What a great film 7 am arivu could have been. We went to see the movie despite the mixed reviews and ended up with a feeling of half-full. You have a great storyline, rooted in facts and history and a deeply significant message. You have an experienced and exciting team to back it. Yet 7am arivu falls flat in executing the greatest ever strategy.

The movie tries to point out how we have lost touch with our roots, rather how we have been distracted by invading forces from the west to lose confidence in ourselves. A well intentioned message that needs to be said but there in lies 7am arivu's failure. It delivers that message in the first 20 minutes and last 2 minutes of the movie. In between, the movie tries to be too many things and ends up being completely irrelevant, illogical and not even remotely sensible (Science and history have been handled rather immaturely). From a technical standpoint, Surya and Ravi K Chandran's work are the only highlights whatsoever whereas AR Murugadoss and Harris Jeyaraj are not felt anywhere throughout the movie. 

The basic storyline goes like this: Bodhidharma, a Pallava prince, is sent to China on a mission by his guru. He travels to China to find out that he has been sent there to help eradicate a deadly disease outbreak. While at it, Bodhidharma trains the folks in self defense and medicine and spreads the ideals of Buddhism. The people revere him as god and ask him to depart his worldly remains there so they could bury his pure body in their land to ward off evil. Cut to the future, you have Subha Srinivasan, a Genetic Engineering student trying to study & revive Bodhidharma's talents by firing specific genes in the DNA of his descendants. Meanwhile, a mercenary from China, Dong Lee, is sent to India to commence Operation Red and bump off Subha. Arvind (Surya as the circus artist) is the unsuspecting guy in the middle of all this. Why is he caught in the middle and what is his role? That is pretty much the story. 

An objective analysis:

Pluses:

• Surya: You have to hand it to this guy. Has put in tremendous amount of hard work to bring perfection on screen. 
• Jhonny: As Dong Lee, he is menacing and appears invincible. 
• First 20 minutes: Truly well crafted. Gives you a hair rising experience. 
• Cinematography: Brilliant....especially the China portion. Hats off Ravi K C
• Story: A great story line that provides the opportunity to connect with our history

Minuses:

• Screenplay: Coming from the stable of ARM, this is probably one of his worst screen plays ever. You could sense ARM is lost when he cannot work out a decent chemistry between the lead pair. Wonder how Surya agreed? Even his commercial pot boiler Singam had a far better screenplay.  
• Shruti Hassan: Bad bad choice for this character....one who talks greatly about Tamil history but cannot pronounce Tamil convincingly?? A word of advice & coaching from Kamal Hassan may help
• Dialogues: This has got to be the weakest link. God save whoever wrote the dialogues. Very pedestrian and sometimes comical that you feel sad for the characters uttering them. 
• Absurdity in Characterization: The characters don’t seem to be developed at all. At one point, you have 5 students and a circus artist talking about measures to save the nation from bio war!! There are many other scenes that will make a spoof movie proud.
• Scientific validity: Anyone with a basic understanding of genetics and DNA will tell you that specific skills like "Martial Arts" cannot be embedded in the DNA especially after 1600 years. Whoever came up with this concept should have backed it up with a better explanation. 
• Absurdity of the central plot: What is the motivation of a Biowar and why would the Chinese Government want to take such high risk to kill a girl? Our relationship is already sensitive with the Chinese these days. So instead of spreading animosity, may be ARM could have dealt the story of Bodhidharma in entirety that talk about the good times between the two countries. 
• Special effects: Very ordinary and is not consistent with the first 20 minutes of the movie
• Harris: Was a big let down. After the super fresh Ko & Engeyum Kadhal, this album does not even feel original.

Simple math: Far too many negatives to overcome the positives. Net result: you leave the theaters as a disappointed fan. For all the maker’s proclamation about "Dedicated to world Tamils and "Makes every Tamilian Proud", here is the answer: Bodhidharma makes us proud and inspires us. The movie does not.

Coming out of the movie, I heard someone say behind me "The OKOK trailer was probably the best part of the entire show". That sadly sums up 7 am arivu for you.