First half is very good, second half is opposite Had been to the theaters to watch a movie, not particular about any one movie, but wanted to see any movie other than "Ra.One". For some unknown reason, all theaters are playing repeated shows of "Ra.One". So we had to select between "Ra.One" and "7th Sense" (Tamil). Thanks to warning on facebook about "Ra.One" from friends, we selected to watch my first Tamil movie :-)
Thanks to the English subtitles and a Tamil speaking wife, I had no problems understanding the movie.
The main focus this movie was to educate people about the rich and glorious history of our country, basically, the Tamilian history and culture. Apprantely, there is a lot more about the Tamil culture that many of us don't know about. Movie focuses on this topic which seems to have been forgotten over the ages.
I am going to divide this review into two parts, the good and the bad part about the movie.
Good part ========= The movie starts with a scene from the ancient Indian city of Kanchipuram, when a prince, named "Bodhidharma", leaves his mother land to start a 3 year long journey to China. "Bodhidharma" is well versed in the art of self defence, hypnotism and medicinal science. So when "Bodhidharma" arrives at a small village in China, it doesn't get too difficult for him to make the village people like him. "Bodhidharma" start the art of Kung Fu which later, as we all know, spreads through out China. Now Indians might not be aware of this fact, but many people from Japan, China and Korea seem to know about "Bodhidharma" more than us.
I think the movie succeeds in creating the awareness about "Bodhidharma" and his teaching. The first half of the movie is very well choreographed (or cinematographed) and is supported by flawless acting from both the leading actors Surya and 'Shruti Hassan'. Surya has done an awesome job with his kung fu, he looks very professional throwing kung fu punches on the big-screen. Scenes from first half of the movie are shot beautifully and the acting is very well directed. It was almost like we were watching Indian history unfolding in front of us, it was glorious!
Warning: Spoiler alert ahead
Bad Part ======== I used to think that it's an inherent property of Bollywood movies to go bad after intermission. Now I know that this is characteristic of any Indian movie, not necessarily specific to Bollywood :-)
First thing I didn't like about the movie was that the songs are way tooooo long. I think all songs would have added atlead 20-30mins in the whole movie timing.
Secondly, I didn't understand why they names the movie as 7th sense?? I thought it had no relevance to the movie at all...
The acting of actors are still good in the the second half, but what they screw up is the story. They try to bring back "Bodhidharma" in the second part. You might think what could be so bad about it? May be they want to bring back "Bodhidharma" by spreading his message and teachings... But this is where they really screw up the story: they try to bring back "Bodhidharma" using genetic modification on a person who belongs to his blood-line. As if this was not enough you will also witness flying cars, bikes, trees, dust and what not... The only thing that missed a flight in the second half was imagination and creativity of the film makers. I really think that story was a weak line in the movie and they could have made it more realistic and not like a super- hero comic.
My suggestion: The movie has a very good message and we should all learn something from it.