Kochadaiyaan Review – Is the Rajnikanth film worth watching?

Performance captured realistic animation films have never been made before in India. So when a filmmaker takes up the challenge of making a film using that technology they need to be applauded for their ingenuity no matter what the end product turns out to be. Having said that, all the money that has been spent on Kochadaiiyaan would turn out to be a waste if the backers are not able to recover their huge investment. So does Kochadaiyaan fully satisfy all the Rajini fans? Let’s dissect.

Story: Kochadaiyaan takes us back to the princely era of India where India was a land of various flourishing kingdoms. Rannvijay Rana (Rajinikanth) is the general of the army of the kingdom of Kalingapuri. His all round skills as a warrior puts the kingdom of Kalingapuri at an advantage against the kingdom of Kottaipatanam. But there are many underlying secrets that play a part in the story. Rannvijay is in love with the daughter of the King of Kottaipatanam (Deepika Padukone). Rannvijay also has to avenge the death of his father who was killed by his own king Mahendra (Jackie Shroff). The ending of Kochadaiiyaan leaves a scope for a sequel.

Kochadaiyaan Poster

Kochadaiyaan Review – A film strictly for die-hard Rajinikanth fans

Screenplay and Direction: Veteran film writer Ravikumar has written the script of Kochadaiyaan keeping in mind the aura and charisma of Superstar Rajinikanth. And to a large degree the story keeps us hooked with the second half being the better of the two halves. But unfortunately, the direction by Soundarya Rajinikanth doesn’t live up. The film feels non-fluid and feels like a jagged glue-up of set-pieces created 1000s of miles from each other.

For a film like Kochadaiyaan the technical aspects of it needed to be first class. But unfortunately, India still can’t compete with Hollywood when it comes to budgets and the budget surely plays a big part in the final product seen on screen. Let’s just say the animation left a lot to be desired. The characters on screen look like waxed-up mannequins when viewed in close shots. The cinematography and editing are good. The music by AR Rahman is largely generic but they suit the film well. The background music makes the film better but the music hampers the pace of the film.

Acting: There’s not much that can be said about the acting in Kochadaiyaan since it is an animation film. But Rajinkanth does well with his voice modulation and the dialogues written for him can only suit him and his reputation. Jackie Shroff, Deepika Padukone and Nasser are all decent with their voice acting.

Conclusion: If you are ready to go back in time and experience the kingly battles and politics, and if you are ready to give your time to an Indian animation film then Kochadaiiyaan deserves to be seen because of the many firsts it brings to Indian screens. Rajini fans should not be disappointed. If you are not a Rajini fan, just don’t go in with a lot of expectations and you might even enjoy Kochadaiyaan. Give it a chance.

Box Office: Kochadaiyaan is not expected to open huge in North India but it will take a bumper opening in the South. If the families warm up to it, then Kochadaiyaan could have long legs at the box office counter.

Positives:

  • Innovative way of storytelling
  • The background music is good
  • The voice acting by Rajinikanth and others work for the characters

Negatives:

  • The quality of realistic animation is too tacky and amateurish
  • The music hampers the pace of the film
  • There is no fluidity between scenes in Kochadaiyaan

Rating: ★★½☆☆

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28 Comments

  • I always appreciate those who try something new and take risks. This film may have some flaws but they should be encouraged. bollywood should come up with new type of films to take our Indian Cinema forward instead of mindless masala which takes us no where. We need more sci fi,superhero,neo noir, motion capture,animated,crime drama,period etc type of films.

  • We need more masala films and remakes to bollywood to become great. Hope filmmakers will stop making hatke movies and make as much masala and mindless entertainment movies as much as possible. Sajid Khan, RGV keep it up. Anurag Kashyap, Vikram motwane, Aashutosh goawrikar please stop making different movies and make masala movies.

  • Soundarya should be praised… and this movie needs to be seen to encourage more directors and producers to come up with this kinda project in India..

  • Let us all join and appreciate the entire team of kochadaiyan because the time, energy, money, and efforts put on each character, on each sets, etc. to make the movie as big as a Hollywood type but done in shortest possible time. It is mind blowing to see the mountains, horses, elephants, raths, soldiers, and extra ordinary visual experience in all songs. What a film. Apart from thalaivar, the story, action and almost all sequences are really awesome.

    It might be too gawky in respect of the picturisation of few charecters but remember we are in india and given the budget and time, it is a great effort

    All the Best Soundarya and your dedicated staff. My sincere wishes to the producers who have put in their money for the epic movie. Let us expect the film runs for minimum 50 days.

    Ganesh chennai

  • ???? ??????? ??? ???????? ???????? ?????? ??????????? ??????????? ?????????????? ??????? ????? ?????????????? ????? ??????????? ?????? ?????????? ????? ?????? ??? ??? ??? ?????????? ????????????????? ???????? ?????????? ?????????? ???? ??????? ????? ?????? ???? ???????? ???? ??????????? ???????? ?????????????? ?????????? ?????? ???????????.

    ????????? ?????? ??????? ??????? ??????????? ?????????? ????????? ???? ??????? ??????????? ?????? ?????? ????????????????????? ……………

    ?????? ???? ??????????? ????? ????? ????? ???????? ???????? ??????????? ????? ??????????? ???????? ??? ???? ????????????????? ???? ??????? ??????????? 125 ???? ?? ?????? 1000 ?????? ??????????? ??????????????? ???????????????? ?????? ?????? ??????????? ??????????????????????? ?????? ????????? ???? ?????? ????????????? ????????? ???????? ????…………….

  • Excellent movie from Soundarya. She immortalized Thalaivar for ever. Only Superstar can acheive this feat. As Amitabhji mentioned, Indian Cinema will be identified as Before Kochadaiiyan and After Kochadaiiyan. In spite of having huge Hindi market, no one from north dared to venture this. As a True Indian, Superstar took the mission and acheived. Guys, please come out from the British Mindset. Stop comparing our’s with Hollywood.

  • I don’t understand why everyone seems to be subsidizing their return on investment while reviewing this movie. We are not here to appreciate or support anyone’s film making efforts. This is a business transaction. We pay money and the industry is expected to provides Quality entertainment, (emphasis on Quality). Rajani Kant and the Tamil film industry are not armature school drama performers. They have been in this business for half a century, they don’t need our “encouragement” they know their job well.

    If we see crap we should have the balls to say it is crap, no matter who is performing. Tamil film industry, mostly every commercial film industry in India, is in this situation because of this “encouragement” mind set towards sub-standard productions like these.

  • Movie is highly not recommended.Utterly disappointed with the motion capture technology.Spoiled the image of superstar.

  • y dont u see dat we r in india..we dont hav dat technology as dat of holly..stop comparing n just see.

  • Kochadayan has got everything wrong in the 3D character studio. The way they move, facial expressions and the body shape are all very amateurish. Most of the characters looked like they had a lower back problem. Before they started the shooting, they should have practiced thousands of times on performance capture with the help of models until they get at least 80 % accuracy in that area. Being a big project, it was important to get the basics right. In here they didn’t bother getting any perfections. May be they thought that the Indian audience will tolerate any type of imperfections like they do in their day-to-day life. They have taken around 4 years to make this movie and about 120 crores have been poured in. Still, we have an half cooked animation. It may be that the performance capture is still not something anyone can attempt. I am a big supporter of technology when it is used to enhance. But, I hate when the technology being used just for the sake of it. Avatar’s story line needed the technology. So, it was apt to use performance capture.

    Coming back to Kochadayan review, the movie is certainly watchable. Because, it is a new attempt in Indian cinema and there were visual treats in the form of background graphics, even though it is a bit too extravagant and doesn’t match the story. Everything is too big in the graphics. All the trees looked like it is from the planet Pandora. 3D hasn’t been done properly. People and objects which are away from the camera looked huge. In the Climax scene, just before Rajini drops his sword, it looked like a huge sword covering the entire planet. In acting, only Jackie Shroff and Shanmugam seems to do some acting – only their performance seems to have been captured to some 30% accuracy. Background music is excellent and so is the camera work in the graphics. Story line is that of a king and kingdom which are imaginary or unknown. At least they could have taken a story from the real history. Then, the use of technology could have been vindicated.

  • The story was decent, in fact, they should have made it live-action; something similar to Lord of the Rings. The only downfall is the animation, it is poor, very poor. In fact, I will say that its as poor as a late 90s video game. I know India is not known for animation nor 3D animation, and if they are trying to emulate hollywood, they are decades if not centuries behind. And, for good reason, I know a lot of the older people, hate animation thinking its for kids and they will not take it seriously. So, animation in on itself will always be behind in India. They used the same technology as The Polar Express, look it up, it has Tom Hanks in the lead role, and yet The Polar Express looks a million times better. Look at any Disney/Pixar movie (Wall-E, Up, Wreck-It-Ralph, etc.), they look more realistic. In my opinion, they should have outsourced it, Avatar: The Last Airbender (not to be confused with James Cameron’s Avatar) was a Cartoon made by Nickelodeon, and it was outsourced to Korea.

  • I see comments like, it is not easy to take animation, we don’t have enough money and with the money we have it is a great effort etc. But, we don’t attempt to drive if we are blind do we? If you only have enough money to buy a Maruti, why do you attempt to buy a Rolls Royce and pay it off monthly? It will still be an attempt. But, most likely the result will be disastrous.

  • Kochadaiyaan movie time waste money waste. There is nothing much to talk about this movie. Songs were good but it is a cartoon movie.
    They could have produced a cartoon movie for kids to try a 3D!!
    I don’t know what fans see in Rajnikanth’s movies. His acting and dancing is so bad compare to others. I watch his movies for actresses, songs and scenes.

  • This movie looked worse games on the playstation 2…. It tried to look good But had
    ==FAILED==
    I honestly felt really sad about for trying to be a “Advancement” to india.. But at least they tried.
    I also honestly slept through the movie. ( ?° ?? ?°)

  • ..Good attempt for the digital film making…. it is not eazy to have such coordinated attempt…so, A+ for the attempt.
    But, if you look at the product coupled with the story line….. it gets a B –

    … for realistic annimation, the film gets a D –

    The costume design, the film gets C – ….. because, the selection of costumes are over done… not necessary…
    The buildings, inside palace, and the horses movement….. they all need to be improved….
    They should have attempted a simplistic yet realistic film…..
    A. R. Rehman tries his best to bring the ‘thunder’ through his imagination….that is exactly what was wrong….it over powers the film rather being in parallel with the film….
    One thing….Rajini image looks good….I still think the old classical movies they made with MGR still wins this race! the character Rajini’s actions more suited for social filsm rather than historical classical film…. MGR was bron to play the swashbuckler! That is how he was discovered by Mr. Dunkin (an American film maker). Soundarya gets an A + for her attempt. I wish her every success for the next attempt ….God speed!

    cheers!

  • Its not bad but its Rajnikant family movie hilarious part is daughter made it and father which is quite old played main character.That show that there is no other male left in south to play lead he he he its quite hilarious.give a chance to new people accept the fact that any other character can do the same justice to role.

  • Worst movie i have seen. The movie has the baddest graphics i have seen in a modern animation movie. Hats off for making such a bad movie. Total waste of time and money.

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