KOCHADIIYAAN - "RAJINI" can never be imitated or animated!

KOCHADIIYAAN- “Rajini” can never be imitated or animated!

Cast: - RajiniKanth as Kochadiiyaan, Rana & Sena, R.Sarathkumar as Sengodagan, Deepika Padukone as Princess Vadhana, Shobana as Yaahavi, Asdhi as Veera, Mahendra, Jackie Shroff as Raja Mahendra, Nassar as Rishikodagan & Rukmini Vijayakumar as Yamuna

Producers – Sunil Lulla/Sunanda Murali Manohar/Prashita Chaudhary

& Crew :- Director – Soundarya R. Ashwin – Written by – K.S.Ravikumar, Music – A.R.Rahman, D.O.P – Rajiv Menon, Edit- Anthony, Sound Designer – Resul Pookutty

Studio- Eros International/Media One Global Entertainment

Running Time – 118 Mins

Poser:- “Animation is a word, a process. In India, people think animation is cartoon. Avatar was animation but is not a cartoon. Tintin is completely cartoonistic. I am creating Rajinikanth where he has actually performed. It’s captured on a camera and then put into a 3D version. Avatar took 7 years and so much budget and a James Cameron. There was always insecurity of the unknown, but we have taken a road never taken in India and broken rules and have completed the film in just a year and a half.” – Soundarya R Ashwin

Answer:- “We rolled straight into what we had done for Avatar,” Letteri says “ We developed a new subsurface technique for the skin to have it look a little better, We developed some new facial software to add a layer of muscle simulation beyond what we could track and solve from the facial capture, and we developed a new hair system that we also used on Planet of the Apes. But, from a performance – capture point of view, we are still recording an actor’s performance. It was no different from mapping data to the Na’Vi or an ape. We are making comic book inspired characters, not ones that looked like humans, but there’s always a level of animation and interpretation. We had big sequences in King Kong that were computer – generated, most of the scenes in Avatar were entirely in a CG virtual world, and Tintin is in a virtual world all the way. FOR US THERE’S NO DIFFERENCE.” – Letteri – is a senior visual effects artist. Winner of 4 academy awards & 4 BAFTA awards.

P.S. I hope I have been able to clear the confusion in the minds of the “Aam” Indian viewer regarding animation expressed by Soundarya R Ashwin. Let’s now move on to the premise of this film.

Direction, story & Screenplay: - Formula 1 – The cause - Two brothers Rana & Sena are separated in their childhood by the death of their father “Kochadiyaan”  the Commander in Chief of the army under RishiKodagan king of Kalingapuri.(Nassar)(Yes! Rajini plays 3 roles though Sena appears in only one scene the final!). Formula 2- Sentiment-The father is beheaded for the wrong reasons by the villainous king RishiKodagan. Formula 3- Revenge – Before his death Kochadiyaan draws a promise from young Rana that his people who are languishing as prisoners in Kottaipattinam ruled by Sengodagan (Sarath Kumar) will be freed from bondage. Why is Kochadiyaan forced to leave them there?  Simple! They are poisoned by king Sengodagan to loot riches and Persian horses from the ships manned by none other than Kochadiyaan.  Why does he leave them? Even more simple! Unless he leaves them there Sengodagan refuses to provide the herbal antidote to cure them! How very cruel & sadistic! Hope I am clear thus far. The story teller Ravikumar pairs Kochadiyaan with danseuse Shobana and Rana with Deepika Padukone. Kochadiiyan dances with Shobana using the Shiva Thandavam as his style while Shobana uses the classical bharath natyam. The problem here is in the animation the dance sequences truly appears slow and often comical. Though A.R.R and S.P.B keep you enthralled as standalones but as part of the film they look forced and out of place. Thank god the music and songs were not animated! Rana on the other hand even shows you some modern days dance moves though in slow and jerky motions and Deepika does a peacock dance with Rana in “Shivaji” Sahana style movements which looks straight out of a fairy tale. Children will love this!  Rana grows up to become the “Senapathi” (following his father’s footsteps) though in enemy territory under King Sengodagan whose son is Aadhi is the boyhood buddy of Rana the orphan boy. Rana’s very entry and coronation as commander in chief is a brave attempt to speed up the action using a horse but the animation even manages to slow down the horse! Rana comes up with a brilliant plan (which the dumbass prince Aadhi agrees to) to free the prisoners (Kalingapuri) and train them as soldiers and use them to capture Kalingapuri! Why should the prisoners fight their own people because by doing so they will reunite with their families. Confusing! Wait more of this brilliant plan will soon unfold!  Formula – 5 – Twist – When Rana and his army of prisoners reach Kalingapuri, Rana revels in his own brilliance as he defeats his own army (kottaipattinam) without shedding a drop of blood! How he does that is seen to be believed! To cut the story short Rana has fulfilled the word he had given to his father the late Kochadiyaan. Rana the hero turns a match maker and gets his sister married to the prince much against Nassar’s wishes.

The 2^nd half signals the entry of the animated imitation of “Nagesh”. A poor and sad imitation of the footage from the film “Thiruvillayaadal”! In fact if anyone Nagesh’s fans should protest in such shabby treatment meted out to this great comic actor of Tamil cinema. The less said the better. This half continues with Rana now being imprisoned by Nassar for repeated assassination attempts on him by Rana. There is also a bonus thrown in with Deepika Kung fu and kalari fighting with the hooded Rana. Most of this half is filled with bizarre and inconsequential scenes in which daughter/director Soundarya reduces the real Rajini to a poor animated copy of the larger than life original. Finally Nassar imprisons Rana while Sengodakkan raises an army to capture Kottipattinam. To ward of the threat Nassar agrees to trade his daughter Deepika and get her married to Aadhi (Sengodagan’s son).

& the climax:- Rana escapes from prison by inciting animals which look like a cross between wolves and hyenas with the scent of his own blood (children will love this clever ploy normally featured in Amar Chitra Katha comics). He then rides a chariot like Benhur and motivates an army and the locals and kills all the animated villains who threatened to slow the animated film to a complete stop!

Acting: - Rajinikanth is a larger than life hero. He by being himself can animate a scene in any film. Animation gives him the feel of a slow motion character which is just the opposite of his real life characteristics. In my opinion his daughter and director Soundarya has done great injustice to him by animating him in this film. I will always love the real Rajini and will never ever be able to accept an animated Rajini however good the animation may turn out to be! In fact in some scenes Rajini looked like someone who had just recovered from a bad knee operation.

Actors such as Aadi and Sarath Kumar were all badly animated as characters on screen, while the rest such as Nasser, Deepika and Jackie looked a far cry from their original selves. This proves to be a big irritant and an eye sore throughout the film. Their movements were so stilted and jerky that watching it on 3D was painful. Every time Rajinikanth and Deepika hugged it looked like two cartoon characters that are being forced to romance one another. Even during most emotional scenes in the film, one felt 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 had been made into a feature film & not animated!

Music: - The biggest life saver but alas purely as a standalone and not a part of this film! S.P.B and his golden voice aid A.R.R’s admirable efforts!

Edit: - The films duration of 118 mins though short by normal Tamil standards another 15 to 20 mins cut would have probably helped.

Finally to sum it all up, a quote: “When in doubt stick to the ORIGINAL!

Left right & Centre: - There were occasional cheers as and when RAJINI appeared on screen but for the rest nothing but silence!

Bottom Line: - Never try to imitate the real by animating the copy!

My Rating: - Animation- 0.75 Attempt - 0.50 Rajini- 1.25 Total 2.5/5

Until next time, 

Director Haricharan

Chennai

23 /05/2014