Johnny Tri Nguyen, who plays Dong Lee, the one-man army from China and harbinger of death is an excellent choice. But honing can be done in due course-the point is the actor shows promise. What more can you ask for? True that she ought to work harder on spontaneity and fine-tune her tamil accent. Luck has favoured Shruti Hassan this time -the ravishing heroine plays a solid role of a scientist and also speaks the tamil tongue. Rarely is a heroine given near-equal footing in our films. Listing them is redundant but when you have a foreigner casually roaming around town wreaking havoc at will, a law-and-order wing in deep slumber, a handful of young researchers taking on an entire enemy nation and making huge decisions that the government seems unaware of.you begin to wonder whether such greenness is really from Murugadoss. Apparently confused, he has a screenplay that throws up quite a few loopholes. It is a catch-22 for Murugadoss, who wants to explore hitherto untouched areas of our history and also not give up the safe route of duets in exotic locales and jigs on crowded streets. Initially, the director mesmerises, till of course, the product plateaus out into predictability.
But it is the hero's toil, albeit bolstered with remarkable support from experts in the various departments(from camera person Ravi K.Chandran, art director Rajeevan), enough to make the necessary impact? Director A.R Murugadoss, the man who made heads turn with 'Ramana', and won wide acclaim with the two 'Ghajini's returns amid tremendous hype, with this Suriya-starrer spread out on a mammoth canvas, and partially succeeds. The actor has literally sweated it out for 7aum Arivu-a thumbs-up show. And later, be it portraying the part of a circus artist, or performing stunts, Suriya's tremendous hard work permeates every scene. As Bodhidharman, the warrior, the spiritual leader, savant and medical practitioner, his bright eyes, telling silences, robust physique, and expressive body language will remain with you for long. It was a brilliant opening, after which the rest lacks focus and coherence.The magnificent opening module of 7aum Arivu(U) has Suriya striding like a colossus. Harris Jayaraj’s songs come at inappropriate places and background score disappoints, too. Also, credibility and conviction, even within the space of the genre, often go for a toss. On the whole, the scenes have neither western technical brilliance nor Indian sensibility. 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. Though Johnny makes a handsome villain, his repetitive mannerisms get tiresome after a while. A Chinese villain with hypnotic eyes (Johnny) enters the country and creates havoc with an epidemic that leads to many deaths. Included in the plot is a Chinese conspiracy to wage a bio-war against India. She gets equal footage and at times even relegates Suriya to the background. 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. Shruthi Haasan makes a very promising debut in Tamil films. He woos Subha (Shruthi) only to realise later that he was being used as a guinea pig for an experiment. But when the story steps to the present day, the script falls into mediocrity with inept and amateurish narration.Īfter the initial scenes, Suriya’s second role of a circus man (Aravind) becomes a routine one. The director has done his homework well here. Enhancing the feel is Ravi K Chandran’s exquisite cinematography that lends an exotic feel to this episode. The whole look, body language and postures are eminently fascinating and the graphics add to the allure. As a Pallava prince, he goes to China, trains the locals in martial arts and becomes their revered savior and healer.Īs the ascetic, Suriya is a delight to watch. Suriya plays a dual role of a Pallava prince-turned-Buddhist monk, as he is portrayed in the opening scene.