Though Bollywood’s been the mistress of melodrama since its inception, science fiction/ fantasy themes are relatively virgin territory - the only exceptions being Shekhar Kapur’s Mr. India [the film that after Gabbar Singh introduced another classic villain: Mogambo, played with ferocious glee by Amrish Puri, and also redefined wet saari erotica, re: Kaate Nahi Kathte], and the recent Hrithik Roshan starrers E.T. – whoops I mean Koi…Mil Gaya and Krissh. I’m not including the atrocious Love Story 2050 or Abhishek Bachchan’s 2008 ‘Drone-a’ in this category: the self-proclaimed Harry Potter meets Prince of Persia was more ‘Over-the-top acting’ meets ‘Laugh-out-loud plot.’

Cut to 2010. Bollywood and its Tamil counterpart, Tollywood, present two high-budget, high-octane sci-fi films featuring Indian cinema’s crème-de-la-crème.

Enthiran: The Robot
Director: S. Shankar
Starring: Rajnikanth, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Danny Denzongpa
Releasing: September 3, 2010

The Synopsis (Rumored; unofficial): Dr. Vaseegaran [Rajnikanth] is a scientist who specializes in robotics; he creates a robot with artificial intelligence and names it Chitti [also Ranjnikanth]. Chitti’s your average Bicentennial Man; he’s got strength, he’s got intellect, he’s got humanity, he’s got killer dance moves (C’mon, this is Tollywood we’re talking about!) He also has a libido (read: heart), as he falls in love with Sana (Aishwarya Rai) when Dr. Vaseegaran introduces him into a human environment. Of course, given his extraordinary capabilities, the villain (Danny Denzongpa) wants a piece of the silicon pie – and the film henceforth revolves around the battle between the scientist and the forces of evil.

Now, the last time director S. Shankar and Rajnikanth collaborated (2007), they came up with Sivaji – The Boss, a film that not only ate its competition (Bollywood’s Jhoom Barabar Jhoom), but also enjoyed phenomenal success worldwide. So even though its first official poster depicts Aishwarya Rai channeling head-gear even Lady Gaga would call OTT, the film’s (also to be dubbed in Hindi) touted to be a blockbuster. According to reports, it’s being made on the most massive budget for any Indian film (so was another Aishwarya Rai/S. Shankar collaboration Jeans back in 1998 – though a particularly horrid movie, it was still a hit all over India.) Here’s where things get really interesting though: as with all Shankar films, Oscar and Grammy award winning composer A.R. Rahman produced the soundtrack for this movie – and within days of its release, it’s created records by topping the iTunes Store Top 10 World Albums list. Are you listening, songs.pk? We want (free) download now! You can watch the trailer on YouTube.com.

The robots seem a direct rip-off from the Terminator series slash I, Robot, and certain sequences are just too incredulous to mention here, but I applaud it for its sheer…audacity?

Ra. One (or Ra. 1)
Director: Anubhav Sinha
Starring: Shahrukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal and Tom Wu
Releasing: Early 2011

The Synopsis (Rumored; unofficial): Attempting to connect with his teenage son, a game designer/software engineer Jeevan (Shahrukh Khan) creates the ultimate video game-villain Ra. One (Arjun Rampal?) When the villainous program becomes self-aware, it escapes from the game and kills the father. (How, you ask? Because it’s Bollywood, I reply.) Now hunted by the digital demon because he’s the only player to ever defeat him, the boy must extract the game’s hero, G. One (Get it? Jeevan / G. One) – designed in his father’s image (Did you think SRK had a cameo?!) Together, the unlikely duo form a relationship they never shared as father and son while stopping the villain’s plan to enslave the world. Oh, and Kareena Kapoor plays the mom.

Anubhav Sinha’s claim to fame is Tum Bin, the 2001 surprise hit – his more recent works Dus (best known for songs/mehndi rages ‘Dus Bahane’ and ‘Deedar De’) and heist saga Cash were average at the Indian box-office and critical duds. No wonder its rumored SRK asked bestie Karan Johar to ‘help out’ with certain romantic scenes of the film during a shoot in London. Reasons to get excited: Music composers Vishal and Shekhar roped in hip-hop artist Akon for a song in the film. The movie features death-defying and ‘breathtaking’ stunts; Shahrukh Khan’s superhero avatar is even rumored to be able to ‘solidify’ electricity. Whoa. That sounds really good on paper, but...
Whether either of the two films is able to hit box-office gold (though that’s probably a given: it’s Rajnikanth and Shahrukh Khan we’re talking about here) remains to be seen.

For now, if you’re in the mood for some sublime science-fiction from the subcontinent, I thoroughly recommend you revisit (or get acquainted with) Mr. India: who can forget Sri Devi’s ‘Hawa Hawai’ performance, Anil Kapoor and his bunch of loveable orphans, and of course, the epic line: ‘Mogambo khush hua.’
Shekhar Kapur, you did Bollywood a solid favour.