7-Aum Arivu – The Seventh (Non)Sense

- The first thing that struck me while watching the movie was how Bodhi Dharman can kick Ra. One and G. One’s ass if he was alive (and kicking, of course) in 2050. While the latter two had tonnes of superhero powers heaped on them through programming and knew only how to fight and kill, Bodhi Dharman knew how to save lives as well. Besides, if you could get others to do the killing and fighting through the power of your eyes, you don’t even need to throw all those water balloons at the fire balls like Ra. One and G.One do.

- The Chinese government’s intelligence HQ conveys top secret information to an Indian scientist through Gmail. This is a political statement like none other and puts into context the biggest war of the 21st century – Google and China vs Privacy.

- Circular referencing on Wiki is perhaps the next big tool to convince the masses that the content of the film is true. By actually showing the Wiki page for Bodhi Dharman on the screen as research material for the movie, Murugadoss dares us to disprove the facts in the movie. So, next time you are shooting a historical, make sure you edit the Wiki page before the movie hits the screens, just in case.

- When Shruti Hassan talks about bringing back to life the skills of the ancestors past by activating the genetic memory, you begin to wonder if her genes suffered from selective amnesia.

- At one point in the movie, the ‘scientist’ explains how the next generation warfare will not involve physical combat at all and then in the scenes after the battle is fought between practitioners of hypnotism who battle it out just by staring at each other. Such nuanced writing has been absent from Indian cinema for a long time. Thank you Murugadoss!

- All Superheroes have blue eyes. At least both the ones releasing on Diwali this year did.

- When NR Narayana Murthy spoke about how the IITs no longer produced the same quality of engineers as it did before, everyone scoffed at him. Now Murugadoss reveals one of the systemic faults behind the situation – a cutting edge genetic engineering lab which is closed down for 18 days because it is summer vacation time. And we wonder why there are no top notch scientific thinkers in this country. Once again, thank you Murugadoss.