Kochadaiiyaan

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.

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"

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" as a Rajinikanth film has all the elements to satisfy his fans. It has a grand introduction scene, which is followed by an extremely inspiring song, breathtaking stunt sequences, mass appealing dialogues and most importantly the superstar himself in three larger- than-life roles, doing everything that's impossible to do in real life. But "Kochadaiiyaan" as an animated feature, which is made using motion capture technology, fails to live up to the expectations of all those who watch a Rajinikanth film just for the sake of entertainment.

We have a tried-and-tested revenge story. A son has to avenge the murder of his father, who was killed trying to protect the lives of thousands of soldiers of a kingdom. Rajinikanth plays both son and father; Rana and Kochadaiiyaan, respectively.

The problem is not with the film's story because a Rajinikanth film never has a story. It's always about him and what he does on screen to entertain his fans. Sometimes even the most stupid act pulled off by the superstar will make a houseful of audience applaud in merriment. Such moments were missing or were limited in "Kochadaiiyaan", which heavily suffered from creating an emotional connect with the characters.

Every time Rajinikanth and Deepika hugged, you couldn't feel the passion in their romance. It looked as though two cartoon characters were made to romance one another. Because of this even in the most emotional scenes of the film, you feel emotionally disconnected. Several artificial instances such as these make the film boring and the characters lifeless. All this makes you come to the conclusion that the film would've worked wonderfully if it was a live action feature. Come to think of it, "Kochadaiiyaan" would've definitely looked magnificent in live action form than in the half baked animated format that only looks colorful but not legendary.

In layman's terminology, motion capture technology is supposed to recreate real characters as realistic as possible in reel. But most of the characters suffered from identity crisis and you could only identity them from their voices. Actors such as Aadi and Sarath Kumar were the terribly looking animated characters on screen, while the rest such as Nasser, Deepika and Jackie at least had some major references to be related with their real self. The biggest problem with the characters was their eyes, which mostly looked dead. Eyes speak a lot about a person's emotions and because most of the characters had dead eyes, we couldn't build an emotional bond with them.

Rajinikanth was recreated to near perfection. Of course, there were certain issues with some of his physical features but he looked overall satisfying. Most importantly, his mannerisms were intact in the animated format and that was one of highlights of the film and it certainly gave audiences a reason to love the film at regular intervals.

Rahman is the film's biggest saving grace and it's his music and background score that breathes life into the film. The songs looked visually spectacular but their placement sometimes affects the film's narrative. Another highlight of the film was its extremely short running time of 118 minutes. It's a rarity to see such a short Rajinikanth film but that might just work in the favor of "Kochadaiiyaan", which could've irked the audiences with extended running time.

Hardcore Rajinikanth fans will enjoy the film once but even for them revisiting it is nearly impossible.

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