Bodhidharma or Vela

Instead of writing two different reviews, I shall try to put both in one review and also, the thought of comparing these stories struck my mind while watching Velayudham. 7aum arivu, the movie which created buzz in the cine industry right from its poster release till the irritating publicity gimmicks by the production house was released a day before the diwali to create more buzz and it was not just the special show, instead almost all the theaters screened the movie continuous shows from matinee to early morning. With all the anxiety, I watched the matinee show of 7aum arivu and after coming back from the movie, '7 aum arivu is samma entertainer' was my status message on my wall. Hmmmm, slightly makes me think if I had over bored a bit with the movie.

Expectation matters certainly! Creating so much expectation on 7aum arivu had a slight disappointment from many whereas, the unusual dark horse Velayudham, with no big publicity and very less expectation, turning out to get positive scribbles. Adding more to the factor is the vengeance on Suriya by both the fans of AJ and VJ. I was surprised to see audience in a C class theater abusing Surya on hearing positive comments from the people who came out of the theater after watching the morning show of Velayudham. 

Ok, now coming to drawing the similarities on these two stories. In 7aum arivu, china wanted to start a bio war in India by means of a virus and connecting that to the 6th century and the concept of triggering the DNA of a person who lived in 6th century. In Velayudham, the usual ordinary formula of Pakistan - India war in the form of terrorist. 7aum arivu had to trigger DNA of Bodhidharma to kill Dong Lee, here; sentiment dialogue is all needed to bring back Velayudham.

First 16 mins gimmick. Before I went to 7aum arivu, all talks were about never miss the first 16 mins, every minute is 1 crore and it is the most important part of the movie. Agreed, it is the most important part of the movie, but 1 minute = 1 crore makes me to think the way to spend money in the most unknown way!! In Velayudham, if I am not wrong, for the first 16 mins will not have Vijay but it tested the patience of his fans longing to celebrate his first screen presence. It also conveyed what the movie is all about in just 16 minutes.

Forget the first 16 mins now and move on. 7aum arivu had sluggish start after that it had the introduction of Suriya with a costly song 'Oh ringa ringa' roping 1000s of artists and dancers, shot with several random cameras in the busiest places of chennai, heavy beats, unknown lyrics, etc., After which, the movie had a dull screenplay until the Villain's entry point. But, Velayudham just had 'sonna puriyathu' with no 1000 dancers, normal camera, awesome dance and a peppy number. The pace of the movie is so swift and smart. Surprisingly, this time, there was some logic in the play.

Pakkuru, Circus, Suriya all tried to bring out laughter but not even a bit had come. Santhanam PERIOD. Vijay PERIOD. I guess these would have answered. Santhanam particularly rocked throughout the movie with his timing sense and witty dialogues. He was given a good company by the hero himself and along with the other artists in the movie.

Munandhi Charal and Emma Emma overtakes Chillax and Maayam Seidhayo as a song but as a visual appeal, everyone should succumb to Hansika. I haven't seen Engeyum Kadhal, but I wanted to watch it immediately. Not just these songs where she scores, overall, in each and every frame, she kills us with her beauty. On a serious note, Shruthy, though I feel she is not a heroine material at all, ARM had given good scope for the heroine role in this movie, but she sounded so artificial in most of the places. I should appreciate that she had dubbed for herself, but sometimes, it makes us feel that they ruining the dubbing artist. On still a serious note, she is neither hot nor sexy.

Post interval, it was quite obvious to have Vijay's usual formula like HIS movies. Praising dialogues from the common people, extra ordinary over reaction from a couple of actors, Oruthan varuvaanda, Velayudham anna da, Avan ungala saagadippan da kinda dialogues disturbs a bit. Also, quite heavy action dosage was added in the second half which was quite bad. Same holds good for 7aum arivu as well. Jonny is the villain roped in from Thailand, the master of Martial arts. Also agreed is that he is capable enough to control others mind. But ARM, you cannot keep throwing away vehicles like this in the name of Nokku Varmam. Learn to use the right talent from right people.

Surya had six packs. The climax triggered the DNA of Bodhidharma and he was reborn as Suriya. It had martial arts. It had some magic. Of course it was good to watch it on screen as well. Vijay on the other hand had no packs, the usual Villain beating hero, but it was more powerful to watch on screen. Pre release of the movie, ARM kept chanting Tamil and it will trigger the DNA of the audience as well which will bring Tamil patriotism, but to be real honest, the play was not so powerful to bring that patriotism. Ramana gave Goosebumps, 7aum arivu failed to do that.

7aum arivu is an OKish entertainer as I initially said I may have to think rewriting what I wrote on my wall. It had brave concept, unsteady screenplay, some wasted talents.

Velayudham is a pakka family masala entertainer which has got all possible elements driving the standard commercial formula of action, comedy, romance and sentiments.

Verdict - 7aum arivu had Six pack suriya, Red Giant Udhayanidhi, Giant promotion, AR Murugadoss, Harris Jeyaraj, Jhonny, Ravi K Chandran. 

Velayudham had VIJAY.

From Suriya Sivakumar to Suriya to Suriya Jothika

14 years back, we had seen a boy making his debut with the dream girl Simran as his pair when he had Vijay who was one of the box office stars during that time. How many of us will have such a golden chance? Well it was Vasanth who roped in this man to Tamil cinema and all because of gem of tamil cinema, Mr. Sivakumar.

First few movies of a popular celebrity’s son will obviously result in a tragedy and comedy for the audience. Aval varuvala, aval varuvala song was mimicked by many teasing Suriya Sivakumar. Except for carrying the chocolate boy look, he didn’t do anything strange to attract big directors or try a different subject. From acting to dancing to fighting, what he did in Nerukku Ner was seriously funny. 

But the man took 5 years. From Nerukku Ner, he switched to another double hero subject and paired with the late Murali, in Kadhale Nimmadhi. But both the movies had a decent run with Deva, the music director who was at the peak in that time with his sensational peppy numbers. One cannot forget the song ‘Vidha Vidha ma soppu seepu kannaadi’. And then, he continued give some path breaking movies like Periyanna, Sandhippoma, Uyirile Kalandadhu. I honestly don’t remember a bit of Sandhippom or Uyirile Kaladadhu but I remember Vijay singing two songs for the movie Periyanna under the most talented director of Tamil Cinema, SAC.

In between these, Suriya Sivakumar had two decent movies which had a good story and music. They are Poovellam Kettupar and Friends, the latter being a remake of a Malayalam movie and eventually become one of the blockbuster of Tamil cinema. As I said, both had decent script but absolutely no scope of acting and Suriya Sivakumar continued to be emotionless actor sans expression and verbatim dialogue delivery.

Many would still argue, what was the path breaker for Suriya Sivakumar to become Suriya. I would still stand on the movie Nandhaa and not Khakka Khakka, of course the latter had much better acting. But, it was the movie Nandhaa, though didn’t do well in the box office, established or rather made a change to his name by throwing his dad’s name. It was Nandha which gave him Mounam Pesiyadhe which again was by the director Bala’s school of education, Ameer. Nandhaa didn’t go well with the box office but was critically acclaimed movie but Mounam Pesiyadhe had success in both areas. Also, in between the see-saw went the other side of cinema and tasted two bunch of garbage Shree and Unnai Ninaithu, the latter being the closest remake of a movie by the same director (Poove Unnakaaga).

2003 – 2005 is a period in which everyone started praising Suriya for the type of roles and the movie he selected. It is this period in which he started to concentrate more on his character than blindly selecting the movies like how he did in the past. He started with Khakka Khakka and it not only unearthed the talent of Suriya but also the director GV Menon who gave a romantic story Minnale. The movie did well at the box office and also attracted the critics. Suriya was praised for doing a cop role in more practical was than we had seen a cop before in tamil cinema.

Immediately after Khakka Khakka, he again went to the man who molded him, Bala. This time, it was not a main character, but the character which unearthed another talent, rather a difficult thing for a hero, comedy. He did the character with so much perfection, that people expected a National award for his role but poor fellow didn’t get one but Vikram bagged one for the movie.

For any actor, working under Mani Ratnam is a boon. Suriya too had that boon in Ayutha Ezhuthu. Though Madhavan did a fantastic role in that movie, Suriya was quite good enough for his character and did a decent job. Also, he did a remake of Kunju Koonan, the famous Malayalam movie as Perazhagan. The role that he did needs some effort of pain which Suriya learnt good lessons from Dilip and did a good job.

Ghajini, the plot stealer from Memento, yet again proved Suriya’s caliber. All is well known that Aamir Khan requested A.R Murugadoss to direct the same movie in Hindi which eventually become a blockbuster of all time in Indian cinema. Even though the comparison between the two Ghajini favored the Hindi version, Suriya Suriya dhaan. Another decent movie to his credit was Vaaranam Aayiram but again, because of the forth coming para, the value of his role in the movie was teased rather than being appreciated.

Now, at this point in life, he had earned a decent fame, and again he switched the cards to do some commercial pot boilers like Aaru, Sillunu Oru Kadhal, Vel. And this is another turning point in his career when added the name Suriya Jothika. He started to use his wife name in all possible areas. He started act everywhere apart from the movies. He started acting the stage, awards function, started attending regular television shows, started doing guest appearances, become stardom. This was the time when started using Jothika to earn popularity. Hope, he comes out of this sooner and get back to the period 2003-2005.

Aadhavan - Absolutely Horrible

It has become a pattern in Tamil Cinema to have such stories where the hero, who initially is a goon turns into a good boy with a supporting flashback. Aadhavan too joins the list. With this traditional 'paarambariyamaana' story, KS Ravikumar with the help of Suriya and co, tried something which is NEVER NEW to us.

Suriya, the actor who has seen progressing his star status in the recent past, has also started the same formula followed by other top stars in the field. Too many self praises, favouring punch dialogues, dragging the line up MGR-Sivaji-Rajni-Kamal-?????, etc., Well let's get into the review.

Professional Assassin is our Aadhavan, SURIYA, who is shown immediately with an introduction song with one of the good old dialogue, "UNNA AZHIKKA ORUTHAN PORAKKANAM". Goodness, how long are we going to use this dialogue for the hero introduction??? He has been assigned a project to kill a judge and this happens to be the first target failure in Suriya's career. Suriya takes this as a challenge and enters into Judge's family and tries to kill him is all the story about. Well, there is a so-called suspense in the story, if not, then I would be contradicting that tag 'paarambariyam'.

The judge, late Murali's family will challenge someone to remember the names and the type of relation. I guess, remember, I guess the strength of the family will be close to 30 excluding the National Security Forces who safeguards the family on their vacation. The yesteryer actress, Saroja Devi, is the eldest in the family and her son is Murali and the rest and their relationship??? Even the director didn't bother to explain them as it might waste a length of reel in their introduction. Well, the main item, sorry, the main heroine is also a part of the family, our thaara, yes Nayanthaara. Assuming she is calling Murali as Uncle, we can come to a conclusion that she is not the daughter of Murali. These are small nuances in the movie which will make the audience to identify their relationship. Also seen are around 4 couples in their family. We shall Ramesh Kanna, what are they, who are they, when time permits!

The way Suriya enters into the family blackmailing Vadivelu leaves us a clear picture about some suspence which was very hard to find. Having shown Suriya as a professional assassin and the attempt that he makes to get inside the house and the series of attempts to kill the judge is horrific. But we need to assume that they are a part of the humour track. To be honest, the humour part of the movie is really good and full credit goes to the co-hero Vadivelu. It's probably the best part in the first half except the interval that comes immediately after the first half.

Just before the first half ends, we had a song, I couldn't even remember what the song was? Second half started with a song? Man, you just gave us the interval, why again??? Well, the interval will leave the audience go mad as Suriya breaks the suspense to Nayanthaara and of course the audience will still be clueless whether to believe what Suriya said is true or false!!! Well, it's been quite a while since Suriya has entered into the house, so, there should be something that strikes the actual villian to raise his tempo isn't it?? Yes yes, we never go disappointed. So now, the story breaks further deep as Suriya is almost caught and that is when, Surya unwinds the flashback. Remember, the flashback is actually about the connection between Nayanthaara's birthday & her mom Anu Haasan's death falling on the same day. But the 10 year old computer graphics Suriya makes each and every scene a roll on the floor laughter. Man, why do you need this? Just because your childhood photo is being used to describe your young age, we never asked you to come as a 10 year old boy. Please think something before you do and there are something in the world which is not possible and you must be knowing it or at least now learn.

Moving on to the technical aspects, cinematography is decent enough for this movie. Locations are pretty cool and attractive and makes it look rich. But again, they aren't mandatory thing for this movie. It's not worth spending money to shoot songs in foreign locations and that too places where they never shot any movie. But the attempt should be appreciated and overrall a decent photography.

Editing was strictly OK in the movie. The editor has used all possible effects in the song 'Hasli Pisli' song. Otherwise, the editing was kinda ok in the movie.

Stunts in the movie was horrific. It has become a trademark in Red Giant movies, where the hero keeps flying instead of other modes of transport. The climax fight choreography is absolute pathetic with 0% logic and 100% humour. The first choreography is nothing but the bond choreography with ropes and dupes playing a vital role.

Music, Harris, perhaps the first time, just 2 songs were good in the movie. Both the songs, comes in the second half out of which one is picturised very badly. Vaarayo song was amazing to listen, but horrible to visualize. Hasli Pisli is only the saving soul for his music. The first time ever in the history of Tamil cinema, there is a punch dialogue for the music director. It's been noted that Harris lifts tunes. In order to stop the bad mouthing, there is punch in the movie that says 'lifting tune is not the matter, all we need is a HIT'. BGM is nothing great in the movie. Often an english track is used for stunts, which doesn't elevates the scene at all. It's an average number for Harris.

K S Ravikumar fails to concentrate on the screenplay and he heavily used Vadivelu in the movie who almost occupies equal space in the movie with Suriya except for the songs. Too much of casting is seriously ridiculous and annoying. The same movie could have been moulded into a very good commerical entertainer if he hadn't followed this usual 'Paarambariyam' concept. But the cameo role of KSR and Udhayanidhi Stalin is a tip to the audience that 'Oru Nayaagan Udhayamaagiraan'

Verdict : Save your money