Chennai: ‘7aum Arivu’ is lavishly mounted and has an ambitious plot line that interlocks the present with past centuries. It has a brilliant opening, after which the rest lacks focus and coherence.
Director: AR Murugadoss
Cast: Suriya, Shruthi Haasan, Johnny Tri Nguyen and Abhinaya
The re-uniting of the ‘Ghajini’ team – Murugadoss and Suriya - for ‘7aum Arivu’, had naturally created a lot of hype and curiosity about the movie. A sci-fi film (it has a wider canvas, though), ‘7aum Arivu’ is lavishly mounted and has an ambitious plot line that interlocks the present with past centuries.
But as the director has tried to push the envelope further, the film unfortunately fails to live up to expectations and nosedives after the opening 20 minutes. It seems as if the director has bitten off more than he could chew.
Suriya plays a dual role of a Pallava prince-turned-Buddhist monk, as he is portrayed in the opening scene. As a Pallava prince, he goes to China, trains the locals in martial arts and becomes their revered savior and healer.
As the ascetic, Suriya is a delight to watch. The whole look, body language and postures are eminently fascinating and the graphics add to the allure. Enhancing the feel is Ravi K Chandran’s exquisite cinematography that lends an exotic feel to this episode. The director has done his homework well here. But when the story steps to the present day, the script falls into mediocrity with inept and amateurish narration.
After the initial scenes, Suriya’s second role of a circus man (Aravind) becomes a routine one. He woos Subha (Shruthi) only to realise later that he was being used as a guinea pig for an experiment. Shruthi Haasan makes a very promising debut in Tamil films. Sincere in her portrayal as the genetic research student who traces the common link between the monk and Aravind, Shruthi commendably has used her own voice. She gets equal footage and at times even relegates Suriya to the background.
Included in the plot is a Chinese conspiracy to wage a bio-war against India. A Chinese villain with hypnotic eyes (Johnny) enters the country and creates havoc with an epidemic that leads to many deaths. Though Johnny makes a handsome villain, his repetitive mannerisms get tiresome after a while. The attempt to interweave various Hollywood sci-fi plots in one story line, backfires drastically and what is more pathetic is the whole DNA transplant scene to resurrect the ancient monk to deal with the invincible villain.
On the whole, the scenes have neither western technical brilliance nor Indian sensibility. Also, credibility and conviction, even within the space of the genre, often go for a toss. Harris Jayaraj’s songs come at inappropriate places and background score disappoints, too.
It was a brilliant opening, after which the rest lacks focus and coherence.
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