Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Kochadaiyan was packaged as India's answer to Avatar, but it is nowhere near Avatar.The film is a very amateurish attempt at animation. All the characters are cardboard characters. Surely, rajini deserves better.We come to know now that the rudrathaandavam & even some scenes were done by other artists since rajini's health did not permit him to strain himself.The animation in "Chota Bheem" is much better that kochadaiyaan.Music by ARR is OK.KSR tries to salvage the film with his screenplay but he is let down by poor direction by Soundarya rajini.A huge disappointment for everyone. No wonder, it bombed big time.

I will not even address the graphics element of this movie, as the film's creators themselves insist that this was the effect they were going for. If this was the best they could do, that's fine, but now what I am left with is the naked body of the film that was hiding behind the drapes of the motion capture technology: the script. This is a revenge movie with nothing new to add as far as a plot, especially in the Tamil industry. Man's family is wronged in some way, man goes undercover, man reveals himself and gets revenge on the villains. Then we have all the unnecessary plot elements that added nothing to the hero's characterization. He dances like a badass? Cool. He rides on a dolphin's nose? Cool (and literally impossible). He does yoga? Cool. But what does all this say about a character that we should be rooting for? After this entire pomp sequence, we are still left with a character (the title character, ironically enough) that is not shelled out enough and too hollow for the audience to feel any attachment to him and root for him. Then we have the whole issue of who the bad guy really is. In Rana's words, "country is more important than friendship", and we see in this nationalistic period, people are willing to go to any limit for their country. So how is Raja Mahendra not justified in poisoning in their enemy's soldiers but Rana is when he basically smuggles their main labor force out of their country? That's messed up, man. Also, Veera Mahendra seemed to be a genuinely good friend until he was betrayed, so his actions seem justified as well. So who is the real hero in all of this? It was of course Kochadaiiyaan, who performed the ultimate sacrifice of dying for the right thing. But oh wait, he was also the most poorly developed character in the movie! And then we have Princess Vadhana, who was literally only a pretty face for the dance sequences/ the subject of my nightmares. Similar things can be said for all the other supporting characters (even the nightmare part), as they did not do what they were meant to do: SUPPORT. Rana's sister had her own plot that provided nothing to the plot. Nagesh, I am so sorry. These characters were only around, it seems, for the movie to meet its run time requirements as the main plot was so insubstantial. I can guarantee that this movie would have been a failure were it not for the name Rajini attached to it. I am thankful for this movie for one reason only. It gives us a chance to step back and realize what a detrimental effect nepotism and politics has on the Tamil film industry. There are really moving and novel scripts out there and directors with a different point of view that no one wants to pay attention to because they are overshadowed be films and people like this. Let the pomp and mindless, almost religious following of Kochadaiiyaan be an example of something we should not strive for, and let us go back to making cinema, not hype.

Kochadaiiyaan, movie based on performance capture technology is definitely one of its kind and opens new door for movies which are expensive for real time making.The Strength of the movie is its magnificent plot and witty dialogues written by K.S.Ravikumar. This movie revolves around the plot that everyone one of us has enjoyed listening or reading to.Having a strong story in hand, Director Soundarya has conveyed it appropriately to audience using best of the techniques, with the help of A.R.Rahman's lively music.Above all, it was SUPERSTAR Rajinikanth's charisma that has helped a lot for portrayal of lead characters in the movie. Without his star power this movie would have found hard to reach the audience.I don't find it necessary to criticize on the graphics part of any movie. As long as the story and the characters are good, its okay to bare with graphics. All movies that rely on technologies will need improvement.Except for some songs and dragging battle scenes in second half, this movie will keep you engaged and entertained thoroughly.Having watched it thrice already, Kochadaiiyaan will be labelled as HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.!

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.