Dasavatharam

Dasavatharam, the much awaited and hyped up movie, proclaimed to make it to the oscars, turned out to be a decent movie with USP of 10 Kamal's. People who have seen the movie would agree with me to just bury the script in reams of cynicism and accept that Dasavatharam with all its flawless flaws, is a decent spectacle to watch and that kamal has re-affirmed his talent. Although it seems to me as a normal movie with overtones of typical filmi masala, no one can take the credit away from kamal for donning the 10 roles he has done. The story starts of with kamal explaining chaos theory and how that is related to his story and then to the fight between shaivaites and vaishnavites in the 12th century over the idol of Lord Vishnu.An ardent Vishnu devotee loses his life to save the idol of Lord Ranganatha. Kamal plays this devotee Rangaraja Nambi. I would like to add here that for all the hype and anxiety they created they could have given us better graphics, although the camera work was fantastic. The graphics were not upto the international standards but then the hype makes us expect to that level. This has been the problem with movie-watchers like us who watch movies made all around the globe.If we accept the simple fact that this was a movie made for Indians, especially south Indians, we would start seeing the positive aspects in the movie more rather than criticizing it. But then again, there is nothing wrong in speaking about the negative aspects too.After the 12th century show, the story revolves around the protagonist Govind Ramasamy(kamal) who is an upright scientist at U.S. From the labs at the firm he is working, a virus vial which was safely guarded, traverses a part of USA before reaching chidambaram in south India. The frantic car and bike chases really stole the show as they were a feast to the eyes and made with pulsating zeal. Christian Fletcher was played with ferocity and without any pity. Although, at times i felt that the chase was way too long and it resembled tom and jerry chases where finally jerry evades tom always. Certain stunts were breath taking and I admired them. Andal played by Asin was like a cantankerous mule. She was very irritating and her screenplay was done with crassitude. She was glutinously holding onto the Idol, whole of the movie and did not feel remorse even after making a huge accident. She showed too much naiveness and there were certain filmi gimmicks too. When she was about to be sexually assaulted she pleads them respectfully to leave her. That was not funny although it was intended to be. The obstinate Iyengar paati krishnaveni, who still beleived that her son was alive created sympathy. Again hats off to kamal for his voice intonation and accent for all his roles, esp to this one. Vincent Poovaraghan who speaks malayalam mixed tamil , tirunelveli and nagercoil side tamil( actually that is the original tamil) was awesome in dialogue delivery and expressions. The kamal i loved and enjoyed the most was Balram Naidu, the telugu-loving RAW Officer. Kamal did a fantastic job in speaking tamil the way a real telugu guy would have spoken. His spontaneity was cheerful and enjoyable, one of the reasons you should watch this movie. Other characters were the seven foot tall Khalifulla Khan, President George Bush, the japanese sama Shingen Narahasi, and the Daler Mehndi types, Avtaar Singh. One of the commendable efforts was erecting a large set at the Taramani Film City in India which was a Replica of the White House, with Kamal Haasan’s makeup for the role lasting six whole hours to obtain the desired outcome. For the climax scenes of the film, a tsunami effect was created in Mahabalipuram. The scene was shot at a 50,000 sq. ft. area land in which a 100-ft. wall was created near Muttukadu. Six machines, which generated 20 ft. high waves, was imported from the US, for a total cost of 3.5 crore rupees. For the climax, another scene was shot dramatically above the Nehru Stadium with the permission of the chief minister, Karunanidhi. Himesh Reshammiyas music was decent, although i feel Rahman would have done wonders. And I also feel shankar could have directed this venture rather than K S Ravikumar. It suits him better. Now We all know that though the movie had 10 roles of kamal, all the roles were not interconnected properly. It looked like Kamal did those 10 roles just for the record sake and that any body could have done those roles. I personally felt the same until i started reading certain articles and blogs regarding why 10 roles were casted and why it was given the name of Lord Vishnu's dasavatharam. Apparently there were certain similarities in those 10 avatars and these 10 avatars and here it goes... The following analysis was done just to understand certain aspects of characterisation by certain people and is not to hurt any person's feelings regarding Lord Vishnu and his avatars.

1.Krishna avatar - Vincent Poovaraghavan Lord krishna is dark-skinned [shyamalam]. He saved draupadi when she was being violated and he was the actual diplomat in mahabharatham. Lord krishna dies of an arrow striking his lower leg. Now look at how vincent was introduced. He appears when asin is about to be molested and he saves her like draupadi. Vincent is the dalit diplomat, fights for land issue [soil issue to be exact] and dies from the metal rod striking his leg. Oh even five of vincent’s men are drugged at P. Vasu’s Place. Sounds familiar?

2. Balarama avatar - Balarama naidu This is an easy asumption as the name suggests.

3. Mathsya avatar - Ranagaraja nambi Nambi is thrown into water in an act of trying to save lord from being thrown.

4. Varaha avatar - Krishnaveni paatti During the mukunda song, krishnaveni paatti does varaha avatar in the shadow puppetry. Moreover, in varaha avatar lord actually hides earth so as to protect life forms. Here too krishnaveni hides the VIRUS vial inside the statue so as to protect life forms.

5. Vamana avatar - Kalifulla khan In vamana avatar, lord vishnu takes the vishvaroopa, that is the giant form! Hence the giant kalifulla symbolises vamana avatar.

6. Parasurama avatar - Christian Fletcher Parasurama is actually on an angry killing spree and killed 21 generations of the particular kshatriya vamsa.He comes around with the gun [modern upgrade for axe] and kills everyone around.

7. Narasimha avatar - Shingen Narahashi First of all the name itself is a play on the words singam [means lion in tamil] and narasimha [the avatar being symbolised]. Lord Narasimha manifests himelf to kill the bad guy Hiranya-kashyap and he also teaches prahaladha. In the movie, he shows up to kill the killer fletcher! and is also a teacher(sama). Lord Narasimha had to kill the asura with bare hands and hence the martial arts exponent here.

8. Rama avatar - Avatar Singh Lord Rama stands for the one man one woman maxim, kind of symbolizing true love.. Here Avatar portrays that spirit by saying that he loves his woman more than anything and wants to live for her.

9. Kalki avatar - Govindaraj Ramasamy As you know, the hero in kaliyug can be none other than the Kalki avatar!!!

10. Koorma avatar - Bush This is considered to be the most loose adaptation by many movie-lovers. But if you look at the real koorma avatar, the lord is the turtle/tortoise that helps in stirring the ksheera sagara and bringing out the amruth. This essentially creates war among the devas and asuras. Similarly today Bush facilitates war between you know whom..May be Kamal also indicates that this avatar is a bit dumb like the tortoise…not knowing what is Na Cl.

I would like to add on one more view regarding this movie. After all the hurry-burry scenes, it all comes down to the basic question of- Is God there?
Lastly when Asin asks Kamal not to say that God is not there, he replies- " i am not telling god is not there, i am saying it would be good if he (chauvinism not intended) is there". This clearly explains what Kamal was intending. It was a conceited reply and kamal has spoken about God in many a movies now. He has tried to incorporate his ideologies regarding God, being a self confessed rationalist, the way he is. And if u ask me why that 12th century story then i would say 2 reasons
1. Its kamal for you!
2. Maybe u can draw parallels between what happened in 12th century and what happened in dec 2004, both these times they were fighting for a God's Idol but for a different reason, making the so called god omni present even over different era's.
In my perspective Kamal has stopped being an atheist and started beleiving that all is one and one is all! Thats why in the end he shows people thanking their respective gods for saving their lives from the tsunami, if there is God, that is!
On the whole the movie is entertaining and a treat to watch if you go without any expectations.

Naren
Writer's Note:- Views about the analogy between the 10 avatars of Lord Vishnu and Dasavatharam is not mine. I saw this review in one of the forums and thought would share it.