu goddess) and started worshipping before the authorities took over the impact ground. Appuchi Gramam depicts the villagers’ ignorance, emotions and romance through a dramatic plot. The seriousness of the issue and the scientists’ steps to tackle the situation are revealed more by reactions than dialogues.
Tik Tik Tik, the second space film of India, depicts the happenings in space (see Figure 2). The story is about an astronomical object that hit in 7 days. The impact may destroy a significant portion of Tamil Nadu (a South-Indian state) and will take away the lives of 40 million people. Unlike Appuchi Gramam, Tik Tik Tik depicts the counteraction taken against the impact. The frequent depiction of an asteroid approaching the earth through CGI and discussions for counteractions make the audience understand the catastrophe. It depicts an asteroid impact (8 m 2 ) near the Chennai port, causing fourteen casualties and thirty-five severely injured. In India, Defence Space Agency (DSA) works to protect India in outer space and develop strategies against space warfare. DSA organised a meeting and discussed that the feared asteroid’s size is 60 km 2 , larger than Chennai city and calculated to impact 50 km from the city in the Bay of Bengal. The impact would also cause a tsunami in India and Sri Lanka. The impact will change India’s topography.
Commentary
Irandaam Ulagam and Avatar (Cameron, 2009) commonly share space opera and Isekai; heroes travel from earth to an exoplanet for a different purposes. Both films depict flora, fauna, and goddess on exoplanets. Avatar pictures Pandora and goddess Eywa; Irandaam Ulagam picturises unnamed exoplanets with goddess Amma. Avatar has blue-skinned Na’vies and Irandaam Ulagam has very fair-skinned exoplanet natives. Unlike Irandaam Ulagam, Avatar logically connects the travel from the earth to Pandora. Irandaam Ulagam has illogics. An old driverless car mysteriously Madhu to an exoplanet; Madhu’s deceased father talks to him, rides a scooter (paralysed) and vanishes, while Madhu is unaware of his death. Madhu mysteriously reaches the third exoplanet.
Appuchi Gramam begins by depicting the observation of a meteor hit by the Indian Astronomical Observatory (IAO), Ladakh, India. This information reaches the remote sensing agency of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The scientists at Periyar Science and Technology Centre in Tamil Nadu, India, describe the meteor’s weight (10,000 tons), speed (350 miles/h), diameter (40 m) and place (specifically in Tamil Nadu). The meteor hits in 7 days, and it will be a catastrophe. The Chief scientist informed the issue to the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and explained the dinosaur extinction and the meteor impact on Arizona (1897) and Serbia (1910). The meteor will vanish five square miles around the impact. This information was leaked out unofficially by a news agency, creating panic. In the total of 118 min, discussions about the meteor by the scientists had screen space in about 10 min. Appuchi Gramam was saved with minor impacts as ISRO’s intercontinental ballistic missile destroyed the giant meteor. Counteraction is revealed through dialogue as it is a low-budget film (IANS, 2014). Additionally, the climax unnecessarily shows a scorpion-like alien insect reaching the earth and biting a villager. The insect is tiny in size and cannot tackle the atmospheric friction and the blast by a ballistic missile. Like Irandaam Ulagam, it also highlights love sequences for the commercial aspect.
Appuchi Gramam and Tik Tik Tik’s plot is similar to Armageddon (Bay, 1998) and Deep Impact (Leder, 1998); the plots are about surviving an astronomical objects attack. Unlike Armageddon and Deep Impact, Tik Tik Tik’s space crew engages a magician cum escape artist (hero Jayam Ravi) to destroy the asteroid. The world on record lacks the missile capacity (200 kilotons). DSA looks for the missile on the black market and gets information that the required missile is at the Chinese space station. Though it is unethical, the DSA decides to steal the missile to save the nation. A gripping screenplay with many hurdles in achieving the mission. During the mission, a person (through voice) threatens Ravi to give him the missile by kidnapping his son; the Chinese army arrests the Indian crew at the Chinese space station. How the hero tackles the situation forms the story.
Irandaam Ulagam and Appuchi Gramam have concentrated more on drama than scientific concepts. However, Tik Tik Tik justifies being a decent space opera through portrayal; the depiction minutely covers DSA, astronauts’ training, Indian spacecraft, the mission control centre and outer space. The crew for the space mission has the hero, his two friends, a lieutenant and a brigadier of DSA inside a spacecraft called Dhruva 1. The training includes lessons related to space travel, physical and mental strengthening, 360-degree body rotation, neutral buoyancy test and treadmill test. The theme song of Tik Tik Tik highlights the astronaut training session through the theme song of the film. This training somehow matched the training depicted in Gattaca (Niccol, 1997). The film details the asteroid through CGI at DSA; unlike Appuchi Gramam, Tik Tik Tik graphically shows the asteroid-destroying process. The film sketches the minute detailing of the astronaut costumes, tears (Ravi) in zero gravity, and refuelling Dhruva 1 in outer space by Dhruva 2. Additionally, Tik Tik Tik also has similarities with Now You See Me’s magic tricks (Leterrier, 2013) in depicting the escape artist’s talents.
Biological Experiments
7aum Arivu (Murugadoss, 2011), Ambuli (Shankar & Narayan, 2012), I (Shankar, 2015) and Maayavan (Kumar, 2017) deal with different themes of biological concepts. 7aum Arivu deals with genetic engineering. Heroine (genetic engineering student) experiments to revive the skills of the legend Bodhidharma from his descendant (hero). Heroine’s paperwork on the experiment shocked the Chinese government; Heroine’s work would shatter their ‘Operation Red’, a virus-based bio-war against India; Bodhidharma had already cured the same virus outbreak in China in the third century. China will release the antidote to India when the outbreak is uncontrollable. In return, India has to accept all the demands of China, but the heroine’s work would hinder operation red. China engages a martial-art expert with hypnotic powers (villain) to kill the heroine and he injects the virus into a stray dog to initiate operation red. Now the heroine has to finish her experiment with the hero flawlessly, without getting caught by the villain.
The next is Ambuli Tamil cinema’s first stereoscopic 3D film. The plot depicts rural Tamil Nadu, between the late 1950s and the late 1970s, about an experiment that backfires, creating a beast. In 1957, Sir Arthur William, an English military physician and scientist, experiments to extend the human lifespan for about 100–150 years using Neanderthal’s DNA. William plans to combine Neanderthal and human DNA to achieve his vision. William does an unethical-experiment on a pregnant woman by injecting Neanderthal DNA into the foetus without consent. He gives her a serum which makes her visit him frequently; Willaim succeeds partially as the foetus is now changing into Neanderthal. The serum made her visit William on solar eclipse day; UV rays from the eclipse disturbed the experiment creating Ambuli (which means Moon in Tamil). Ambuli is a nocturnal beast. The villagers built a giant wall diving the village from the cornfield where Ambuli lives. How the villagers tackle the creature forms the plot.
I concentrate on revenge than science, but this story would not exist without science (virus) (See Figure 3). Lingesan, alias Lee is a bodybuilder, gym coach and model who faces rivalry in professional and romantic life. An industrialist, a doctor, a bodybuilder, a hairstylist and a model are the five affected by Lee and decides to take revenge. The conspiration portion had the science, as the five took revenge against Lee scientifically (virus). The doctor gave others an idea to bring the H4N2 influenza(I) virus from a lab in Switzerland to inject it into Lee, which causes physical deformity; how Lee takes revenge after knowing the conspiracy forms the rest of the story.
Maayavan’s plot incorporates neurosciences with nanotechnology. Hero (inspector) derives a pattern for serial murders but is clueless about the murderer, as the forensic evidence did not mismatch. Hero discovers that before every murder, the murderers behaved differently from their originality. Hero suspects Rudran (motivational speaker) of Narayanan’s (scientist) death. Hero investigates that Pramodh, an ex-employee and colleague of Narayanan from the Indian Institute of Neurosciences, is the murderer. Velayudham, a senior official, reveals that Pramodh was working on ‘Project Maayavan’, where he experiments with storing a person’s (guest 1 ) memories into a hard drive and can transfer it to another person (host 2 ) by injecting nano-transmitters in gel form. Nano-transmitters will attach to the host’s neurons. A guest can choose their host priorly by injecting nano-transmitters. When the guest dies, nano-transmitters erase the host’s memories and transfer the guest’s memories, resulting in a difference in the host’s behaviour. The guest can live forever with a different body and life. The experiment fails initially, leading testees to coma. Narayanan and the Minister reject the project foreseeing the threat to society; to prove his vision, Pramodh tests it on himself by making his gym trainer a host; from gym trainer, he transfers to makeup artist and Rudhran. After Rudhran, Pramodh targets Army Major General Sathyan. How the hero stops, Pramodh’s action forms the plot.
Commentary
7aum Arivu, the first viral outbreak film, concentrates on elaborating on the story of Bodhidharma to explain the importance of the reviving process of Bodhidharma. The film depicts a few scenes about China’s technological advancement and its ability to wage a bio-war. 7aum Arivu indirectly reflects the rough political situations between India and China through the bio-war concept. The film is similar to viral outbreak-themed movies like Outbreak (Petersen, 1995) and Contagion (Soderbergh, 2011). Instead of directly developing the cure, the heroine’s team attempts to create a genetically transformed human with enhanced ancestral knowledge to solve the viral outbreak. 7aum Arivu’s screenplay unnecessarily incorporates romance than the details of the virus, vaccination and cure process. The director picturises the experiment through a song that involves three aspects (i) the heroine is responsible for completing her research without causing any issues in the hero’s life, (ii) the enemy should not win against the son of the soil and (iii) she shows her romantic interest in the hero through her concern. Lyrics explain the emotions of valour and pride.
Ambuli has the hue of Splice (Natali, 2009) and I Am Legend (Lawrence, 2007). These three films have mad scientists involved in the genetic experiment. Splice has Clive Nicoli and Elsa Kast discover the human–animal hybrid Dren, but the experiment backfires, creating a carnivore. A genetic experiment to cure cancer in I Am Legend creates Darkseekers, cannibalised mutants. Similarly, Ambuli’s William creates Ambuli while attempting to hybrid humans. Ambuli’s habitat and characterisation are similar to Darkseekers. Film Ambuli looks more like a horror film than sci-fi. Splice and I Am Legend’s narratives take place in a world with technological advancement. However, the period shown in Ambuli shatters the willing suspension of disbelief; the plot depicts the 1950s, which had fewer technological advances for genetic experimentation. Additionally, the term genetic engineering was adopted into sci-fi literature in 1951 by Jack Williamson’s Dragon’s Island (Stableford, 2004). Ambuli is about the extension of life by fusing the DNA of Neanderthal with human lack depicting research and details. Some logical doubts arise with Ambuli’s plot. Was DNA research in India possible in the late 1950s when no facilities existed? Is it viable to bring the Neanderthal’s DNA safely from England to India? Therefore, the period and environment represented in Ambuli related to genetic engineering seem unrealistic. Like Splice and I Am Legend’s narratives, Ambuli’s plot would be viable if it had depicted a contemporary and technologically advanced background. I’s screenplay concentrates more on the hero's emotions and revenge against the five. The doctor is the mad scientist character who did not develop the virus perse but gained knowledge about its effects. Few scenes portrayed the symptoms like hair and teeth loss, fast ageing, skin disorder, and kyphosis. VFX and makeup played a vital role in exhibiting the symptoms and the after-effects of revenge. A scene reveals that the H4N2 influenza virus/ I virus was not transmitted but was injected into Lee’s body forcefully. The film mentions that the H4N2 influenza virus is non-communicable. However, influenza is communicable (CDC & NCIRD, 2021; Mayo Clinic Staff, 2021).
Maayavan’s story is new to Tamil cinema. There are films about neurological disorders, but a combination of neuroscience and nanotechnology is unique to the Tamil audience. The story represents the present world, raising doubts about whether such technology is possible; it would have been believable if it happened in the future. Pramodh is a mad scientist and a threat to society. Maayavan’s story is similar to the film Lucy (Besson, 2014), in which the heroine gains psychokinetic skills after absorbing a drug with psychedelic and nootropic elements. In the climax, she reaches the spacetime continuum, becomes eternal and can access any objects. Likewise, in Maayavan, Pramodh experimented to achieve eternity by storing the memory in a hard disk. Both films deal with the brain. Forcefully adding romantic elements to everything is the curse of Tamil cinema; Maayavan has forcefully inserted romantic scenes to satisfy the Tamil audience though it is unnecessary.
Chemicals
Miruthan (Rajan, 2016) and Iru Mugan (Shankar, 2016) deal with bio-hazard chemicals and drugs respectively. Miruthan is the first zombie film in Tamil cinema. Miruthan is a combination of the Tamil words Mirugam (animal) + Manithan (man) = Miruthan, as there was no specific word in Tamil for zombie. In Miruthan, a toxic chemical spillage from a chemical factory in Ooty Tamil Nadu causes a zombie outbreak. It starts with a stray dog that consumes the chemical spillage and bites a human causing the spread. Hero is a traffic cop who attempts to escape from zombies with his sister and doctors to the nearby city for research. The story is about how the hero countered the situation.
Iru Mugan deals with a drug and its side effect (see Figure 4). The film revolves mainly around Akhilan Vinod, a suspended Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) agent and Love, a scientist cum criminal. Love manufactures and exports a drug called ‘speed’. When inhaled, speed gives an extraordinary strength and creates fear in their minds, making them savage when anyone approaches. The film mentions that speed gives instant power and acts as a memory enhancer and nootropic. Dialogues and visuals explain speed’s side effects which act instantly as Popeye’s spinach; Love manufactures speed as asthma inhalers.
Speed’s strength lasts 5 min, beyond which it creates unconsciousness; repetitive inhalation within a few hours of the first dosage may cause a massive heart attack. Love produces speed for terrorist organisations for money; he also plans a terror attack in India. How Akhilan handles Love composes the story.
Commentary
Miruthan is a cliché for the Tamil audience who watch Hollywood movies. Miruthan does not focus on scientific issues other than depicting a chemical spillage. The primary blunder is depicting a small factory (exterior) producing bio-hazard chemicals functions within a town limit. Miruthan lacks scenes on the chemical production, which could have been added in the opening credits to emphasise the impact; as Munz et al. (2009) discussed, the hero and team quarantine themselves and attack the zombies for survival. The plot also shows the romantic intentions of the hero towards the heroine. The screenplay treatment of Miruthan has a resemblance with The Children (Kalmanowicz, 1980), Return of the Living Dead III (Yuzna, 1993) and Dawn of the Dead (Snyder, 2004), to name a few. Miruthan could have shown the zombie outbreak from two angles in addition to the hero’s prowess, (i) the Government’s tactical actions and (ii) experts’ actions on the issues to justify the sci-fi genre.
Iru Mugan has a contradiction of concept; a scene mentions that repetitive speed usage within a few hours is fatal; despite that hero takes speed within a few hours in the climax fight. The drug fails to show its effect as he is a hero. Iru Mugan mentions speed as pervitin, a brand of methamphetamine drug used by Nazis (Ulrich, 2005). The plot briefly mentions the Nazi–pervitin link. Furthermore, the mad scientist Love mentions Adolf Hitler as his idol. Love uses science to punish his enemies; he uses a powder to torture his enemies, which is corrosive in contact with skin. Love inserts a chip near the medulla oblongata of his employees, which creates an electric pulse on command to kill the rebellious employee; the commanding device for the chip has all employees’ data. Love misuses science using corrosive powder, pervitin, electric-pulse chip and cybercrime against his enemies.
Robotics
A robot is the most sophisticated, computer-programmed machine capable of sensing, computing and acting (Guizzo, 2020). Plots involving robots fascinate the audience. the central theme of Enthiran (Shankar, 2010) and 2.0 (Shankar, 2018) concentrate is robotics. 2.0 is a standalone sequel to Enthiran. Enthiran spins around Vaseegaran alias Vasee (played by Rajinikanth), an Edisonade scientist who develops an andro-humanoid robot named Chitti (also Rajinikanth). He developed Chitti to avoid fatality in the Indian army. Bohra, a mentor of Vasee, designed robots for German terrorists. However, Bohra’s robot fails to perform like Chitti. At the evaluation, Vasee explains to the panel that, Chitti devised to kill enemies; thus, it rejects Asimov’s robotics laws. Chitti performs well and clears all the tests by the committee. To prove that Chitti is a failed product, Bohra commands Chitti to stab Vasee. Chitti obeys Bohra’s command as Vasee has already instructed it to follow the committee’s orders. Bohra commands Chitti to stop, but the blade touches Vasee causing a wound. Bohra rejects Chitti, as anybody can manipulate it and is not fit to serve the Indian army. Vasee feeds emotions to Chitti and trains him. Vasee chops Chitti as it creates romantic attraction toward Vasee’s lover Sana. Chitti joins Bohra to avenge Vasee, who upgrades to version 2.0 (V2.0) with a red chip, which generates aggression, savageness and ruthless behaviour. V2.0 kills Bohra and builds an army of robots to avenge Vasee; how Vasee handles it forms the story.
The film 2.0 is a standalone sequel. In 2.0, Vasee solves a mysterious case with Chitti and Nila’s help. Nila is a feminine humanoid robot designed to assist Vasee. Nila acts as a friend and a caretaker. Nila’s skills include driving, fighting, performing analysis assigned by Vasee and helping Chitti battle against the villain. Nila also has human feelings; it has a romantic interest in Chitti. As per the plot, mobile phones in the city suddenly start to fly toward the sky. Vasee explained to the council with Minister and scientists that he could track the lost mobile phones up to a layer in the atmosphere, which becomes untraceable beyond a limit. Vasee asks for the council’s approval for Chitti to solve the issue. Bohra’s son disapproves the idea by quoting the earlier mishaps done by Chitti, and the council agrees. The incident of mobile phones disappearing continues. The lost mobile phones gather together and kill the Telecom Minister, telecom company owner and mobile phone showroom owner. Understanding the seriousness, Minister approves of reviving Chitti to solve the mysterious case. What happens following form the plot.
Commentary
Enthiran picturises the efforts to develop Chitti and its information. Terminologies like the Asimov rule, neural schema, andro-humanoid robot and depiction of holographic conversations were new to Tamil cinema. Chitti exhibits intelligence in various art forms (singing, dancing, cooking, homemaking, drawing and martial arts), science and mathematics. Chitti impressed the spectators at the robotic conference by revealing the most extensive Fibonacci series and reciting an Indian raga without mistake. It can read books within seconds, project audio-visuals from its stored memory and live. Chitti helps a woman in the hospital with a complicated vaginal delivery through its book learning. Enthiran frequently establishes robots’ capacity in grasping, speed and memory. Chitti introduces itself by explaining its CPU speed and RAM as, ‘Hi, I am Chitti, speed one terahertz, memory one zettabyte’. Chitti intended to serve the Indian Army and was programmed to care for the near and dear. Chitti saves Sana from harassers and helps her exam by dictating answers using a transmitter and receiver through the Zigbee protocol, which communicates long-distance (Alliance, 2013). In a fascinating fight scene, V2.0 and its soldiers fight against defence troops and form patterns like a snake, giant, sphere, etcetera to counter-attack the troops (see Figure 5). Robots use magnetism to form patterns and demagnetise to attack individually. The director of Avengers: Age of Ultron mentions that Enthiran inspired him to have a scene depicting Ultron forming different shapes, similar to a scene where robots form different shapes. However, due to a lack of time, the scene was deleted from the film (Times News Network, 2019). The red chip inside the robots plays a vital role in differentiating the good (Chitti had a blue chip) and the evil. Bohra invented the red chip to avenge Vasee, which denotes danger, anger, rebellion and catastrophe. The blue-chip denotes obedience, intelligence, composed and loving.
Enthiran’s story is similar to Making Mr Right (Seidelman, 1987), Bicentennial Man (Columbus, 1999), etc. The Bicentennial Man’s NDR series robot and Chitti have similar structural designs; both robots share an emotional connection to humans. Director says that Enthiran’s concept will reach the mass irrespective of their literacy level (Rajshri, 2011). Thus, it fascinated the audience and was a box-office hit (International Business Times, n.d.). In contrast to Enthiran, 2.0 lacks willing suspension of disbelief. The film 2.0 exhibited more fantasy than science; 2.0’s villain, Pakshi, is an ornithologist fighting against the ill effect of high-frequency electromagnetic radiation from cellphone towers. Hence cellphone subscribers are his enemies. After his death, Pakshi uses his negative human aura through a swarm of cellphones to revenge. 2.0 has horror elements than science. In Yavarum Nalam/13B (Kumar, 2009), spirits haunt people through television; likewise, in 2.0, Pakshi’s spirit acts through cell phones. Vasee proposes a theory for the phenomenon to the council of scientists that Pakshi’s spirit uses a negative aura to avenge. Vasee adds that there is no scientific evidence for the aura’s presence. According to spirituality, an aura is a form of energy surrounding a human’s physical body (Hammer, 2004). However, the concept is not scientifically proven (Hines, 2003). 2.0’s essence is based on pseudoscience – Pakshi’s spirit. Vasee uses Chitti 2.0, Nila and Kutti 3.0 – the microbot to fight against Pakshi.
Time Travel
Indru Netru Naalai (Ravikumar, 2015) and 24 (Kumar, 2016) deal with the time travel concept using a machine and watch for shuttling between times. Indru Netru Naalai’s plot starts in the year 2065. A scientist (played by actor Arya) experiments with a time machine, targeting it to reach 2015 with a dog; he wants the machine to return within 40 min but fails and gets stuck in 2015. The device gets into the hands of three people [the hero, a budding entrepreneur struggling to marry the heroine, a fake astrologer (hero’s friend) and an inventor cum domestic appliance mechanic]. The mechanic understands it is a time machine and takes it to explore further. Accidentally he gets an electric shock and suffers a coma. Hero and astrologer steal the device to settle in their life. Astrologer, for money, uses the device to predict the future and find lost things. Hero impresses his industrialist father-in-law by predicting the stocks. Both unknowingly foil the encounter of a rowdy who targets the father-in-law. They travel back to the past to make the encounter happen to save the father-in-law’s life. The machine gets damaged during their mission. What happens subsequently forms the story.
The 24 (see Figure 6) has three male leads – Dr Sethuraman, aka Sethu, a scientist; Sethu’s twin brother Athreya, the villain and Mani, Sethu’s son, a watch mechanic. In 1990, Sethu built a wristwatch called ‘Project 24’ in his home-based lab, which has a time-travel restriction of 24 hours to and fro. Money-minded Athreya tries to steal the watch, killing Sethu and his wife Priya, and leaving Mani as a toddler. The fight paralyses Athreya and leads to a coma. Mani is unaware of his past and is adopted by Sathyabama; she raises Mani, who is now a watch mechanic. Athreya gains consciousness after twenty-six years, understands that Mani has ‘Project 24’ and decides to avenge. What happens to ‘Project 24’ forms the screenplay.
Commentary
The time travel concept is new to Tamil cinema. Indru Netru Naalai is the first film engaging in time travel. It picturises a time machine developed in the future world, which suspends the disbelief that time travel may be possible. The film depicts Chennai city in 2065 with technological advancement by depicting modern infrastructures, a sophisticated laboratory and holographic conversation. The time machine looks similar to a suitcase and uses a diskette-like key to unfold and retract. The plot uses science for cheating, however, for a good cause. Being a low-budget film (Jyothsna, 2015), the intention and attempt to show science in good light are appreciable.
24’s plot has a combination of sci-fi with romance and family drama. Logical blunders do exist in 24. For example, the heroine identifies Athreya disguised as Sethu through his signature on a cheque. She tries to inform Mani, but Athreya intentionally falls to distract Mani. Unaware of what happened, Mani travels back in time to stop the accident; the heroine forgets about the incident, but Athreya remembers it and signatures as Sethuraman. Either should forget or remember, but memory is selective for Athreya. In a similar time-travel scene, Athreya and his ally have a memory of past time travel. Timecop (Hyams, 1994), Indru Netru Naalai and 24 have similarities; they use a time machine and have a limitation that the character from the future and the past should not collide because the same beings from different periods cannot occupy the same existence. Besides the sample, Tamil cinema uses a time-theme as a ‘second chance’ to rectify mistakes – Oh My Kadavule (Marimuthu, 2020) or predict the future to act accordingly in the present – Maan Karate (Thirukumaran, 2014).
Survey Results
The survey conducted among Tamil audiences with different age-group, literacy and employment using snowball sampling resulted in 176 samples (see Table 2). Tamil sci-fi films’ themes/subjects, especially space opera, attracted the respondents. Tik Tik Tik and Passengers have opted as favourite sci-fi films in Tamil and foreign languages respectively. Themes/subjects of Tamil sci-fi films and stories of foreign sci-fi films attracted the respondents. Visuals are the key to foreign sci-fi films’ popularity and fast-paced plots for Tamil sci-fi films. In the respondents’ opinion, Tamil sci-fi films share no relationship with society and are perhaps for knowledgeable audiences. However, Tamil sci-fi films were unhelpful in teaching science since they lack details. Additionally suggested including more science in the plots. Tamil sci-fi films have not improved sci-tech in human life (see Table 3).
Demography.
Percentage Analysis.
Conclusion
True sci-fi stories have a plot development and resolution with factual knowledge about science (Asimov et al., 1990). Sci-fi movies tend to sacrifice science in favour of drama (Offit, 2011). Tamil cinema is no exception. In sci-fi films, the narration emphasises dramatic elements. Tamil cinema has meagre sci-fi films comparing other genres. The space-opera theme is rare in Indian cinema, which took five decades for the industry to produce a second space film, and both were from Tamil cinema. Tamil sci-fi films rely on computer-generated imagery (CGI) rather than scientific concepts, and budget affects CGI works. Irandaam Ulagam’s lion-like exoplanet animal is similar to Thanator/Palulukan from Avatar, and the CGI of an alien insect in Appuchi Gramam fails to attract. Both films depicted mysticism than science. Usual Tamil film ingredients like songs and love scenes in plots cause sci-fi movies to falter. Blending more dramatic elements in sci-fi narratives is one of the drawbacks. Endhiran’s story revolves around the robot’s love and savageness, but it has utilised science more than the films listed and effectively combines science and fiction. Usually, there will be scope for the audience to learn from the cinema. Unfortunately, Tamil sci-fi films lack factuality and detailing on science, making a credibility issue in considering it as a knowledge source. This research suggests that it would be appreciable if the plots of sci-fi films focus on science than focusing on romance and melodramas.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.