To begin with, let me state that the future of animation in Indian mainstream cinema depends on the success of Kochadaiyaan.
What more would you ask for in a first ever motion capture full length cinema in the country, but it seems like there is a comparison drawn between Avatar and this movie. It is a mere influence of Westernism in everyone’s minds that prompts everyone to draw this comparison. The magnitude of Avatar in terms of its cost, duration, the technical advancements that come along with those are incomparable, but yet we appear to forget those and compare the results. We are entering the world of animation(in layman terms, pre-KG) with Kochadaiyaan and comparing with Avatar(10th or 12th standard). Is it fair? Now, everyone will be thinking that I’m a hardcore fan of Rajni(thalaivar), indeed I’m. However, my above thoughts are purely unbiased. It is a movie that is worth watching and applauded for the attempt, screenplay, background score even without the face of Rajni and Rajni’s face and voice in the film adds more to the pleasure.
Now, let me get into my opinion of the movie.
I have not watched a 3D movie yet and I decided I will stick to that based on my not-so-good-experience of watching few 3D short films and watched the Tamil version of the film.
A prelude to the movie and how the movie is made(motion capture technique) welcomes you.
The plot narrated in the voice of none other than AR Rahman seems like a familiar revenge story of 2 provinces. The story starts with the young Rajni(Ranadheeran) running away from his state(Kottaipatinam), almost drowning in the river and reaching the enemy state(Kalingapuri). Little is revealed about the motive why he ends up there. He grows up to no surprises here(as Hero Rajnikanth) and conquers a lot of surrounding states. There is a lot of close up shots and several sword wielding scenes, just for the audience to connect with this version of Thalaivar. Animated version of Jackie Shroff as king of Kalingapuri is recognizable. I could not recognize Aadhi in the animated version, but the
The motive of his coming to Kalingapuri is revealed in a few scenes and ends up meeting his old friend(Sarath Kumar) in Kottaipatinam. Animation could have been better in creating animated version of Sarath Kumar. Deepika Padukone makes an entry in the movie and few close up shots of her also needs some adjustments. She has a good role in the movie, has a lot of beautiful dance sequences and also a fight sequence. Rest of the story happens in this state and the plot of rest of the movie is revealed as expected at intermission.
Kudos to the team for bringing Nagesh(as Rajni’s uncle) alive in the movie to don the role as a comedian. The mannerisms, dialogue delivery are brought to life in this movie in animated version. I guess other regional audience will not be connect to his mannerisms.
Flashback revealed by Ranadheeran presents us the second version of Rajni(raw version I would say), very honest and brave leader, who does not care of taking on bad name to save his troops from death, which happens to be the reason for the end of his character and the motive for revenge for his son Ranadheeran.
The dance sequence by the father Rajni is aggression-filled and animation is the only way we can see Rajni doing the sequence. Shobana as his wife has a lengthy dialogue in the movie(may be inspired by character of Kannagi in Tamil literature Epic Silapathikaram). She does what is best known to her - dance sequence with Rajni. Her character is also short lived, does not show up in the present.
Nasser proves to be a good villain even in the animated version.
Fighting sequences with huge army on land and in the sea(moving across all the ships) are treat to watch. I don’t think animation has taken off any sheen away from these scenes.
The team has taken care of minute details in the environment - background, dress etc. There may still be flaws(or defects) that you can detect, but nothing very obvious.
Story writer should have thought about bringing back Sarath Kumar somewhere in the second part. I do not see his character being part of the movie. And secondly, the climax at the end or the elder son of Kochadaiyaan is just an added burden in the movie, there is no reason for that character. May be it is a hope from the production team of a sequel. There is also a flaw that the motive with which Ranadheeran goes to Kalingapuri may not be fulfilled after more than a decade.
Movie seems to be filled with songs and appears every now and then and some may feel it boring.
Background score flows throughout the movie, is pleasant and does not scare you.
There is a lot of moral lessons throughout the movie about friendship, leadership, honesty as expected in Thalaivar movie.
Plot - Good, except the surprise in the climax scene
Background visual - treat to watch
Songs - Soothing to the ears and visuals pleasant to the eyes
Background score - ARR at his best
Not to be hard on those who feel that the animation is very poor, I feel if Avatar was made in India in an Indian language and looked the same, we would still be complaining about the story and script of the film that it is all unrealistic and would be drawing comparison with another Hollywood movie to find faults.
I’m happy to be born in this era to witness the start of animation in Indian Cinema, decades down the line, this film will be remembered as a beginning, but for it to happen, this movie has to be a commercial success.
Soundarya deserves huge applause for her brave effort, visualizing this grand scheme of things, putting up with deadline, calls, budget crunches and giving a great result.
A must watch for everyone and hope there are many more such creations.
As a Rajni fan, I would have been much more happy if this was not an animation, although I’m not sure if the budget would have been sufficient. As Rajni says in the movie "mattram onre maarathathu" meaning "change is the only thing that does not change", so changes need to happen and we have to move on to progress further. This is just the beginning and worth it.