Udayanithi Stalin must be a relieved man by now as his over aggressive promotional tactics have made people look forward for something extra-ordinary in the history of Tamil cinema has been paid off though not handsomely but some what near to that. I wonder why every hero and director talks about his every film as a mile stone film of his career. Both surya and a r murugadoss maintain that this is one of the films which are going to elevate them to the next platform. Seriously I don’t think that’s a fair claim.
Bodhidharman has become a household name by now, thanks to 7th sense in a way it is amazing and heartening to know a Tamil hand in the development of kung fu and shaolin temple. History buried is history forgotten. Thanks to Murugadoss we come to know that peace of information every tamilian should be proud of. He unearthed the life and style of Bodhidharman in the first 20 minutes of the film. Bodhidharman an ancient pallava ruler leaving tamilnadu to china (for what) heeding the order of rajmatha (who) where he could able to save a village from the clutches of a killer disease and a bunch of hooligans. After became a god father of the village he happily consumes poison on the interest of villagers to be dead (what happened to his mission?) and buried in the village so that his super natural powers save the village forever. The events happened 1600 years ago transferred to the present day with a deadly Chinese assassin Dong Li, (Johnny Tri Nguyen a nice portrayal by him ) to kill a bio technologist Suba Srinivasan ( Shruti haasan – welcome shruti ) who is on a mission to resurrect Bodhidharma through her researches. Enters Aravind a full time circus artiste the genetic residue of Bodhidharman fell in love with her first sight helped her experiments to become modern day bodhi dharma. What happened then and after forms the movie?
Clearly it is surya's show altogether but we have seen a better of him. He breathes life to the character of Bodhidharma and his well toned body with a six pack ( kollywoods salman khan ) matches well with the action sequences that too with a matching and menacing Dong Li. The Aravind character never gave any chance to act, for him he playfully prancing around Shruti with the company of bakru and other circus volunteers. He shines only in the beginning and at the end in climax. The handsome looking surya is what we miss now a days as the directors play havoc with his hairstyle and looks which he better should watch out. Shruti has nothing much to do but explaining the DNA concepts in her broken Tamil (at least she spoke with a good diction, slow though) to surya and bodhi resurrection.
The person who steals the show is undoubtedly the villain who doesn’t have more than 10 lines to utter the whole movie, with a hypnotic look, agile body is a real treat to the tamil audience. The clap he garners in the cinema halls is an apt example that he has played his part well.
On the other side technically we have seen better movies than this for sure. Be it cinematography or editing or graphics nothing much to hover about. One single assassin to sabotage the entire India, he do most of the killings by hypnotizing hapless public and cops and doesn’t do much himself. The road sequence where scores of bikes and cars flew over the lead pair is really exasperating. By hypnotizing he can change their attitude right, but can he hypnotize people and taught them martial arts with a single sight….sorry I am lost there. The climax fight beautifully choreographed by Peter Hayne and captured well by ravi k chandran. The scores of photographers assisted in the project spoke ravi has lost interest in midway or busy in bollywood flicks.
First day of the movie, one song fully chopped ( amma amma kaathal kannamma ) two songs ( damos and innum enna thozha ) being in the background half way Harris jayaraj is not at his best for 7 aam arivu. Ellelamma is the sole exception. Mun anthi saaralil is clearly a smoker’s delight. What’s the point in 1000s of dancers in a single song even your hero gets lost in the melee? In the name of grandeur people try very odd things.
My one point of concern is murugadoss could have dwelt more on Bodhidharman aspect of the movie which is an eye opener for tamilians. A passing reference of interviewing people about their ignorance on one of the master of the martial hearts won’t suffice. Why bodhi dharman left India to serve China, even agree to kill himself for the people of china forgetting his native land, lots and lots of questions linger when you come out…
Never mind… 7 aam arivu has certainly not lived up to the expectations it has generated in the past 15 days and number of screens it occupied on the diwali day pushing the equally powerful Vijay starrer Velayudham to the back stage. But it is worth a watch just for the Hero and the Villain.
Ra One : I have already wasted 2 and half hours watching the movie and dont want to spend more time on reviewing a DUD. SRK talked about a Rajanikanth Cameo..it is an insult to the super star as a purely graphical representation mar the only scene i have been looking for besides Kareena's chammak challo number.
