Review: 7am Arivu

7am arivu's story didnt need this,
but this is what we get.

                                           
                                 

                         7am Arivu, much hyped and much self-proclaimed as a movie that would make all tamil people proud, not only failed to make me feel proud but also made me feel sorry for the makers. Though the movie disappoints largely, you would not want to hate it as the hard work of every actor especially Surya and every technician behind the movie is so visible; you can only feel- ‘a good attempt-nothing more.’

The movie starts with a briefing on the significance and relevance of Bodhidharma today, as most of us don’t know about him, then we travel to an era, 1600 years ago and land in Kanchipuram, the capital city of Pallavas and meet young prince Bodhidharma, who has a genius for lets say almost everything, leaving his home to China. The first 15 odd minutes were truly breathtaking with some beautiful imagery- though the documentary-style of it may not go well with some viewers. Watch out for Surya as he pulls off Bodhidharma without much of an effort- I really doubt if some other actor could have made such an impact in such a brief appearance .

            The mainstay of the story happens in the present day where you have Dong lee(Johnny Tri Nguyen), who kicks off the bio-war against India by infecting a stray dog with a deadly virus, Subha Srinivasan (Shruthi Hassan), a research student doing a research on genetic stimulation who may or may not have the solution for the problem dong has perpetuated, Aravinth(Surya), a circus artist who may or may not be the solution. The greatness of Murugadoss can be seen in how beautifully he has constructed a complex plot.

           
            But when dealing with such a plot you cannot still want to or even afford to ‘cheaply’ please the audience, a ploy he assorts to,with frequent cuts to songs which terribly mar the movie. I don’t quite understand who exactly are those audience who still want their stars to dance in exotic locations while the entire country may be in danger of a deadly disease. Because from what I saw, everyone around me was equally annoyed at those songs which come and bug you at the most incongruous times.

            Another problem I had with this movie was a montage scene with which apparently the director tries to show our ignorance of Bodhidharma,but how people from China know so much about him. I always believe that in a movie you talk to the audience only through the characters you have created or the ‘mini-world’ you have established or you can have a narrator talking from the high..and we see neither of these here- remember how cleverly Shankar makes use of a montage in Anniyan to preach us-it is clever because the montage plays inside the movie not outside the movie-like 7am arivu does here.

             As I earlier mentioned, the hard work that is so visible, is what that can save this movie; but I also think some of that could have been easily avoided, yet they just want to show us they have the time and resources to do those things but not a valid dramatic compulsion. For example Surya’s character is a circus artist, he could have easily been a student or a X and all that ‘hard work’ Surya says he had to, could have been avoided…Similar way I felt during that scene when everyone gets crazy with Lee’s 'nokku varmam' and try to take our protagonists down..and seriously do we need that extravagant opening number to introduce a circus artist- come on.. maybe these are just ploys employed to trick the audience or maybe you know, to give a ‘grandeur-big budget’ feel to the movie- because you see they think ‘largeness’ is what we want from a movie-what we expect is some genuineness; what we want from them is to stay true to the story they wanted to tell, which are just the very basics of story telling.

              The cast does a fine job here. We have talked a lot about Surya. Shruti, though at first ,her voice and accent may trouble you,you will get used to it. She seems fine but sometimes she gives blank and bland expressions. Johnny Tri Nguyen at first scares us then inevitably falls into banality because he does not get to do anything new as the movie progresses..The funny thing is that, the scene which almost unanimously got applauded was not a scene in which any one of these main players show their prowess, rather it was simple scene where a small character utters, with a mouthful, daaaaaaang lee..

             With such an ingenious idea and a huge canvass, Murugadoss could have easily drawn a masterpiece, but he chooses to draw a superficial cartoon -only has himself to blame for it.