7am Arivu

7am Arivu  

One of the most expected films of the year. Did it meet its expectations? Well, lets see. IF only the director Muragadoss and the actor Surya had not given interview after interview detailing the brilliance of the film, IF only they hadn't raised our hopes high (in Muragadoss words "evlo evlo neenga expect panreengalo..avlo avlo perusa irukum..")..perhaps the audience wouldn't have been super critical.


Story-its been discussed in so many sites, indiaglitz, behindwoods and so on..so by this time you would already know about the movie. For all those who have not seen the movie (really , you havent?!) to give you a crux of it, its a movie that deals with how China decides to lash Bio-war against India with the help of a chinese character (Dong Lee). His mission is to arrive in India with 2 notions, to spread the deadly virus and to kill Shruthi and Surya. The reason to kill them you ask? Shruthi, who deals with genetic-research (hmm.. I actually don't know whether she is a student or a research-assistant or what) finds that Surya has the genes of Bodhidharman. So Dong Lee has to kill her before she triggers the genes of Bodhidharman in Surya. Whether the hero is successful or villain is successful at the end is the climax.  You don't need to be a research scientist to arrive at the solution to this, correct?


Anyways, the storyline is new. Concept is new. Even describing the story to others seems a delight. But screenplay was so loose..the sudden songs, the zero-chemistry romance, Surya who is described as the person who looks like Damo (btw what is the point of having surya's character as a circus entertainer..he could have even been a mechanic) forget that..why does there have to be a romance stuff between surya and Shruthi? They could have been just friends she could have approached him directly with the stuff about Damo, he understood everything when she told him after the fight! ok..forget that..for such a big subject, "bio-war" the actions that shurthi and surya takes to save the country is so silly. Lots of needless nokku varmam stuff, it was entertaining the first few times, but all those crashes using nokku varmam, and no one even questions whats happening!! Similarly everyone at the police station is killed but no one bothers about it!! Come on Muragadoss, we cannot digest everything easily just because you introduced Damo to us (but kudos to that!!).


There have been movies about bio-war. "E" for instance. That was a better movie dealing with the subject in my opinion. The screenplay was tight, no needless romance, fights or loose ends. I would like to like the movie only for bringing Bodhidharman, or Damo to everyone's attention. Perhaps if the movie was not directed by Muragadoss, but a newcomer, who didn't raise our expectations about the movie, "perhaps"..just perhaps some might have liked the movie a little better.


Lets look at the plus points:
1. The first half-hour of Bodhidharman's story
2. Surya as Damo character, he was brilliant!
3. New concept/Storyline
4. Camera


Minus points
1. Loose screenplay
2. Songs which suddenly appear
3. Zero chemistry between the lead pair
4. Shruthi's Tamil (y cudn't the director have picked another heroine, or atleast a dubbing artist?)
5. Silly DNA activating sequence
6. Abrupt climax (can't Damo have killed the guy with one look?)
7. Last scene where the circus artist suddenly becomes a well-knowledgeable person


There you have it. Negatives vs. Positives. But watch the movie, its not unbearable, it can definitely be seen once, just for Damo. I just wish they hadn't hyped up our expectations.

Rank: 3/5