Saw the movie on the 1st day (26th Oct), noon show. It was fun to hear the whistles when "the man" appeared first time. Mind you this is in Bangalore. Interestingly, Director Murgadoss also got similar response when his name appeared.
The story, I think all of you know by now having probably read the summary or one of the many detailed reviews out there. It is a science fiction story based loosely on the various legends of Bodhi Dharma with a plot similar to many recent movies/books like Outbreak, James Rollins "Doomsday Key", etc. The story ties those 1500 yr old legends to modern day issues and eventually becomes the usual masala(potboiler) movie. The script is still very much an original one(I thought) tailored to showcase Surya and Shruthi Hassan.
Now for my critique.
The good things first:
Now the bad things:
Overall, in spite of the original exciting script handled by great talent all around, the movie became an usual run-of-the-mill masala. Too bad! But I do hope the same group will venture further and do a better one next time and make sure they have enough screen time to end it well.
The story, I think all of you know by now having probably read the summary or one of the many detailed reviews out there. It is a science fiction story based loosely on the various legends of Bodhi Dharma with a plot similar to many recent movies/books like Outbreak, James Rollins "Doomsday Key", etc. The story ties those 1500 yr old legends to modern day issues and eventually becomes the usual masala(potboiler) movie. The script is still very much an original one(I thought) tailored to showcase Surya and Shruthi Hassan.
Now for my critique.
The good things first:
- I thought Surya's acting was fantastic. He is truly head and shoulders above everybody else resulting in them looking bad by comparison. Future casters for Suryas movies have to be smarter and put actors around him, even for smaller roles, who are up for the challenge.
- The plot is quite good and I commend the group for experimenting and taking risks. The presentation of the 500AD scenes were quite believable.
- Songs were good. I was looking forward to the Ringa Ringa one. It was again a good try. However, I was disappointed with the fast camera panning and lack of more crowd screen time, that is the non-planted ones. It seemed to me that they had too many actors mingled in the crowd and in effect missed out capturing the true surprise shown by the normal crowd on suddenly seeing Surya dancing.
Now the bad things:
- Other than Surya, and the villain John Nguyen(?), rest of the action was sub-par. Shruthi Hassan, her friends, Professor, Chinese plotters, Police etc..etc..all looked to be from a C grade movie. I sincerely feel, Shruthi is better off going back to music. She looked stiff and overwhelmed in her role. Her dialog delivery was as bad as it can get. I thought also she lacked the Glamour feel for the Heroine role and worst of all... no chemistry with Surya! Oh well....but she has good looks and who knows...with her pedigree she might still make it.
- Too much violence. But thats just me. The Tamil-makkal(people) may like it. But I and my wife thought there was too much gore and killing, a lot of which could have been avoided. Dong lee forced one too many hypnotic "harakiris" leaving the audience exhausted by the end.
- The plot ended quite amateurishly after starting out well. I can take stretching the possibilities quite a bit given this is a science fiction movie...but to do genetic modification using scriptures from 500 AD? Well, I have to draw the line somewhere! :) Also, what happened to China after it was exposed to have perpetrated a massive terror strike on India? The script conveniently forgot all about it.
- unnecessary Tamil pride lines all through with a totally weird final rah-rah speech by Surya. Just tell the story and let the audience figure it out...when it is force-fed...the message becomes a bit rancid.
Overall, in spite of the original exciting script handled by great talent all around, the movie became an usual run-of-the-mill masala. Too bad! But I do hope the same group will venture further and do a better one next time and make sure they have enough screen time to end it well.