Rajinikanth-Shankar's 2.0 teaser breakdown

The day just got even more festive as the much-awaited teaser for 2.0 was released across various screens today. The teaser for the Shankar-directed magnum opus starring Rajinikanth, Akshay Kumar and Amy Jackson, which was screened in both 2D and 3D, also released on a number of social media platforms and has gone viral already.

The 90-second teaser wastes no time in getting to the one-liner of the film — What if mobile phones take over the world, literally? 

It is often said that animals and birds get the first hint of an approaching calamity, and the gathering of various avian species around a mobile phone tower that houses a solitary man standing amidst flocking feathers and cawing noises points towards the central conceit of the film. The man in the tower looks like Akshay Kumar and as the posters of the film have indicated, he is a vicious 'Bird Man' of sorts and this seems to be the origin of the antagonist. 

What follows next is Shankar using technology to remind us that there is no idea that is whimsical or difficult to portray on screen. Mobile phones start flying away from the hands of the users and puts an entire city, the police, and its media in confusion. We are then briefly introduced to Akshay as we have seen in the posters so far and the mobile phones forming, you know it, a bird again as Amy Jackson, as a robot, and Rajinikanth, as Vaseegaran, protect themselves from the mobiles launching themselves as birds. 

There are enough mobile phones-turned-birds in this film to actually call it Shankar's tribute to Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 horror-thriller, The Birds, which dealt with a concept of flocks of birds suddenly going crazy and attacking humans.  

With the antagonist clearly unleashing hell with digital birds, which some bureaucrat rightly calls 'beyond science', we get to see why the sequel got to be made — We 'Prepare for Chitti', the robot that was dismantled at the end of the first film. 

There are Avengers-inspired giant creatures that float around a city's easiest and most convenient target to show grandiose in destruction — glass buildings. 

However, when we first see Chitti, it isn't exactly the warm and fuzzy feeling of meeting an old friend. The robot looks less like the Enthiran version and more like the Chitti from Shah Rukh Khan's Ra.One. Although it is interesting to note how the look of Chitti in subsequent frames gets better. 

Then the teaser, elevated by AR Rahman's score, shows Chitti saving the day, only for Akshay to blow something up. Then Chitti saves one other day, and Akshay blows something else up. In between, there is the caption — The World is not just for humans. And yeah, there are more explosions and one of Shankar's favourite motifs — A huge stadium that is used to show the expansive production values and also to further the plot. 

Then, we finally get the Chitti that we need. The one toting multiple guns and sporting the signature mohawk, though the white streak is replaced with a red one.

While the various scenes in this teaser show us a lot of things, they hardly tell us anything. That is why the final frame of this teaser seems to be the most important of all. The Chitti in Enthiran became much more fun when the villain Danny Denzongpa reprogrammed him to become evil by inserting a red chip into his circuit board. 

The last frame has Chitti in front of someone holding a remote control, showing off his red pupils and mimicking the call of a cuckoo before fading out with a chilling laugh. There is an oft-repeated saying in Tamil cinema, "Vishatha visham vechu dhaan edukka mudiyum" (You need venom to counteract venom). 

Does this mean we get to see Rajinikanth having unadulterated fun as the badass Chitti and take on 'Bird Man' Akshay in the battle of evils? Well, if that's the case, the issues in the teaser can be ignored and Shankar, the visionary, can be given a longer rope and the rejuvenated wait for the release of 2.0 can begin, once again.