7aam arivu - movie review
7aam arivu – movie review
We had a chance to see it matinee in a regular Toronto mainstream theatre. Total audience 15, of which 6 were school going kids, two of them couples sneaking away, probably without the knowledge of their parents. All except us, sri Lankans.
I was very impressed by the way the movie started, reaching back to 1600 years, about the pallava prince bodhivarman, who took the tamil arts and medicines to china, and who is still remembered there. but not anymore in the land of his birth.
The current day plot by Chinese government against india, is something of a stretch, but in a movie, anything is possible, I guess. That we have a pretty shruthi hasan as a biotech engineer dabbling in geneology and remembered memory and skills, is in itself an interesting concept.
In a somewhat perverse way, this shruthi’s work, may support the view, of racial superiority for if our genes and skills are related, this effectively dismisses that sons and daughters of lavatory cleaners, are good for nothing else, as in their genes, all they would know is how to clean latrines. I did not like this assumption.
Later in the movie, there is both shruthi and surya’s diatribe against current practice of tamil nadu – I quote ‘in the name of reservation …. We drive out our best and brightest to usa and other foreign lands’. Coming from murugadoss, via sun pictures, I was surprised. Maybe the stalins and marans, now thanks to two generation of ic marriages to Brahmins, have changed their views re reservations? Who knows!!
The music by harris jeyaraj is toe tappingly good. Very modern and sync with the beat of today. I loved it.
The movie is 168 minutes but only once I looked at the watch after 130 minutes. Because in Toronto, we do not have breaks at intermission of the movie. We just hold the water in our kidneys and suffer through the whole movie.
And finally surya. He is awesomely good in most places – what with his handsome face, 6 pack body and the lithe compostures of his movements. But surya is not a serious actor, and when he delivers some serious politically correct statements re sri lankan tamils or reservation in india, it does not sound convincing. Such statements should be best left out in a movie like this, which is a mass action entertainer, with a drop of historical pride as icing.
Just two days ago, thala ajith was bragging in facebook. His long running mangatha, is still vasool raja #1 in tamil nadu, beating out 7aam arivu (surprise) and velayudham (deservedly so). 7aam is anyday a better movie than either mangatha or vel.
Shruthi is tall, stately but appears to have problems delivering tamil dialogues. Otherwise she is perfect.
The photography is awesome. Never realized that Chennai was so beautiful, including the iit campus. I do not believe that the interiors of the museum shown in the movie, is madras museum . if it be so, then kudos to them for such a great presentation.
Dong le the Chinese assassin is frighteningly lifelike. Whenever he appered, mrs K crouched near me terrified and held my hands. I should in a way thank him I guess.
All in all 7aam arivu is a superb thriller, world standard.
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