7aum Arivu!

Alright guys! How has everyone been?
Finally, some movie has aroused my interest enough to write about it.

WHat specially made me write this is the numerous "Reviews" of the self made critics, many tweets disparaging some scenes, and few comments I heard in person about the movie.

First things first, it is a mind blowing movie. I liked it, probably as equal as Surya's Ghajini, or may be more.
In short, the plot is this - Some 1600 years ago (that is a lot of time), a young prince called Bodhidharma went to China as per the wish of his guru, Rajmata Prajnatara. He is phenomenal at martial arts (Kalari) and medicines. Probably phenomenal is an understatement. There was no one like him. He wrote all his knowledge in a book and gives it to his family before leaving. He reached china after 3 years of travel by road. There he saves a whole village from a fatal disease and gives the medicine formula to messengers who can distribute it in whole of China. He saves the villagers again from attackers by displaying his martial arts and power of hypnotism (Nokku varman). The villagers request him to teach them the skills, which he obliges. Years later when he expresses his desire to return, the villagers thinking it as a bad omen, try to poison him. BodhiDharman knew as soon as he tasted the food that it was poisoned. He asks the villager why they did so, for which they replied that they wanted to bury his body in china, so that the land is free from any diseases thereafter. Bodhi smiles and eats the food and dies. The villagers bury him. And continue to use his teachings and present day Shaolin temples were born.

Cut to present, the Chinese have found the virus that can cause the same epidemic that came in 6th century. They want to spread it in India and in return of the medicine will have any of their demands met by India. They send a soldier Dong Lee(Johnny Nguyjen) who is their best in Martial Arts and Hypnotism. He is almost invincible. He can hypnotize a cop and make him shoot his own men to death.

Now, our only chance is the Research of a genetic Engineering student Subha Srnivasan (Shruti Hassan). She has studied the same book written by Bodhidharman, which is in a museum in the present day. As per the book, there is something called genetic memory. Our DNA's are similar to our ancestors. If some descendant of Bodhi has closest matching DNA to that of his, by a process he can get the same skills as that of Bodhi. (This is fictional, and you need to give that much creative freedom to the story.) Dong Lee's other important task to kill Subha so her research doesn't see light of day.

Aravind is an circus artist and the descendant of Bodhi. who looks similar to Bodhi. His DNA matches Bodhi's DNA by 83%. Subha is very excited about this. And convinces him about the whole procedure so he could get Bodhi's skills.

So Bodhi comes back to defeat Dong Lee, who is using the knowledge of Bodhi himself, against Bodhi's own people.

Wow that was a long one.

Now, coming back to the comments by people and my answers to them -

1. In one scene, Dong Lee hypnotizes people in public and makes them attack Surya to kill him. A municipality drainage cleaner is shown to do martial arts when he attacks Surya. Someone asked in this if Murugadoss is out of his mind showing a drainage cleaner doing Kungfu.
   I say what do you expect, him doing some ugly moves while attacking Surya. Come on it is a movie, the purpose is entertainment.
   



2. Dong Lee's hypnotism skills. How is it possible? one says.
   Come on, again it is a movie and they wanted to show an invincible Villain who can be stopped by Bodhi himself. This power of hypnotism makes him invincible. No one can do anything to him.
   


3. Screen play is bad, Surya has no role as Circus artist, no chemistry between Shruti and Surya, it is a drag.
   I think the love story between Shruti and Surya was good. Lot of funny scenes, like the one where he is taking the elephant to hospital.
   There is not supposed to be any chemistry between them. SHe is highly educated, and he is almost illiterate. Also he thinks he can get her. Which would never be possible. She is just focused on her goal, which is big enough. Only for the same she meets him.
   
   Also, this is my personal opinion. Surya as Circus artist is shown to be doing something so trivial and wasting his time. His ancestors being so Great, they almost touched heights of everything from physical state to medical science, and enlightenment. This is synonymous to us Indians. We have such great past, we taught the world a lot things. But still we are only a developing nation. We prefer working for other countries.
   

Also the movie talks about our rituals having some science behind them. Like applying turmeric on our bodies. We don't appreciate the ritual. But it has been proven to be a good antibiotic and other nations are getting patents on it. So we should re look at our rituals scientifically. Our ancestors were so ahead in medicines that there is purpose behind rituals in our culture. Can you deny this?

Some reviews said the movie lacks focus, a daring attempt which failed. I really laugh at these reviews. Donno what these people were looking for in the movie.

I think it is Gem of a movie. Some scenes so awesome I can't describe.
Wanted to see it again. But it played only for one week in Charlotte. :(