"Robot" (Hindi, English) aka "Enthiran" (Tamil) aka "Robo" (Telugu) (movie, 2010): A review of various robot & monster tropes

I liked the first half - a variety of classic robot fiction tropes, Indianized & sometimes modernized. Later half was ok but is too Hollywoodish; near end, it turns into a monster movie, borrowing a lot of monster imagery from Hollywood.

Story summary.

Dr Vasi has created a hominid robot, Chitti, targeted eventually for battle role in military. We see a variety of bugs in its software, as well has some funny & lovable scenes, as he's introduced into human society: ask him to hit you, & he will; his lack of human mores (saves a woman from fire - only she was in bathroom & it didn't occur to him to cover her before depositing her among the crowds). He'll eventually be given the emotional ability, & will quickly fall in love with his creator's girlfriend!

That's first half. Second half is Chitti's transformation into a monster when evil Dr Vohra introduces malicious code into his software. This point on, it's a variety of visual effects borrowed from multiple Hollywood movies.

Fact sheet.

Released: Setember 2010.
Director: S Shankar.
Cast: Aishwarya Rai (Vasi's girlfriend); Rajnikanth (Dr Vasi, Chitti, & many other robots & monsters in later half); Danny (Dr Vohra).
This post is based on Hindi version of the movie.

A couple of funny stories based on Mahatma Gandhi's ideas

Today, 2 October, is Mahatma's birth anniversary. Here are two hilarious stories based on his ideas:

1. Eric Frank Russell's "... And Then There Were None"; download: Interstellar colonists meet Gandhian resistance.
2. [movie] "Lago Raho Munnabhai" (2006) (@imdb): Perhaps the most influential movie ever made. Anywhere.
   
   Ever wondered what would happen if traffic cops handed you flowers for minor traffic offenses instead of fine, & politely told you not to violate the rule again? Indian city of Indore actually tried it, inspired by the movie, with fantastic results. It never became widespread practice principally because local governments in India look at traffic fines as a revenue source rather than an effort to make roads safer.
   
   Things moved very fast in a Bangalore community when a corrupt babu was told he would get polite reminders for inaction next day. Polite reminders from a few tens of thousands of people. No violence, no public protests!
   
   There were innumerable experiments of this kind across India in months following the movie's release. Over time, things have fizzled out. I guess we need more movies of this kind.
   
   I've only seen the original Hindi version. But most Hindi movies now-a-days are also released with English subtitles; sometimes dubbed & even edited-to-Hollywood-length versions are also available. Try at your favorite source.

Free movies: 27 genre movies in English from 1950s

Sci-fi Man rounds them up from Internet Archive. I assume they're all Hollywood movies?

[via SF Signal]

Related: Movie posts.

Two good, relatively recent, Hindi movies

"Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year" (details@IMDb; buy@amazon.com) is from late 2009; "Atithi, Tum Kab Jaoge?" (tr: "Guest, When Will You Depart?") (details@IMDb) is a 2010 release. Both are non-genre, in spite of the word "Rocket" in the first one.


"Rocket Singh" is the story of an entrepreneur - how circumstances forced a youngster to found a successful company.

While officially set in today's India, it actually describes India of early 1990s. There were 3 big local PC makers, innumerable small time PC assemblers, & IBMs & HPs were just getting interested in the country's hardware market. In time, they would eat up the market of each of the 3 local biggies, forcing two of them to look (very successfully, it turns out) for fortunes in software services. Big Bad company in the movie, as well as its CEO, appears to be modeled after the public image of one of those 3.

Hero, an average college graduate, has just landed a job at the Big Bad company as a PC salesman. He will goof up very very badly on his first assignment, playing messiah against corruption. This event's repercussions will force him to build his own PC company, Rocket Sales Corp, in a rather unusual way. Ending is too contrived, but otherwise a very good watch.


"Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge?" is actually impossible to translate to English faithfully. Literally, it translates "Guest, When Will You Depart?", but there is a whole lot of cultural baggage it carries via the populat Sanskrit saying with nearly opposite meaning - "Atithi Devo Bhavah" (tr "Guest is God").

It's a light comedy where an unknown & impossible to relate to guest arrives & hosts have to play polite, resentfully. A guest who has some unusual abilities. Begins in a generally sane believable way, but gets quite filmy as the movies moves along - but remains very watchable most of the way.

Origin of Asimov's three robot laws & of "I, Robot" movie

'Isaac had told me that “his” Three Laws of Robotics were actually given to him by John Campbell — Isaac had just tinkered with the wording. But when the movie people actually made a film called I, Robot, the story that was filmed had nothing to do with Isaac’s actual stories but was something written and published by another writer, and all they used of Isaac’s work was the title and the Three Laws. Neither of which had been his.'
- Frederik Pohl.

Asimov himself has something to say, in one of the anthologies he coedited, on the title of his book I, Robot when introducing Eando Binder's earlier story of the same name (download comic book adaptation of Binder's story; I think its text is online too, but I don't have the link handy).

Lawrence Watt Evans adds a correction to movie part: "The movie did use some of Dr. Asimov’s character names, in very roughly similar roles to those he’d given them."

I haven't personally seen the movie.

Tale of 2 recent Hindi movies featuring geeks: "3 idiots" & "Pyaar impossible!"

Two most recent movies I saw both feature geeks in prominent roles . But what a contrast!

"3 idiots" (@imdb) was a delight, in spite of "minor" flaws like director's fetish with toilet scenes, actors who're too old to be convincing undergraduate students, & a tendency to preach. Hero is an uber-cool tech student - a sort of John Galt (but without Galt's social agenda or anger at society). He can cook up all sort of gadgets at a moment's notice! Presentation felt quite a bit like "Munnabhai, MBBS" (@imdb) - just move the locale from a medical college to tech college, & hero from a goon in love to a real geek.

"Pyaar impossible!" (@imdb) was a complete bore, in spite of Priyanka Chopra. Hero is a very shy geek who's written (alone!) a PC operating system that can run software written for any popular operating system like Windows, Mac, even cell phones! Never mind the technical or patent issues. A crook posing as investor then steals his product - only installer, no sources - & sells it to a Singapore based company; never mind how he stole it (& at a moment's notice) from hero's notebook that probably didn't have installer, & how he managed to convince someone to sell it without access to source (they obviously didn't want any custom tweaks)! Then the crook goes after hero's girl. Of course, hero trumps eventually, by proving his ownership of product in an utterly unconvincing presentation. But these are side tracks - hero spends most of his time playing servant cum babysitter in his love's home, because he doesn't have guts to really talk to her.

Something that puzzles me: the recent trend in giving English names to Hindi movies, even the ones that have very Indian settings, like "3 idiots". These names cannot be helping locally. Do they make the movie easier to sell overseas?

Related: Hindi fiction.

"Avatar", "Call Me Joe", and "Midworld"

Many people seem to be looking for the relation of these stories with the Hollywood movie Avatar. While I've not seen the movie, here is what I know of the subject - along with download links I know of.

"Avatar" & "Call Me Joe".

Folks are finding the telepresence aspects of Avatar a lot like Poul Anderson's short story "Call Me Joe".

In Anderson's story, no human can go to the world that needs exploring. So they create an artificial animal that can thrive in that environment, but is otherwise like a baby. Mind of this artificial being is linked by a communications link to that of a man elsewhere (an invalid, a few million kilometers away). Man can become one with the artificial creation by pressing on a button.

Note there are at least two other well known short stories with similar themes: Clifford D Simak's "Desertion" & James Blish's "Surface Tension". No communications link is involved in these two stories.

In Simak's version, you put a man in a machine, & out comes a being physically adapted for the hostile world, but with the mind & memories of the man who entered. Process is reversible. So the machine can take the local being with his local experiences, & turn it into the original man but with additional memories of his experiences in this artificial body.

In Blish's story, a few human embryos need to be left on a hostile world, with no adult to take care of them. How do you ensure the babies that these embryos will become can survive on their own? You turn them into locally adapted animals but with human minds. Very colorful story - probably the best known short work of Blish.

I know of at least 2 online versions of "Call Me Joe": an audio, & a comic book adaptation.

Text of "Desertion" is included in the scans of the whole Astounding issue where the story originally appeared.

MP3 audio of "Surface Tension" is online.

"Avatar" & "Midworld".

People are finding the alien world of Avatar (& some of its creatures) rather similar to Alan Dean Foster's novel "Midworld".

"Midworld" features a jungle world - a semi-sentient jungle with huge trees that have 7 vertical levels - each level offering a unique ecological niche. Humans live in, I think, level 4 - hence the title. Moving across levels means inviting death - though humans often go through these adventure.

Note that "Midworld" itself is a rehash of Brian W Aldiss' "Hothouse". "Hothouse" has at least two versions - an original short story version, & a later novelization (I've only read first third or quarter of this novelization).

"Hothouse" is really a juvenile work - at least the novel version. "Midworld" is a work for grown ups.

A few months back, BBC had done a show or a podcast based on "Hothouse" - I'm not sure which version. I don't know if it's still available at their web site.

"Hothouse" short story version is probably old enough to have its text online somewhere, but I don't have the URL.

"An Avatar Reading List Meme"

The Crotchety Old Fan has a list of genre stories whose features are seen in the Hollywood movie Avatar.

A Hindi review of Hollywood movie "Avatar"

By my friend, Arvind Mishra, at Science Fiction in India: original Hindi post; automatic translation to English by Google. I'm not sure it's based on English original movie, or its Hindi dubbed version.

Includes some commentary on how the duplicated man controlled from remote original closely resembles the notion of "avatar" in Indian mythology. I'm not sure I see the connection, but there are many ways of looking at mythology - so here is one view.

Mostly a positive review but with a low overall rating - 2.5/5 - I guess mostly because the story is about imperialism, even if the hero makes natives win in the end.

PS: I personally haven't seen the movie.

Caution: While the main post is generally balanced, some of the comments are what you would expect on an online forum - generalizing the character of Americans from the movie!

Free movie: Don Taylor's 1977 adaptation of H G Wells' novel "The Island of Dr Moreau"

At SF Signal.

Related.

1. Movie details at IMDB.
2. Stories of H G Wells.
3. Buy the novel "The Island of Dr Moreau" from Amazon.
   

Free movie: Russian movie adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains"

At YouTube. [via Republibot]

PS: Looks like YouTube have upgraded software recently. I was told to upgrade my Flash installation before it will play in my browser. I've not yet done that - means I haven't seen the movie myself yet.

Related.

1. Stories of Ray Bradbury.
2. Summary of "There Will Come Soft Rains"; download the story text/MP3.

Free movie: George Pal's 1960 adaptation of H G Wells' "The Time Machine"

At SF Signal. I had previously linked a different 10-part YouTube copy too.

Based on H G Wells' novel of the same name.

Free fiction: Old movie based on Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451"

At SF Signal.

I haven't seen the movie yet, though I came back less impressed with its original novel version than it's classic status would suggest.

Related: Stories of Ray Bradbury.

Free fiction: George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four" & "Animal Farm"

This is not new, but in the context of news these two books have been in since yesterday, I'm posting these links:

1. "Nineteen Eighty-Four": Download full text from Project Gutenberg of Australia, or ebooks@Adelaide. Or watch Michael Radford's movie based on it & with the same title at Free Movies & Documentaries.
   
2. "Animal Farm": Download full text from Project Gutenberg of Australia, or ebooks@Adelaide. Or audio of its radio adaptation.
   

Andrea Ricca's "UFO Race" (short movie, free)

Andrea Ricca tells us from Italy of her funny 3-minute original race movie - a car vs a flying saucer! Thanks Andrea.

PS: This will be the only post tonight. I'm feeling very sleepy. Good night.

Free fiction: Audio: Arthur Clarke's "Childhood's End" & Robert Heinlein's "Methuselah's Children"

Huge collection of desperate stuff, including science fiction, at Internet Archives' Audios, Movies, & Books collections. But even browsing to figure out interesting will be substantial effort - its very big.

Blue Tyson seems to have browsed at least part of the audio collection & has identified some things worth looking up:

1. Robert Heinlein's "Methuselah's Children"; download audio: Not read.
2. Arthur Clarke's "Childhood's End"; download audio: One of the most famous novels of Clarke, though I found it among his worst (its original short story version with James Blish, "Guardian Angel", is a far better read that cuts out the crap). Later parts are essentially a religious story - a retelling of one of the Hindu beliefs.

Free movie: Video of a TV episode based on Eando Binder's "I, Robot"

At SF Signal.
Note: No video displays in my Firefox. But since SF Signal has linked it, I suppose it must show in at least some browsers or at some locations.

This is the story that bootstrapped Asimov's robot stories; it also happens to be among the better stories of the genre. A comic book adaptation of this story is also online. Actually, comic & text versions of several stories from the Binder brothers' "Adam Link" series (of which this story is the first) are online; will link later.

Free movies: Old movies based on recognizably science fiction stories

The Crotchety Old Fan's "Classic Science Fiction Films Based on Science Fiction Stories (Mostly)". "Classic" is defined here as "25+ years old or older".

His links don't always lead directly to movies, & additional clicks may be necessary. But very good collection of links.

[via SF Signal]

Terra Incognito on proto-SF stories of Edgar Allan Poe

Terra Incognito lists some of these. Without online links, but most Poe fiction should be available at Project Gutenberg.

1. "Poe´s ballooning stories are The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall, The Balloon-Hoax and Mellonta Tauta." "The Balloon-Hoax [is] the description of a trans-Atlantic balloon travel." "Mellonta Tauta is the only far future story written by Poe... it takes place in the 25th Century, Poe simply criticizes human nature".
2. "The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion".

But he doesn't list one of the most important science fiction stories of Poe - "A Descent into the Maelstrom". To me, this reads as very much normal hard-sf - nothing proto about it, though the language & telling style is kind of old. Arthur Clarke wrote a space age sequel to it - "Maelstrom II", of which a 3-minute movie version & a set of graphic slides are online.

Online movies: Archives of "National film Board of Canada"

"The National film Board of Canada (NFB) has opened up its vault - more than 700 films, clips and trailers are now available on the film board's new website launched today. From entertaining shorts and cartoons, to deeply moving or disturbing documentaries - they're all there for free, with more being added every week."
- Boing Boing.