7aam Arivu

The big question? Should you watch 7aam Arivu in theatres? Yes, and depends. A definite ‘Yes’, for the visuals and the aesthetics of Murugadas and Ravi K Chandran. It HAS to be a big screen. Depends, for the story. If you love your movie to make you feel smarter (even with some fake science and mis-placed jingoism), you will be OK. The way these things have been presented is impressive. If that does not sound right, please wait for the DVD.

Murugadas weaves quiet an interesting tale around the legend of Bodhidharman and uses it to imagine a Chinese conspiracy to bring down India. How a Terminator-like body-hijacking baddie from China gets to ‘The One’ (a la Neo from The Matrix) who must realize who he is, in time, takes us to through the rest of the Movie. It is this part that could win you over or lose you completely.

While Surya (graceful & apt) and Sruthi (gorgeous & believable) are amazing, the complete lack of Chemistry between them is a big let down (a love song and a pathos song within 30 mins of screen time?). So too are Murgadoss’ preachy bits. Murugadoss goes ballistic about how we ill-treat Tamil (dream sequence in Thailand, OK?) and how we regard ‘ ancient Tamil Science’ (a 1600-old Tamil manual on Genetic re-engineering still needs German Technology?) as a mere superstition. Harris Jayaraj doesn’t help much either.