7aam Arivu : Tamizhan’s Pride

Until a month ago, I don’t even heard this name Bodhidharma and all on a sudden the term ‘wiki bodhidharma’ went on to be the popular search in India during last 1 month. That’s the massive success that the movie ‘7aam Arivu’ achieved. I was a bit disappointed to see mixed reviews until I watched the movie on Saturday, as I expected this to be a clean-sweep hit like Gajini. Here is my personal review of this movie.

The first 20 minutes of the movie gives the best impression due to heavy money shed on the locations and most importantly recreating the historic events that happened 1600 years ago. Surya as Bodhidharma just impresses with his expressions and stage presence though he haven’t delivered much of dialogues. The Chinese song in the first bit was just cherry on cake. Later, the story gets back to present day and we see Surya again as an entertainer working in Circus. The whole story plot can be told in 3 words Bodhidharma-DNA-Aravind. Here are the good and bads about the movie.

Good good, I Like it

Obviously, the first 20 minutes are amazing with well done cinematography, stunts and extraordinary BGM. Then, enters the villain Johnny. Stand out part was he never talked Tamil (unlike many vijaykanth movies where all country terrorist speaks good Tamil) and he carried himself well with gestures & emotions. Surya’s acting in both roles shows how matured he is getting in the art of acting. Surely, he could better what Kamalhassan achieved ( I sincerely wish) Next note worthy point is the actual intentions of the Director himself. He just showed his class by going out of the box, pick a forgotton character in Tamil history and showed how he went to be the founder of Shaolin Kung fu. As ARM mentioned during the launch, this movie will make Tamil, PROUDER. Indeed, if not for Bodhidharma, for AR Murugadoss who showcased what a class means to modern day Bollywood directors. Tamil Cinema for sure travelling in right path.

What the #$@$!@

While I enjoyed the never been attempted stuffs in this movie, there are few let downs that I felt, though I am not too worried about that. Shrutihassan, pretty & makes good chemistry with Surya, irritates with her Tamil accent. It’s a shame that the daughter of a legend in Tamil film industry can’t get her accent right. Is it attitude? Probably. The needless songs are another issue. I personally felt the heart-broken-surya’s song in the railway tracks and the second duet song totally messed up the flow of the movie and made the audience feel waiting-for-the-song-to-finish rather enjoying it. Besides, all the songs always reminded Harris Jeyaraj’s old tunes. Next thing that hurts is the over exaggeration of the art, Hypnotism. I agree this is a art and achievable but when you see this villain uses this as primary weapon at will is like actually insulting this art. Also, the over lengthen stretch where Johnny does rapid-hypnotism at every one to kill Surya was a bit annoying and why in Indian movies, all the civilians should die except the Hero and his pair?

Wow moments

Bodhidharman’s stunt, neat job by stunt team.

The explanation of what is DNA and how it works. Also, the explanation about Bio-war. These are a bit documentary type but much needed to know. I wonder if this actually reached C center though.

When Surya says ‘There is a difference between courage and betrayal’

Editing, the way they showed how the virus spreads was brilliant (though tiny bit)

BGM, especially first 20 minutes and the rest of the movie

Verdict

A must watch movie for Tamils to know how proud they can be and a must watch movie for Indians to see a good out-of-the-box content and some quality acting from the hero.

P.S : There was a dialogue that says 9 countries together attacked Tamil race. I know who the Tamil race was but what are those 9 countries ? Please leave it in the comment if you know.

Puzzle Time

I am always a big fan of brain teaser puzzles. Though I am not a great solver, I love brain teasers. During my childhood, my uncle always gives me brain teasers to solve and I succeed in few as well. Later, I found its nice to solve puzzles to keep your brain sharp. Specially in IT Industries, its very common to get few brain teaser puzzles during your first interview to test your aptitude skills. Here are some puzzles I enjoyed. The first 3 are the ones I had in my first interview and luckily, I solved them all :)

The answers are at the end for your reference. Have fun solving

1. Cut a perfectly cylindrical shaped cake in to 8 equal sized pieces. Remember, you can make only 3 slices.

2. You got 2 candles; each will burn for an hour. You have no markings in the candle to measure it. Now, how will you measure 1.5 hours using just these 2 candles?

3. There is a 20 feet well. A Frog, starting from bottom, jumps 5 feet high and drops down 4 feet. After how many jumps the frog successfully comes out of the well?

4. You have a 3 liter can and a 5 liter can. Also, you got a tank full of surplus water. How will you measure 4 liter of water with just these 2 cans?

5. By moving one of the following digits, make the equation correct. 62 - 63 = 1

6. You have 12 black socks and 12 white socks mixed up in a drawer. You're up very early and it's too dark to tell them apart. What's the smallest number of socks you need to take out (blindly) to be sure of having a matching pair?

7. U2 has a concert that starts in 17 minutes and they must all cross a bridge to get there. All four men begin on the same side of the bridge. You must help them across to the other side. It is night. There is one flashlight. A maximum of two people can cross at one time. Any party who crosses, either 1 or 2 people, must have the flashlight with them. The flashlight must be walked back and forth. It cannot be thrown and other tricks like that are not needed to solve the problem. The solution is simply a matter of allocating resources in a certain order. Each band member walks at a different speed. A pair must walk together at the rate of the slower man's pace: Bono: 1 minute to crossEdge: 2 minutes to crossAdam: 5 minutes to crossLarry: 10 minutes to crossFor example: if Bono and Larry walk across first, 10 minutes have elapsed when they get to the other side of the bridge. If Larry then returns with the flashlight, a total of 20 minutes have passed and you have failed the mission.

8. You are a cook in a remote area with no clocks or other way of keeping time other than a four minute sandglass timer and a seven minute sandglass timer. (The kind you turn over - hourglass shaped) You do have a stove, however, with water in a pot already boiling. Somebody asks you for a nine-minute egg, and you know this person is a perfectionist and will be able to tell if you undercook or overcook the eggs by even a few seconds. What is the least amount of time it will take to prepare the egg? And how will you prepare it so that it is neither undercooked or overcooked?

9. You are standing outside a closed door. On the other side of the door is a room that has three light bulbs in it. The room is completely sealed off from the outside. It has no windows and nothing can get in or out except through the door. On the outside of the room there are three light switches that control each of the respective light bulbs on the other side of the door.Your assignment is to determine which light switch controls which light bulb. You are allowed to enter the room only once, and once you come out, you must be able to state with 100% certainty which light switch controls which light bulb.

10. You are given eight coins and told that one of them is counterfeit. The counterfeit one is slightly heavier than the other seven. Otherwise, the coins look identical. Using a simple balance scale, can you determine which coin is counterfeit using the scale only twice?

Answers:
1. 2 slices on top of the cake to get 4 pieces. Then, make a slice side wards

2. Let the first candle burn to get 1 hour. Now, burn the next candle on both ends.

3. 16 Jumps. On the 16th jump, the frog goes out of the well.

4. Fill the 3-liter can.
Pour the 3 liters of water into the 5-liter can
Fill the 3-liter can again.
Fill up the 5-liter can with the 3-liter can, leaving you with 1 liter left in the 3-liter can.
Empty out the 5-liter can.
Pour the remaining 1 liter of water from the 3-liter can into the 5-liter can.
Fill the 3-liter can.
Pour the 3 liters of water from the 3-liter can into the 5-liter can leaving you with 4 liters of water in the 5-liter can.
5. 2^6 - 63 = 1 (I cant make 6 as power hence used '^' symbol)

6. 3 socks. If the first sock is black, the second one could be black, in which case you have a matching pair. If the second sock is white, the third sock will be either black and match the first sock, or white and match the second sock.

7. Lets take the names as 1,2,5 and 10. First, 1 & 2 goes 2 returns. Next, 5 & 10 goes and 1 returns. Then, 2 & 1 goes together.
8. The answer is 9 minutes. First, flip both hourglasses over and drop the egg into the water. When the four minute timer runs out, flip it again. When the seven minute timer runs out, flip it over. The egg has been cooking seven minutes. Now when the four minute timer runs out again (after eight minutes) flip the seven minute timer back over. Since the seven minute timer has been running only a minute between flips, there's a minute worth of sand left. And when that minute runs out, the egg will have been cooking for exactly nine minutes.
9. Turn one light switch on, wait a few minutes, then turn it off and turn another light switch on. Go into the room and feel the light bulbs. The one that's still warm is connected to the switch that you first turned on, the one that is on was the second switch you turned on, and the last bulb is controlled by the switch that you didn't touch.
10. First weigh three coins against three others. If the weights are equal, weigh the remaining two against each other. The heavier one is the counterfeit. If one of the groups of three is heavier, weigh two of those coins against each other. If one is heavier, it's the counterfeit. If they have equal weight, the third coin is the counterfeit.