7Aum Arivu

In the sixth century, Bodhidharma travels from India to China carrying knowledge of martial arts and medicine, and is regarded as the founder of the Shaolin tradition. In the present, a student working on genetics tries to find a descendant of his and awaken that memory. On the other side is an assassin sent from China. The subject is not science but a forgotten inheritance being reclaimed. The film's argument is explicit: India lost its own knowledge and others developed it. That claim is historically contested and the film presents it as fact. The form has two parts: the present-day strand of a hero working as a circus performer, and a sixth-century section with period design. The long Bodhidharma passage at the opening plays almost as a separate short film. A. R. Murugadoss directs. Suriya plays both Bodhidharma and the present-day circus performer, preparing physically for each separately. The Vietnamese Johnny Tri Nguyen staged the fights and also plays the assassin. The music is by Harris Jayaraj. Shruti Haasan plays the scientist. Who it is for: viewers who like large-scale Tamil action and mixtures of history and science fiction. Who it is not for: anyone unwilling to watch historical claims go unquestioned; the film narrates its own thesis as though it were proven.