Kochadaiiyaan Review

One Line Review: A story of justice and revenge, with an impressive plot, but falling short of animation.

Positive Points: Plot of the film is well set; decent direction.

Negative Points: The much hyped animation fails to impress.

Plot: Rana (Rajinikanth) is a brave warrior from the kingdom of Kottaipatinam and also the king Rikudaman's (Nassar) trusted bodyguard. His younger sister Yamuna and the king's son Udaybhan (R. Sarathkumar) love each other and finally get approval of the king to marry.

However, even Rana and Vadana (Deepika Padukone), the king's daughter, are in love with each other and want to marry. After Udaybhan and Yamuna's marriage, the king refuses to give the royal seat to his son since he has married someone outside the royal lineage. This upsets him and he leaves the court with his wife.

One night, when the king is alone, he is attacked by an unknown assailant but is fortunately defended by his daughter. It turns out that he is none other than Rana. When he is jailed for his crime, he is confronted by Vadana to the reason for this deadly attack.

He then finally reveals that his father Kochadaiiyaan (Rajinikanth), who was a Shiva devotee, was the army general and his words and deeds earned him people's love. His brave exploits helped the empire to expand on one hand and his words of wisdom made him a beacon of light for the people.

However, the king grew extremely jealous of the general and hence he was looking for an opportunity to find a reason to kill him, which he did. Since that day, Rana has been looking for an opportunity to avenge the injustice inflicted to his father by murdering the king.

What happens to Kochadaiiyaan and whether Rana will be successful to get revenge on his father murderer is revealed in the further tale.

Direction And Other Technical Aspects: This is the first photo-realistic motion captured animated film in India and has been spoken well of pre-production. However, the film doesn't really hold up to the expectations of the people. In fact, the animation may seem a bit sophisticated initially, but in a detail it doesn't fall in line.

Though there is an improvement, it is more of a dud. Action scenes are well shot, but rest of the film doesn't hold up due to still in progress animation quality in India.

Direction is average with the scenes fitted well as per the plot of the film. The Shiv Taandav scene by Kochadaiiyaan has been directed impressively though.

Performances: Rajinikanth as usual delivers a strong performance for his roles as both Kochadaiiyaan and Rana. There is a distinction of performance and facial expressions, when it comes to differences between his role as Kochadaiiyaan, who is stern, serious and strong and then his son Rana who is a bit light hearted, but also ruthless and a fighter.

Deepika Padukone's role is not really that noteworthy, but is just well enough to carry on with the film.

Nassar, who plays the role of the king, delivers a good performance of a king who is jealous, foolhardy and angry. He shows all the signs of a person in insecurity.

Music: 'Aaya Khwaab Ka Mausam' and 'Dilchaspiya' are the two songs romantic songs in the beginning of the film sung well by Raghav Mathur and Arijit Singh and Jonita Gandhi respectively. While 'Bol De' sung by Rajinikanth and Javed Ali sounds good too. 'Aye Jawan' sung by A. R. Rahman and A. R Raihanah.

Final Verdict: 'Kochadaiiyaan' has got that quality of a good story telling due to its interesting plot and well to do direction quality. However, when it comes to animation, the film doesn't really fair so well. It was expected that the motion capture animation would be a surprise but is little more than a dud. The only other thing that keeps up the film is Rajinikanth's performances are Kochadaiiyaan and Rana. So unless you are a hardcore Rajni fan, this would be one time watch for you.