7am Arivu Movie Review

7am Arivu starts with a lot of promise, sizzles and then fizzles as you get the feeling of a missed opportunity to witness an epic movie drift past you. 

Story, Screenplay and Direction

Murugadoss has partially succeeded in trying to infuse human interest and historic facts into a fantasy tale. In some scenes, he was able to suspend your judgment regarding the implausibility of the story. There are a number of scenes where AR Murugadoss does a fantastic job in gradually building up the momentum to finally capture your complete focus and then carelessly letting it go away for a misplaced song or a contrived fight sequence. Use of hypnotism captivates you in the opening sequence and later becomes very repetitive beyond a point. 

Cast

Surya has worked very hard which is evident in every frame. His commitment to learn martial arts and some circus tricks to make his part look real is commendable. His ability to communicate such varied emotions through his eyes especially during the Bodhidharman sequence talks volumes about his calibre. His enactment of Bodhidharman character makes you wonder whether anybody else could have done justice to that role. However, Suriya did not get too many opportunities to perform in the second half other than indulging in regular fight routines with the villain. Shruthi Haasan is convincing as a research scientist. She is natural in her acting. It is refreshing to hear her dub in her own voice. The director is very successful in extracting so much villainy out of Johnny just by employing tight close-ups of his eyes. Other than these three central characters, rest of the casting decisions appear weak. Strong casting could have helped make some scenes look more convincing.

Music

Both the montage songs (Rise of Damo Chinese song and Innum Enna Thozha) situationally fits well in the story. But, Harris Jayaraj's rerecording didn't quite gel well with the flow and sometimes fail to communicate the appropriate mood for the situation. 

Crew

Technically, the movie has been shot well and edited crisply (not to be confused with screenplay issues with the movie). Use of half a dozen clash camera men to substitute for Ravi K Chandran is quite evident in the differences in lighting and shot-making styles. For example, there is a lot of confidence and experimentation in the way Yamma Yamma and China sequences were shot. But, Ringa Ringa song picturization looked very flat and indifferent. We suspect the master may have delegated his responsibility to a clash-work cinematographer. Peter Hein does a great job in all the martial art fight sequences.

Final Words

Credit goes to AR Murugadoss for effectively and sensitively handling the historic scenes involving Bodhidharman. As a result, one lasting accomplishment of 7am Arivu after the dust settles down, will be the elevation of Bodhidharman's stature in the minds of Tamilians -- Bodhidharman has risen from anonymity to probably the most influential Tamizhan to have ever walked on this planet.