Saturday, October 29, 2011

7aam Arivu (7th Sense) - Truly, only midway between 5th and 6th !!

A Ticket to the next level of Tamil Cinema

Yeah. That's how I would define the film. It is not a perfect entertainer. But surely an eyeopener to the nostalgic people in the industry. It's a very good try, but should have been tried even more better.

STORY

1600 years ago. It's all about a man "Bodhi Dharma", who was a descendant of a Pallava King, who ruled the northern parts of TamilNadu(India) once upon a time. He is sent to China, by his Royal Mother to cure the endemic spreading over there, as there is a chance of the disease to spread into India. He, who is a scholar in Martial Arts and Medicinal Sciences, travels alone to China. At first, he gets a negative response from the natives. But then, he cures a child who was affected by the disease and he was considered as some God. He lives there and once saves the people from enemies too. Inspired by his martial arts, they plead him to teach them those arts. He too does the same and lives there forever. In his old age, he wishes to travel back to his motherland. Desperate Chinese, who fears about his retreat to India poisons his food. He, who knows the food is poisoned, without any hesitation consumes the food as per the people's plea. He is buried there.

China. The government itself appoints the best student of the Shaolin Temple, Dong Li, to start an operation called "OPERATION RED" to cause an endemic in India with high mortality rate and as a result India will surrender to China and it's demands. Also his additional task was to kill Shuba who was trying to bring back Bodhi Dharma's medical knowledge into today's world and so that would be a great blast to their operation.

In Chennai, there lives a young guy named Arvind. He is a circus performer. Once, he gets attracted by a Genetic Engineering student Shuba. After few attempts and incidents, he gets closer with her and starts loving her. But one night, from his uncle he comes to know that the girl already knew about him before 1 and half years and she was actually following him for a purpose. He is shattered by such a disappointment. Then, he comes to know that he is a pure descendant of Bodhi Dharma and he has such a DNA sequence that resembles more than 80% of his. He is convinced that with further research, a revolution in Medical field can be achieved. Meanwhile, Dong Li infects a street dog with the Virus and kills 9 Policemen. Also he plots Shuba and tries to kill her. He kills a lot of people with his high techniques of Hypnotism. Arvind and Shuba run for their lives. They come to know that Shuba's professor was the person helping those Chinese for a Rs. 300 Crore Wired Money. From him, they come to know about the operation and Arvind accepts to carry out the 12 days Genetic Research and Application on his body. They choose an isolated Genetic Lab and carry out their research with the help of 3 Genetic Engineering students and a Shuba's Schoolmate Malathi. Dong Li tries hard and however kills Malathi and another student. Also he comes for Arvind and Subha. Finally, on 12th day, he reaches them but unfortunate for him that Bodhi Dharma's traits somehow started to show up in Arvind's body and mind. Arvind kills Dong Li. Also reveals the medicinal knowledge of ancient Tamil Culture and it's importance to the world.

CAST

Surya ~ Bodhi Dharma

Perfect Attitude. Great hardwork. Though few scenes were too dramatic, many things were digestible. His Silence speaks actually. Fight scenes were not too good. Still, he managed to give us a good show.


Surya ~ Arvind

Typical Guy. Second half Arvind is enjoyable. First half is worthless. It's obvious he has Six Packs. Good hardwork but that doesn't mean he should be without shirts in most of the scenes. Danced well. Fought well. Acted well. But overall, there was something missing.

Shruti Hassan ~ Shuba

She stresses a lot that she is a "Tamil Ponnu". Says that her native is Tanjavur. Her father was a Sidhdha Doctor and all. But nowhere she speaks Good Tamil. She supports a lot for Tamil. Those scenes were excellent. She has acted well on a whole, but needs to improve a lot on language skills. It's better that someone else would have given the voice. She is extra fair and seriously gorgeous in many scenes. Way to go Miss Beautiful.

Johnny Tri Nguyen ~ Dong Li

The only Perfect Choice in the venture. He shows great actions, body language and atlast, he is a Fighter. No wonder he was the Stunt Director for X-Men, Spiderman and Mortal Kombat. He looks dashing and his style and attitude makes us reminded of some Hollywood Lead Roles.

Dialogues

Few of the best and simple dialogues Tamil Cinema has ever seen. Especially hats off to the Director to put in dialogues against 9 big nations (Especially SriLanka) that involved in brutal acts against thousands of Lives.
Dialogues that include Tamil Culture's meaning and the Science and Logic in it is an old known fact. Still, they need to be used every now and then to create awareness.

The Director ~ A R Murugadoss

He is a perfectionist. His films speak more than what he do. He lifted many actors to their next levels including Ajith, Surya and also gave a super hit for a market-out actor Vijayakanth. The only director Aamir Khan believes more than himself. Such a man. Still, many things spoiled his name in this film. The story is fantabulous. But the screenplay was too irrelevant in the first half and was dragging in the second half. But making of the film needs to be honoured.
Expecting You back into form Murugadoss Sir. We know, you will give great pieces to the industry.

TECHNICIANS

Cameraman ~ Ravi K Chandran

Pretty good work with the Camera. There are no fast movements of the Camera. Everything is captured slowly with patience and perfection. There are no very special moments that will be spoken of. But for sure, what is needed for the film, is given of in a right way. Shruti and Surya are shown amazing in song sequences.

Editing ~ Anthony

Good piece of Editing I would say. There was a connection to every next scene in the film. Credits goes to the editor.

Music ~ Harris Jayaraj

Soundtracks were very much normal when compared to his previous flicks like Ko and Engeyum Kaadhal. Still, few were soothing. Though, criticized that his works are copied pieces of Music, it is admitted that whatever he does, he gives good music. Mun Andhi Saaral and Yamma Yamma songs were good in specific.

The Film

Overall, it's an eyeopener to Tamil Audience. They never knew about a man named Bodhi Dharma. And when it is said that such a great man was their ancestor, obviously they would feel proud. Concept was too good, though it was an inspiration from a hollywood venture "Perfume".
First half was irrelevant to the film. Romance sequences should have been avoided. There was no life in songs. After Bodhi Dharma died, the next coming scenes make the audience lose their temper.
Second half was really better. It started to increase the thrill of knowing the next scene. But a song was unnecessary there. It slowed down the pace of the film at a point. It wasn't a good example of AR Murugadoss' film. Climax was pretty okay. It shall have been put in an even more better way.

Drawbacks of the Film

  • The first 20 minutes of the film - Bodhi Dharman part needn't have been explained very detailly. That made it look like a documentary. It shall have been connected with 2nd half scenes so that it would have been a class apart way of telling the story.
  • Logic was missing at many points
  1. You can surely bring back the traits of your ancestor. But you can never bring back the whole art into the descendant. Totally illogical.
  2. You can't complete a Genetic Transfer in after all 12 short days, that too with inexperienced people around and without any Medical professional's assistance.
  3. If hypnotism will be effective on all people in the World except Bodhi Dharma, then why didn't the Fast Track Call Taxi manager accept to what the Chinese said?
  4. Hypnotism obviously exists but not to this level.
  5. You can atleast hypnotise people and make them to fight like Kung Fu scholars (That's stupid). But you can't hypnotise Cars and Bikes and make them to fly in Air.
  6. You may be the greatest Kung Fu fighter of your Era. That doesn't mean that You'll be the strongest man on earth to uproot such huge trees and play with them like toys.

  •  Many things in the film resembled few Hollywood Movies
  1.  Scenes from Shaolin temple, exactly resembled the scenes from "Karate Kid"
  2. The concept that Virus spread from person to person and there is no cure was almost same as that of the Hollywood venture "Outbreak"
Overall, it is an One-Time-Watch. But Vikram would have been a better choice for the role of Bodhi Dharman.

BottomLine : 7th Sense is actually somewhere between the 5th and the 6th.



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