7am Arivu was a film I was eager to watch, especially once the story of Bodhidharman came to light prior to its release. Like many, I went about researching this long forgotten historical figure. I was intrigued to learn that a Tamil man had taken on this incredible mission of spreading Buddhism, the art of self defence, and is revered and worshiped in China and other South East Asian countries. The director’s attempt to spread the word about Bodhidharman, Tamil culture, history, and current issues was well intended and successful.

The biggest drawbacks of 7am Arivu, however, were the screenplay and direction. It was a great concept to begin with, but somewhere down the line it felt like the director wasn’t sure how to successfully navigate and execute it. In the first scenes the introduction of the Pallava Kingdom and the whole storyline of Bodhidharman didn’t have quite the impact and extravagance one would have expected.

I immediately compared this to the scenes from Dasavatharam, where the Chola Dynasty from the 12^th Century is brought in front of our eyes when Kamal Hassan is tied to an idol and thrown into the sea. That scene was much more powerful in bringing forth the true essence of life in the ancient Tamil world than the opening of 7am Arivu was. The effect that was supposed to set the tone for the rest of this film didn’t quite take off.

The way the director handled intertwining the stories of Bodhidharman and Aravindhan (Surya as the circus artist) together wasn’t up to the mark as well. The circus artist is almost unmemorable as there weren’t many tricks up his sleeve—except wooing Shruti Hassan. Even when the inner Bodhidharman is awakened within Aravindhan, there isn’t much to look forward to other than a bunch of old martial arts tricks in new shoes.

The science behind activating Aravinthan’s DNA to bring back aspects of Bodhidharman was also underdeveloped and camouflaged with scenes of fancy scientific equipment and a song.

Again I want to draw a comparison to another Kamal Hassan film—Indian—which brought to light the story of a fictional freedom fighter and the martial art form of Varma Kalai. The strength of Shankar as a director is seen in how he integrated these storylines effectively. I felt that 7am Arivu displayed weaknesses of Murugadoss as a relatively inexperienced director as he was  more enthusiastic in representing Bodhidharman than working on a ground-breaking screenplay.

So what did the director get right? His choice of actors. Surya is a fine actor and always fills the mould of the character he is embodying. Shruti Hassan is a breath of fresh air amongst the new actresses currently making their rounds in  Tamil Cinema. She can speak Tamil (dubs her own voice), she is glamorous, she can dance, and of course she can sing. This is her first movie in Tamil, and she’s definitely an actress we can look forward to the career of.

7am Arivu had all the right ingredients, and just missed the mark with an inexperienced cook. Murugadoss is a celebrated director, with 4 films under his belt, but there is still some finesse that he needs to acquire to effectively present an entertaining, innovative movie.

—Parthiban Manoharan

Photo credits to IBNlive.com