Sure, nothing exceeds like excess. And this film, before anything else, is a prime example of that. What if I told you, and guess you already know this by now, that the cellphone is the serial killer in this pic--not metaphorically, but quite literally so. Flying off people's hands, it even mutates itself into thousands and thousands of screens, few of them going deep inside human bodies to screw them over from within.

2.0 is a sequel to Shankar's Robot (2010). That film was about a robot gaining cognisance and deciding humans are the inferior race, and wanting to take over the world. The present film revolves around Chitti being reincarnated as the world is under attack from a creature of the 'fifth force'. The film begins with the suicide of an old ornithologist, Pakshirajan (Akshay Kumar). The next day onwards, strange things keep happening.

The story of 2.0 is so simple that it could be explained in two lines but I'll not tell either of them just because I want everyone to experience this first-hand. Without any spoilers, let's just say Dr. Waseegaran has a new robot in Nila (Amy Jackson) and she's breathtakingly beautiful to start with. Waseegaran wants Chitti back but because of back-door politics, this becomes a tough task.

A giant evil crow is on a rampage, stealing mobile phones from hands of people, shops, malls and trucks. The clueless state administration calls Dr. Vasigaran (Rajinikanth) for help.

A meme popped up on my Twitter timeline this morning, saying that Rajinikanth is the only actor in the world who's been in four kinds of films: black-and-white, colour, animation and 3D. I thought up another meme after watching 2.0, Shankar's follow-up to Endhiran. Rajinikanth is the only actor in the world to do hundreds of roles in the same film, as both human and humanoid, in avatars that range from small to normal-sized big to super-big... But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Dr Vaseegaran (Rajinikanth) and his android assistant Nila (Amy Jackson) are called in for help after mobiles start mysteriously flying out of the hands of people in Chennai. Vaseegaran summons his trusted robot Chitti (Rajinikanth) to ward off the bird-shaped supernatural powers of Pakshirajan (Akshay Kumar).

We may not realise it but the nature and attitude of the sci-fi films has changed dramatically in last eight years, since Enthiran (2.0's prequel) released. In all this time, we have seen quite a bit-the Transformers franchise lose its sheen and films on humanisation of AI-powered robots evolve (Ex Machina, Bladerunner 2049). Unfortunately, 2.0 is still stuck in a time-zone where robots deliver punchlines and act funny, that too unprovoked.

Chennai is under attack. Every cellphone in the city - from those used by fisherwomen to the one being used to take a funeral-selfie - has flown from hands and vanished into the sky, leaving scientists befuddled. I found one floated theory particularly interesting: what if this is a rival cellular phone company trying to establish itself? Considering the way a certain service provider has busted the kneecaps of the competition with savagely predatory pricing, I wondered if this film's big bad was indeed a stand-in for one of India's megacorps: Could 2.0 give us Rajini vs Ambani?

In the 2010 Robot, Rajini played Prof Vaseegaran (and Chitti The Lookalike Robot) with a hint of knowingness peppering his goodness, flirting with the doe-eyed Aishwarya Rai when not tinkering with his machines. There were some laughs to be had as the basic-as-sliced-white-bread storyline unspooled, with the help of Shankar's give-'em-big special effects.

One Word Review... 2.0: BLOCKBUSTER. 2.0 is a cinematic marvel... This has style with substance... Director Shankar is a visionary... He hits the ball out of the park this time... Akshay Kumar is FANTASTIC, while Rajinikanth is THE BOSS... SALUTE!

2.0 is the story of an evil force wreaking havoc and how a robot is awakened to fight him. Dr. Vasigaran (Rajinikanth) has progressed in his field and is trying to promote the importance of robots. He has developed an attractive robot named Neela (Amy Jackson) which can do any domestic work. Meanwhile, a strange phenomenon begins to occur in the city. The mobile phones of every citizen gets zapped into the air and disappears, creating chaos.

Director Shankar's films follow a certain template. We are introduced to a normal guy who takes on a larger-than-life villain in a mission to end some form of negativity. Basically, the usual good vs evil template is set against different backgrounds and they are given an out-and-out commercial-film treatment.

What would it be like if the characters from Endhiran find themselves inside the plot of a typical Shankar movie? 2.0 is what you would get. Using his pet theme - a wronged individual taking revenge on the people who ruined his life (or in this case, the birds he cares for) - the director gives us a film that is part sci-fi, part horror, part vigilante movie and part special effects spectacle.

The first time we catch a glimpse of Rajinikanth in 2.0 is him as scientist Vasigaran, a character well-known to audiences who've seen Endhiran (Robot in Hindi). He emerges out of a lab - the one we saw in the first instalment, but it looks a little fancier now - and waves a perfunctory hello. It's perhaps the most unassuming of hero-introduction sequences and in stark contrast with the grandeur that is to follow.

Rajinikanth-starrer 2.0 is a non-stop glitzy extravagant entertainer, with some terrific VFX and 3D effects. The Shankar-directed sci-fi fantasy thriller is an out and out Rajinikanth show. He is a one-man entertainment troupe with his unique style and swag, as he plays a quadruple (four) role.

He's back. This time around Chitti is reloaded and primed to confront a force out to eliminate mobile phones and cellular transmission towers from Tamil Nadu. The battle between good and evil, between nature and technology, plays out over two and a half hours in a zone where all dividing lines are blurred. But because the storytelling is, well, robotic, the frenetic action sequences rarely touch the heights that the flying mobiles achieve.