Kochadaiiyaan

This film release got delayed for long time and even came after long time the film got good response and feedback from all over the world. I would like to thank Rajini sir and her daughter for making this film. It would be a starter film in India. Henceforth people like to watch these movies in theater's like Hollywood films. After four years of gap, Rajini sir fans and people in India An opportunity to see this fantastic movie that made in Tamil, Hindi and many more languages. All the film actors,producers and technicians must watch this movie and it attracts children and young and all the people I pray for Rajini sir be in good health and continue to do good for people of India Thank you

Kochadaiiyaan will mark a shift way we perceive Indian cinema. I came up with an open mind to accept the film on whatever the graphic quality but it stunned me to the core. Good content and full of my thalaivar all the way thru. Absolutely loved it being a die hard fan of Super star. I know that graphic was not up to Hollywood standard and I don't want compare it at all. What are the positive outcomes in India cinema -- Kochadaiiyaan is a welcome change to all run of the mill stories. I strongly believe that in years to come we can see many more producers willing to invest in Indian animations films and technologies. Coming back to film -- its been ~4 years to see my thalaivar on screen and I want this movie to be all-thalaivar stunts, dialogues, and dance moves. I came out of the movie with full satisfaction and time well spent. I will watch this movie again, again ... just for my thalaivar. Not to forget the performance other lead actors everyone did an amazing job and hats off to the director "Soundarya Rajinikanth" and writer "K.S. Ravikumar"

One may easily predict the graphic quality of Kochadaiiyaan, from the 2 min trailer as - "not up to the mark". They are not to be blamed, as Kochadaiiyaan stand below the fellow movies like Tin Tin, Avatar (as they claim). But what the people don't understand is that it is new to Indian Cinema as many of them have not heard of the technique before. Even the film is made in one of the Hollywood studios ( Centroid ) it failed to show the difference, may be they used their amateur techies for their small client (budget of the movie is just 125 crores Indian Rupee) . After all, as I said, it is a first attempt. But we have to admit that the production failed to understand- " First impression is the best impression".

Enough about the tech-quality !!!

Talking about the story, it is simple, crystal clear, don't-think-too- much-just-sit-and-enjoy type. For a movie hardly running to 120 minutes, what we need is a clear plot and bounding screenplay. I think the script writers knows it. It is an Indian movie, so expect some music numbers. Background score is done by Academy Award winning A.R.Rahman. RAJINIKANTH - the man made it once again. It is truly his own show right from the title card. We all know his voice can make wonders and yet it does. It is a treat to his large fan base in south India. So, altogether the movie is worth watching once in theaters. The movie is worth giving 7, but +1 for first attempt from freshers.

When first announced, it came under several film titles/projects - from "Sultan: The Warrior" to "Rana" (to which is now a prequel/sequel) to finally "Kochaiidaiyaan". It was a brave attempt into a completely unknown territory.

With this, comes the risk one the project being a complete success or a complete failure. I am now thinking of it heading towards the latter, unfortunately.

With a beastly budget of $21 million which for a Tamil/Kollywood film is unprecedented, it would mean that the film would have to perform admirably at the box office the world over to even break even. At this moment in time, it is looking somewhat dim ; $7 million gross since release.

Let's get to the story - the story is, by movie standards, quite standard. Nothing the movie world has not heard before. I found the story quite interesting and with the usual 'love story' we always have in Tamil movies, this is quite refreshing. However, as the movie progressed, the story can be quite coagulated/rigid with little room for one's own interpretation, but thankfully at the end of it all, it does hold up just fine. The story is about kings/kingdoms and quite honestly, is not that often we see it in Tamil movies, so kudos to that. Unfortunately, the 'pitfalls' of a typical Indian movie is here - don't want to sound too harsh but the 'ridiculous' moments does occur. Riding a dolphin and being propelled into the air onto a ship ; really? Haha, quite hilarious but it is moments like this then make you go "What did just see?!" Potential meme in the making. There are other cringe- worthy moments as well, but I'll spare them.

The music - quite possibly the best part of the movie. A.R. Rahman did a brilliant job here (he narrate the Tamil version too). The songs are really good and worth listening over and over again. Highly recommended to purchase the audio CD.

The movie paces itself just fine. However, I felt that instead of a near 2 hours runtime, it should have been trimmed to just over 90 minutes, as with most animated feature movies. I didn't feel the movie 'stretchy' or 'overly long' for an animated movie.

Now comes the hard part - and the most talked about aspect of the movie - the CGI. Has anyone seen 2007's "Beowulf"? If yes, then anything less than this is going to draw criticism. Movie goers are not easy to please these days, and I consider myself highly critical of '...it could have been better' movies. "Kochaiidaiyaan" fails quite squarely in this regard. The CGI is easily 5-7 years behind the tech of the most advanced animated movies - I'm not talking "How to Train Your Dragon" or "Toy Story", but rather the more human-involved/realistic 3D animated movies - the easiest example would be Robert Zemeckis' motion-captured films ("A Christmas Carol", "The Polar Express", etc.). The opening sequence of the movie on the boat - it should have been either removed or simply redone. Not a good way to start the movie. Even video games have better visuals than that. There are certain areas that the CGI shines, Rajini looks the best with little dead eyes compared to other CGI rendered characters. The motion capture technology is there but there are some clunkiness to it. Compared to the ultra high budget "Avatar", the motion capture in "Kochaiidaiyaan" is about half way there. Facial expression and such only effective works in some scenes while others seem more generic/standard. Nothing special about the motion capture here. It's here, it's okay, and nothing to shout about. More work needs to be done to improve the CGI and the director, Soundarya needs to rethink how to do so - either an even bigger budget (which means a higher box office risk) or hire more skilled visual effects work force.

"Kochaiidaiyaan" is an entertaining yet flawed movie. It is a defining moment in Indian cinematic history. Any other full fledged animated movie will always be compared to this movie, for better or for worse. This is a great starting point, but the results isn't that good. Watch it if you are a fan of Rajini or someone who wants to see Indian cinema do something unique. You might be surprised if the movie induces tears in you - as in actually feeling for the characters. This is the part where no amount of tech can achieve, and it comes from the heart of the story. A good attempt. Keep up the good work. I still wholeheartedly prefer live-action to animated. While it is Super Star Rajini doing the acting, you still want to see him in live-action. On a side note, I really did appreciate the inclusion of a 'making of.../bloppers' at the end of the movie.

Rajnikanth is touted to be able to do it all- count to infinity, can find corners in circles, made the dinosaurs extinct, has played Russian roulette with a fully loaded gun and won etc. But one thing he clearly cannot do is to ensure that every film of his entertains. Kochadaiiyaan may boast of all that motion capture technology, but put side by side Hollywood exploits such as Tin Tin, it comes off as an amateurish, cartoonish effort.

The story is a standard revenge drama- in the vein of Dharam Veer, and a million Chinese martial art epics. Kochadaiiyaan is a legendary warrior in the kingdom of Kottaipatinam. He is a man of ethics, but his enemies are not. His military prowess and burgeoning popularity attracts the jealousy of the king, Rishikogadan (Nasser). In a skirmish with the rival kingdom of Kalingpuri, Kochadaiiyaan loses his army as he chooses to ensure they live rather than be massacred. The king of Kottaipatinam uses this as a reason to eradicate someone from who he feels threatened.

Kochadaiiyaan's son, Rana takes up his father's unfinished mission. He goes to Kalingpuri, trains there and becomes the army general. He then tricks the king of Kalingpuri- Mahendra Raj (Jackie Shroff), to let him make an army out of the people of Kottaipatnam who he had earlier enslaved, and then gets them home on the pretex of war. There is a double love story lined up post this featuring an "enhanced" Deepika, while Rishikogadan and Mahendra Raj must meet their bloody end.

Rajnikanth is virtually in every frame of the film, and as usual he oozes style and confidence. While the movie is decently paced, every scene is either a song or a fight sequence. The result of the motion capture technology is abysmal. The reason for doing motion capture is to impart real feel to animated characters. In Kochadaiiyaan, the effect is opposite- there is no real emotion in the facial shots of the characters. Had it been a live action film, it might have looked good. But today's audience used to Avatar and its ilk, this mediocre effort simply does not cut the cake. Even Pogo features better animation!

This expensive experiment to immortalize Rajnikanth might be good enough for die hard fans, but still cannot make up for its complete lack of connect, and its technical shortcomings. The last scene indicated a sequel- hope that is done better. 5/10