7 AM Arivu

[GeneChing]

Too wild not to post here. Bollywood (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=48576), Bodhidharma and raggamuffin vibes (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=58144). I gotta see this!

Tried to find an official trailer, but could only find bootleg screen shots and montages
7am arivu trailer official (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqwMCsAOpYc)
7am arivu trailer official
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbuoMJCuJSA)

7 am Arivu – 6.5 Arivu (http://truthdive.com/2011/10/26/7-aum-arivu-%E2%80%93-6-5-arivu.html)
October 26, 2011 – 8:39 pm By Prakash

7 aum Arivu – apt title for the story line. This is a Surya movie, portraying the pride, power and intelligence of the early Tamils. Udhayanidhi Stalin needs to be appreciated for making this movie.

First 10 minutes of the movie establishes Bodhidharman (from several centuries earlier) as a Tamil monk who was instrumental in setting up Shaolin temple and is an expert medical practitioner. Ravichandran’s cinematography does wonders during this segment.

The first 10 minutes and post interval is enough to make you like the movie. Surya has lent his shoulders, legs, head and all to hold together the movie and the portrayal of the character from this wonderful story line.

Then we encounter the current day Surya, a circus artist; did the assistant director(s) sleep while the junior artists were blundering like the Gemini circus owner?

Murugadoss, in vain tries the love angle for the next 40 minutes. When Shruti shuns his love with a dialog “Throw your love in the dustbin”, save for Surya on the screen, none reacted in the audience. Even though some of the scenes like Surya handing over mobile are interesting, we scarcely feel the hurt when Shruti turns down his love. Shruti has done a reasonably good job of her role, but much more is awaited.

Why do we need 2 songs in the first half ? They stand out like sore thumb, and take up 10 minutes of time. When was the last time, I saw a hero singing a sad song alone, at least the one as big as Surya? cluck cluck cluck

Then comes the evil part of Chinese conspiracy against India, and the lead villain Johnny is introduced with his “Nokkuvarmam” (kind of hypnotism), initially practiced by Bodhidharman and learnt by Chinese for centuries. The villain simply abuses Nokkuvarmam with everyone on the screen, last heard of my friend who accompanied me was seeing his eyes back home!

Post interval the film races with how Surya saves India from the clutches of Chinese. Some of the dialogs were fire, taking a dig at the way Tamils live and let them being (mis)governed. Music at some places stood out, but predominantly, pleasant and slow. Harris Jeyaraj lost a wonderful chance to have made a “make-me-fight” kind of song in “Innum Enna Thozha”. In spite of the lyrics being good, the music was slow but did serve the purpose to build the spirit. One might remember the song “Tholvi Nilayaena Ninaithal” from Oomai Vizhigal movie.

As a whole, the movie is certainly a “don’t miss to” watch at least once for the sake of Surya, the team and the story line. I do wish that Director A.R.Murugadoss, spend even more time in screen play, narration and making full use of an actor like Surya in his next movie as expectations around his films have grown.

[GeneChing]

Another review. Starring Johnny Tri Nguyen?!? Holy cats! I'VE GOT TO SEE THIS!


‘7am Arivu’ – Movie Review (http://www.filmics.com/Tamil-Movie-Reviews-In-English/7am-arivu-movie-review.html)
Published on Saturday, 22 October 2011 16:50
Hits: 14279

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7am-Arivu-Movie-Review
Cast and Crew
Direction: A R Murugadoss
Cast: Suriya, Shruti Hassan, Johnny Tri Nguyen
Music: Harris Jayaraj
Camera: Ravi K Chandran
Editing: Anthony
Producer: Udhayanidhi Stalin
Banner: Red Giant Movies

“7 am Arivu” is movie produced by Udhayanidhi Stalin, under the banner Red Giant Movies. This is another blockbuster made in the combination of Suriya – A R Murugadoss – Harris Jayaraj. Their earlier mega Hit was “Ghajini”.

This Medical-Historical-Science-Fiction (Sci-Fi) epic drama film is sure to become a landmark movie in Suriya’s career. He plays dual roles in this movie, namely Buddhist Monk called Bodhidharma and a Circus Staff.

“7 am Arivu” highlights the life Story of the 5th Century Pallava Prince-turned-Buddhist monk called Bodhidharma. The monk is considered the 28th patriarch of Lord Buddha and was responsible for institutionalizing and spreading Zen philosophy in the world. He is also said to be the creator of the martial art Kung Fu and taught it at the Shoalin Temple in China. He is also said to be the creator of the martial art Kung Fu and taught it at the Shoalin Temple in China. ‘7aam Arivu’ pictures the greatness of this Tamil saint who is still revered and worshiped in China and Japan and all around the world.

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7am-Arivu-Review

The Story of the movie “7 aam Arivu” starts in the Pallava Empire, the present day’s region of Kanchipuram. The story is set in the time period of 5th Century (approximately 1600 years ago). Bodhidharma, famous exponent in the Martial arts and Medicine lives in this region. Under the orders from his Parents, he travels to China.


Bodhidharma, basically a Tamilian was the first person to preach the Martial Arts to this World. He spends his life in China for some time. In a particular situation, the Villagers there suffers from some disease. Bodhidharma gives some medicine and they get cured. From then, they consider him as their God.

Apart from that, the people from the nearby Villagers come to attack the people there. Bodhidharma uses his Martial Art skills like Kalari and saves the people in this Village. From then, the respect over him increases even more. The people in these Village, request Bodhidharma to teach those Martial Arts to protect themselves, in the future.

Bodhidharma accepts the request of these people and preaches all the Skills, he knew and possessed. After sometime, he expresses his desire to return back. But, the people in that region become selfish, and as they consider him like God, they don’t want to let him go from their region. They consider that, if he is buried in their land, his powers will stay in their land forever. Therefore, they give poison to him. But, Bodhidharma identifies their plans. But, hearing their thought perspective, he drinks that Poison and sacrifices his life and hence he dies and gets buried in that region itself. This is the same Bodhidharma, for whom Temples are built in the name of Shaolin Temples in many places in China, Japan and other Eastern Countries.

As and when they show this Story, they show the life of another Suriya, a Circus Artist, by the name of Aravind. Shruti Hassan plays the character of Shuba Srinivasan, who comes as a Scientist. Johnny Tri Nguyen plays the character of the person, who is sent from China to India, on a mission called Operation Red.

Operation Red is the plan of China to intrude the Virus into India. A deadly Virus existed in the 6th Century and killed many people. Bodhidharma used his medical knowledge and treated the people, from the same virus, during that time. Chinese wants to intrude the same virus into India now, and provide the Medicine for the same virus, only from China. Indirectly, they want to make India medically dependent on China.

On the basis of her researches, Shuba finds out the matching DNA of the Bodhidharma from the Internet, and finds that, this Circus Artist Suriya (Aravind) has similar kind of DNA. She hopes that, by combining and exciting few biological compositions in Aravind’s body, same kind of person, who is as special as Bodhidharma can be recreated once again in this present era, even after 1600 years. By doing so, she hopes that, Bodhidharma’s knowledge in Medicine and his talents in Martial Arts could be used again, in our Country India also.

Bearing all this in mind, Shuba tries to follow Aravind, and eventually they fall in Love. But, Aravind finds that, there is some thing more than Love for Shuba to follow him. After sometime, Shuba explains all the facts to Aravind. From then, Aravind also extends his full support to Shuba’s ambitions and works for the welfare of India.Ezham-Arivu-Review

Somehow, China comes to know about Shuba’s plans and they send Johnny to prevent Shuba from carry out her research and recreating the Bodhidharma.

(*) Who succeeds in which plans, forms the remaining part and the Crux of the Story?

(*) Whether this God-like Bodhidharma is recreated one more time for the welfare of the Indians also or not?

(*) Whether the Villain working for China wins, or the Shuba and Aravind wins in their goal forms the interesting Climax of this Story.

It was said that Christopher Nolan’s ‘Inception’, a Hollywood Sci-fi, has inspired A R Murugadoss to create this story. But, Murugadoss denies this report and says that, ‘7am Arivu’ is a creation of 2 years of script work and my film’s shooting started well before the release of ‘Inception’!”

Suriya has again brought his six-pack physique for this film to show the power of the Martial Arts. He has also put a lot of hard work in learning tough stunt movements to put a spectacular show in the film.

Along with Suriya, the martial art extravagance of an American-Vietnamese Actor named Johnny Tri Nguyen in the film going to be another special aspect for the film lovers. He plays the villain of the protagonist in the film.

Shruti Hassan, who is donning a role of a Scientist named Shuba Srinivasan, has given her dazzling performances in the vital scenes and dance sequences. She has performed to such an extent that, this does not look like her first film in Tamil.

Udhayanidhi Stalin’s Red Giant Movies has produced the movie at a whopping budget of 84 Crore. He has said that, “As a producer I’m proud to be a part of this wonderful film. It is a milestone movie in the productions of my banner”. Udhayanidhi Stalin has never stayed back in spending his money for the film’s production. The film boasts the expense of Rs. 7 Crore for just the intro scene of the film!

The music of the film very much shows the enormous hard work that the composer has put in to bring out those extraordinary instrumentations in songs and background score. Harris Jayaraj said that, “I toured many oriental countries to find those traditional instruments for creating rare sounds for the Chinese content in the film for both the song and rerecording!”

The film’s music album rights were sold for a record price to Sony Music, has created ripples in the market by registering quick retail sales of the album. The songs have also become chartbusters topping the charts!

And, the visuals of songs one of the highlights of the film. From cute and colourful locations abroad to Chennai city crowded parts to the green woods and barren lands the crew has travelled widely and shot those perfect pictures for songs.

The song ‘Oh Ringa…’ was shot in the busy streets and crowded places of Chennai city with the involvement of more than 1000 dance performers was amazingly discussed by the tinsel town.

Ravi K. Chandran’s camera work, Editor Anthony’s cut and Sound art have taken the film, and our Tamil cinema, to another level of technical excellence.

The courageous and amazing thought and work of A R Murugadoss and the artistic and technical cooperation by his team and the staunch support of Red Giant Movies’ Udhayanidhi Stalin has brought out a Masterpiece called ‘7am Arivu’!

A R Murugadoss efforts to make a film on Bodhidharma and present it to the World should be laudable. The main thing is, after this film, many people would know about this God-like person. During an Interview, he has said that, “We (Indians and Tamilians) have forgotten to respect, honor and worship this Bodhidharma. I hope that, at least after this film, we shall know more about him. At least from now, we should name the streets in our places under his name, name our children with the name Bodhidharma, in order to equalize for failing to show the respect, which we should have shown to him”. He is very positive that, people would know more about after this movie.

Overall, the movie is surely a landmark film in the History of Tamil cinema. This “7 am Arivu” is a movie, which is sure to make Tamilians proud

[sanjuro_ronin]

Sounds rather interesting.

[ghostexorcist]

It does sound interesting. However, people are taking the history bits from the movie as fact. They've had to lock Bodhidharma's Wikipedia article because so many people have tried to add stuff related to the movie.

[GeneChing]

Right now, a new The Three Musketeers is playing in America with Milla Jojovich. T3M contains historical characters like Cardinal Richelieu and the Duke of Buckingham. Bodhidharma is historical dubious. Fictionalization of historical figures is commonplace (case and point - A Sudden Dawn (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57624)). This one is obviously fantasy, like Milla's Musketeer Milady.

Good ol' wikipedia! ;)

[GeneChing]

It says HD but don't believe it. I started watching it but it opens with some Wudang scenes calling it Shaolin, and that just ****ed me off, so I bailed.


Watch 7am Arivu Movie Online - 2011 (http://www.tamiltwist.com/2011/10/watch-7am-arivu-movie-online-2011.html)
Posted on 7:14 PM by Brandy

Watch 7am Arivu Movie Online Starring Suriya, Shruti Hassan and Johnny Tri Nguyen. 7aum Arivu Tamil Movie Watch Online, This movie has been directed by A. R. Murugadoss and released in 2011 for Diwali. 7am Arivu Movie Online HQ.


Distributed by: Red Giant Movies
Music by: Harris Jayaraj
Produced by: Udhayanidhi Stalin

[ShaolinDiva]

It says HD but don't believe it. I started watching it but it opens with some Wudang scenes calling it Shaolin, and that just ****ed me off, so I bailed.

:D Hey, I know some who pays thousands of dollars to a Wudang priest in Colorado to study their Tai Chi and energy work . LAX to CO every month to do a form and some meditation. :eek:

[sha0lin1]

It says HD but don't believe it. I started watching it but it opens with some Wudang scenes calling it Shaolin, and that just ****ed me off, so I bailed.

Ah...Wudang. Shaolin's greatest mortal enemy. I should have destroyed it when I was there this summer.

[GeneChing]

I could see it in Tamil or Telugu at Big Cinemas Fremont 7 (http://us.bigcinemas.com/cinemas.asp?cid=1014). The problem is that I'm super busy right now and probably can't get out to the movies. Besides, if I were headed to the movies right now, it would be to see Ra. One 3D.

It's telling when there are two Bollywood movies that I want to see and nothing from Hollywood. :o

[ghostexorcist]

Right now, a new The Three Musketeers is playing in America with Milla Jojovich. T3M contains historical characters like Cardinal Richelieu and the Duke of Buckingham. Bodhidharma is historical dubious. Fictionalization of historical figures is commonplace (case and point - A Sudden Dawn (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57624)). This one is obviously fantasy, like Milla's Musketeer Milady.

Good ol' wikipedia! ;)

Seriously. Today, someone went through articles related to Bodhidharma and put that he founded Shaolin and was a master of Hypnotism. These are of course things from the movie.

[GeneChing]

Took a little cutting & pasting to assemble this, as it's presented as captions to several photos. I'm only including the first photo - follow the link for the rest.


'7 Aum Arivu is not a commercial entertainer' (http://www.rediff.com/movies/slide-show/slide-show-1-south-interview-with-suriya/20111123.htm)
Last updated on: November 23, 2011 12:33 IST

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Suriya's 7 Aum Arivu, directed by A R Murugadoss, has been dubbed as 7th Sense in Telugu. While in Hyderabad to attend the success meet of the film (which raked in Rs 12 crore in a week's time), Suriya spent a few minutes to discuss his role and the film in detail.

How challenging was your role as Bodhidharma?

It was the first time I got to play the part of a person, who was a superhero in real life and who changed history. It's sad we don't know anything about him. Most of us didn't have any clue about Bodhidharma down South in spite of him being an important person in Asia.

People there worship him for spreading Zen Buddhism and martial arts. To see him, to read about him, to understand him was a huge experience. I felt very proud and happy. It was a very big thing in my career to be a part of this film.

It took me some time to make myself look like a person who's been practising martial arts and to generally convince people that this person is Bodhidharma. It took some time for me to make myself look like a warrior and also a sadhu. To get my body into shape I went to Vietnam and I learnt martial arts there.

How did you get that serenity in the eyes?

To make people believe he is a holy man and has got special powers, I followed Osho's videos. I wanted to know who is this person we look up to, who has made a difference, who has seen life in a different perspective and is a teacher we believe in.

I could immediately connect with Osho. He's got the calmness in his eyes and a smile. The eyes have the depth of the ocean in them but you don't know what he's thinking. He never blinked. All that was like a cue for me, even his hand movements. I incorporated and made use of all that and that has made the difference.

So you did a lot of preparation in order to get into the skin of this character?

The film is not a commercial entertainer; it's an important film. We are documenting an important personality. So it has to be as close as possible to real life facts as we know them. This person is supposed to be the wide-eyed barbarian. On the Internet he is called the 'blue-eyed barbarian'. Of course I had to be Bodhidharma and not Suriya.

What was it like shooting in China?

The people there were excited. We were just learners trying to learn more. The way we speak about Lord Krishna, Lord Ganesh and Lord Shiva is the way they speak about Bodhidharma. They speak about his techniques, about what he has done. It's all passed on.

At 3 am, the whole crew (even kids) would be ready with their costumes and make-up. It was not a burden for them; it was not like working on another project, it was like worship for them, it was like being in a temple. The discipline and respect they showed and the support they gave was amazing.

How did you train yourself in martial arts in Vietnam?

Martial art techniques have come a long way. With modernisation, a lot of techniques are added on. We tried to go back maybe 100 years. If you compare it to vocabulary, we wanted to go back to each letter like A, B, C and how they are formed, what the base was, etc.

We had people from Shaolin Temple, some of whom had trained there for 29 years. They showed us the old methods of doing martial arts, old stances. We took some videos, we discussed, enquired if it was the right way of doing it and then we used it. It was not like learning from a Chinese film and doing it, we had masters helping us. We had a lot of fighters from Vietnam. Peter Hein (action director) has his roots in Vietnam. We had authentic people.

To play the circus artiste, did you learn a lot of tricks?

We did learn a lot of tricks. It was a different experience working with the crew of the Great Bombay Circus. I stayed with them for a night and it was a wonderful experience being with them -- people from Nepal, Kerala, all staying in one tent together. Youngsters, some from the age of eight, would practise every day for eight hours a day and then perform for the public. They don't have an easy life. It was amazing to watch them.

How was it shooting with Johnny Tri Nguyen?

Johnny is a martial arts expert. He has learnt it from his great grandfather, and his father. To stand opposite him is not easy. Of course he was of great help. He taught me certain things. Whatever I did on screen, he helped me do it even better.

What is it like acting with Shruti Haasan?

Everyone is in awe of Shruti for the way she carries herself. She is multi-talented. She's a great singer and musician. I was always in awe of Kamal Sir and what he has given to cinema. So it's more like taking care of Kamal Sir's daughter. It was more that way for me. I wanted her to do her best. So whatever experience I had gathered, whatever I thought was sensible, I shared with her.

You worked with Murugadoss on Ghajini. How has he evolved as a director?

Time, the experience of working in a different industry, working with different legends, gives one a lot of experience. He's put a lot of effort into this script and didn't want to settle for just regular entertainment.

Your films are dubbed in Telugu but do very well in Andhra Pradesh. Why is that?

I feel very blessed. I don't have words to thank them. It's a big blessing for an actor doing a straight Tamil film and also getting this bonus market in Telugu. Many Telugu families have migrated from Tamil Nadu, so I don't feel this is another state.

My neighbours and most of my friends are Telugu speaking. My best friends from my school days are Telugu speaking. Nutan Prasad Sir was my neighbour as were the Parachuri brothers.

Bellamkonda Suresh has announced that you will be doing a bi-lingual...

Yes, we have started talks on it. It should be an important project in my career.

Any chance that you and Karthi will do a Telugu film together?

If the script demands it and if something really excites us, we will do it.

[PalmStriker]

Looks like a winner ! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3E9ozqzYlI&feature=related :)

[Hebrew Hammer]

It says HD but don't believe it. I started watching it but it opens with some Wudang scenes calling it Shaolin, and that just ****ed me off, so I bailed.

Have you ever crossed swords with Wudang? Or been there?

[GeneChing]

I'm jesting about the Shaolin/Wudang feud. I totally respect Wudang. I was there with RZA. Read my book, Shaolin Trips (http://www.amazon.com/Shaolin-Trips-Gene-Ching/dp/1424308976/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276188031&sr=1-1), for that story.