Just came back from wasting three hours of my life watching this movie called 7am Arivu.
7am Arivu movie starts with Chinese martial arts – Shaolin Temple and explanation about how Bodhi Dharman, the third prince of Pallava rule travels to China, reaches Nanyang village and teaches medicine as well as martial arts to the natives there.
The first fight scene in China itself is full of unbelievable stunts (also called as ‘reel’ in tamil). Normally my mind is tuned to accepting such stunts performed in english movies or Rajini movies, but this happens to be Surya and so could not accept it. I guess the director wants to see us thinking it is Bodhi Dharman defeating 100 people. So the benefit of doubt in this one goes to the director.
Bodhi Dharman is known as Damo in China and with the fifteen minute introduction, the China scenes are done. My recommendation is the director should have ended the movie here saying this is the documentary about Bodhi Dharman..but the director had other ideas in mind.
The story then comes to present day and takes the form of Operation Red, an operation executed by a Chinese guy called Dong Li. He is sent to India for this.
Dong Li is very tall, smart and handsome, but he suffers from a disease which I realized as the movie progresses. (Will discuss about it later in this blog, but want to retain some suspense.)
btw, Operation Red – the director could have called it Operation Halwa, would have been apt for Deepavali.
Surya has matured into a fine actor. His looks, body language and mannerisms show the confidence that has developed in him and it only brings out his good acting skills. Some of Surya’s jokes are excellent – especially the one when Surya and Shruti are on top of an elephant, when Shruti says are we sitting on a patient and Surya says yeah in this case we cannot carry the patient.
Shruti looks slim, elegant and presentable. I wish I could have added the adjective ‘beautiful’, but something is definitely lacking. Shruti looks amazing in many scenes and reminded me of Tabu in many scenes and Sonam Kapoor in a few.
I am not sure if the director told her to talk as much as she wants, as it is her first movie, she just keeps on talking about genetics and DNA forever. Also, she talks great about tamil, but her tamil is so bad to hear that I felt she is better off talking in english itself.
By this stage, the story is very clear – the usual blah, blah, blah and blah.(I will let your creativity run for now).
Munnandhi Chaaral song is quite melodious, while the train soft solo song by SPB is just average. Harris Jeyaraj has shown his class in almost all the songs. They are just amazing.
The second half starts quite interesting with Dong Lee chasing Surya and Shruti. Beyond a certain level, the only word that I was constantly reminded of is ‘PEELA’ – this is the tamil word for excessive scenes that look untrue – but since Shruti recommended that we use tamil words, it is full of peela.
Around this stage, the director has no clue how to end the movie. So he exposes the disease that Dong Lee suffers from. It is called hypnotic diarrhea. Dong Lee just hyptonises every single person and makes them fight against Surya and Shruti. It was so effective that one person in the theatre got hypnotised and ran towards the screen chasing them. 🙂
The actual story should have been that Dong Lee suffers from this disease and he comes to India to get it cured, but the director had other plans in mind.
Finally, at the end of the movie, Surya delivers the big halwa dialogue to every one asking us to go home and relax.
Went to the theatre after seeing all the hype about 7am Arivu. It was very interesting to note that there is not even a single banner or poster for 7am Arivu, while the theatre is full of Ra.One posters. I was not sure what to interpret from this, but it was interesting.
What a waste of time! I am guessing Velayudham will be a big hit..thanks to 7am Arivu.
Nothing to se about 7am when the director told about film i thought its a tamil film but it is a china make china make is already a use & throw surya also is a use & throw for ar murgadss
plz dnt leave a fake statements…its betr u can take a gud movie wich u xpected by u from murugadas…the movie is much more betr …plz dnt cmpre it wit the other movies…every hero have his own way of aproch in acting… thank u
Arvinth, I did not expect anything when I went into the theatre, except that I should enjoy my time there. It did not happen. Instead it felt like sitting in a classroom where Shruti was trying to give a lecture on how good tamil is and how good our history is. Felt bored, but did not want to leave the theatre as I was anticipating something remarkable at the end – had more disappointment.
btw, I understand and appreciate your comment as it is your view. I hope you can do the same with mine 🙂
Atleast this movie will reminds us what have we taught our children about our culture, while we are running behind the western culture found by Vikinbgs/pirates..
It is for our todays youngersters to about our historic heros like BHODHI DARMAN /Buddha.. Who have made our rich culture florist beyond border without war.. like China, tailand , sri lanka, veitnam, singapore,malaysia , for centuries..
Whom we forgot..
Leave the masala and other rubbery things in the movie.. just think it is a different attempt to create interest on history among our youngters
Tyusi, I fully agree with you on this.
The initial 30 minutes of the movie makes all Indians proud of the fact that it is a person from Kanchipuram who was the reason for Shaolin Temple to be formed (though it is disputed by many other historians). It also feels good to know that Bodhi Dharman, a Tamilian, spread the skills of medicine and martial arts to the Chinese.
hi, movie was nice but not excellant, i think few of shots similar to english movie outbreak.
its my openion.
i dont know why surya relatives looks like regular villlage people, actually he is from rajavamsam so his famliy appearance also should like that. director lost his concentration in this angle.
nice movie must watch one time. good director
Administrator,
you shouldn’t blame the film just like that. the message from the film is really important, though the film was not delivered good enough. and Vasan was right in his comment. Surya’s relatives could have been pictured a little better. but they were on the screen for just 2 scenes. so it doesn’t matter.
What Tyusi says is absolutely right. we should be ashamed of not knowing those historic heroes. the director, AR.Murugados has pictured it in the film by asking about Damo to Indians & Chinese. even i came to know about Damo only after watching the film. we should be proud that he is a tamil prince. we forgot those great ppl in the sands of time… ok, that is acceptable. but why should we forget those great arts taught by them?? they have a good value and they have to be grown and modern science is really nothing when compared to ancient science. modern science is just wide spread while ancient science wasn’t. remember that ppl are now returning to ayurveda and some other old medicinal pratices
and one more humble request. instead of seeing the pallava prince as surya just see him as Damo, you will get used to his fight scenes
Sana, I fully understand your point. I am one of the many people who had no clue who Bodhi Dharma was, until I saw this movie. Then I spent 15 minutes on Wikipedia reading up about Bodhi Dharman and I could see all the points provided on this Wikipedia page. (I have updated the post to provide the link so that the readers of this blog can get a easy reference if they are interested in knowing more).
I too felt the director had explained the history beautifully in a way that it brings out the best representation of how the advanced growth in medicine as well as martial arts during the Pallava rule was picturised in the initial 30 minutes of the movie. I just loved watching it.
I guess the only disappointment was the over hype produced and the movie failing below the expectations, but the part where he has picturised history in the initial 30 minutes is wonderful.
Hi, I enjoyed the Movie very much. The Good things about the movie is director has used each and every one well in the Movie from Hero, Villan, heroine and the historical background.
7AM Arivu movie is worth watch it
It is worth watching movie we cannot afford to miss such a good movie.If you luv movies and not the stars then this will be a treat
I went to watch this movie with a lot expectations and also I am a big fan of Suriya but what this movie had offer was way below. I think the action sequence in the second half of the film was over dramatic and watching that I was getting bored…This movie only has got a message that you need to cherish your past and thats it for everything else this is a disaster.
If you want to watch a movie that convey’s a good message I suggest you to watch Anbe Sivam
7aum arivu is the best movie and if you think it will be nice and go to theatre the movie is unbelivable how said it is not nice does not know to watch a movie
I cant say dis s best movie so far, as well as worst, the concept is gud, but the way they implemented the story is too bad. .
Apart from all the poor screenplay ect ect, The worst thing in the movie was Harris Jeyaras’s BGM and very simply Yemma Yemma and Innum Yenne Thoza song. He should watch LAGAAN, VTV, JODHA AKHBAR ect, and live up the movie to become more interesting. He made horrible BGMs the last 30min.
[…] 7am Arivu: Johnny Nguyen comes in the movie as Dong Lee, a Chinese guy. Johnny is a Vietnamese stunt actor […]
7am arivu is not a bad film it gives knowledge about the history of our country .by seeing the film only many of them including me know about BHODIDHARMAN that we want to realize we can enjoy it.but velayutham is a simple masala film
@Admin – I too thought that Dong Lee is suffering from some disease. But for me it was not Hypnotic Diarrhea but “Don’t Run/Chase” Syndrome. I am guessing that in the course of learning great Martial arts, Dong Lee forgot to learn how to run! Even when the hero & heroine whom he is searching for, escape, he just keeps shaking his head like Pidhaamagan Vikram & stands still!! & another flaw was (according to me) the students plan with utmost care so as to not get caught with Dong Lee. Buying a new sim, bla bla bla. But that Civil Engineering girl doesn’t even delete the text messages from Shubha??!! Maybe she knew that Dong Lee was coming & saved it for him to see.. & as Kalai mentioned Very poor BGM in the climax. These were the only flaws I could see even with a magnifying glass! Otherwise I thoroughly enjoyed the movie!!
DONG LEE S awwwwwwwwwwwesome … he s too cool and hot at the same time….
Dong lee is very handsome… i only watched only him throughout the movie ……..
dai dubuku if you 7am arivu is not a good movie then what… velaiyutham is a good for nothing movie. don’t compare both surya’s movie is in the highest level where as Vijay’s not at all in the race.
Jack anna,
I agree with you about Velayudham..please see my review about Velayudham here
Regards,
Yours Truly,
Dubuku
7aam ariivu is one of the best films every chinese or anyone should watch. i really enjoyed watching it with my indian girl friend in overseas theatre. Great applause for the director, story writer, producer, actors and actresses, choreographer, singers and lead actor. Its worth watching in a theatre as it is worth the money spent. One show lasting of 3hrs and it s a full packed film of alot of scenes no one wanna miss it. Velayutham is a total flop is one of the worst Vijay ‘s movies following Nanban. I fell asleep after watching all those repeated scenes. Atleast for Nanban, other actor Srikanth if i am not wrong had really done good acting and i hope it be good film for him as well as for the guy who acted as the dean.I do not understand why u guys and ladies do not appreciate a good effort worked by a big grp of ppl? Looks like ppl are more lazier these days who only go for commercial entertainers. There are many scenes in 7aam ariivu are very cute watching.
i am watching 7am ariivu for the 25th time now its telecasted in the tv. Esp surya will be caught in an act while the heroine sees him following him and even those scenes while he be in a roller coaster ride the scenes were slowed down its simply natural feelings of any guy who is in first time love..!
well i am a chinese buddhist mix guy.
Well Ryan, what can I say – that is a lot of tamil movies for a ‘Chinese Buddhist mix guy’. I have met quite a few people like you, so I am not surprised.
I guess if any one asks you in Chinese, you could well say Doyboochee, Waoputung 🙂
Dong lee is very handsome…
I love this movie very much…
Surya proved himself in this movie…….