Dasavatharam

Dasavatharam - a movie that is class apart. A movie which is so different from typical tamil movies. As a blog in sulekha rightly pointed out, most of the tamil films can be easily fitted into one or the other of the stereotypes - Rags to riches, Hero takes a revenge either because the villain had killed his parents / villain raped his sister, romantic love stories. A few movies that stand apart and those that deal with offbeat stories like Anbe Sivam, Tamil M. A, Hey Ram never make it big and are branded as boring - condusive environment for all directors to not think outside of proven boundaries that I have listed earlier.

Coming back to Dasavatharam, those who feel that the movie didnt have a storyline either missed the first 5-10 mins of movie when the narration happens or simply failed to understand the underlying concept so beautifully explained. The movie is based on the Chaos Theory which is best explained by the butterfly effect. The entire story is an adaptation of this theory. All the events that are seemingly unrelated are connected in one way or another. If only Govind had not met one of his friends or If only George Bush had asked the plane to return to USA, the vial would have never reached India and it just doesnt stop there. Such Ifs continue throughout the story (stretching it a bit too far to allude) that the act by the chola king of dropping the statue in the sea in the 12th century causes the Tsunami.

 

The Dus Avatars
Kamal comes in 10 different avatars - No other contemporary actor could even dream of trying anything like this.

Of all the roles, the one who impressed me most is the RAW chief - the timing and the dialogue delivery are impeccable. Also notable are the accent and mannerisms of Bush and Rangaraja nambi. A lot of effort has gone into differentiating each of the 10 characters - not just their face and voice, but also their height, walking style, their tamil / english accent, their body build and their mannerisms. One of the common complaint that I heard from my friends is that too many characters have been wasted and they have just been introduced to make up the magic number 10. I agree partly to this that too much of kamal becomes kind of an overkill. But it is also impossible to give weightage to 10 different characters, yet have a good story line and still finish the movie in under 3 hrs. Also, the arguments that the characters are inconsequential are baseless as simple acts of each of these characters decided the way the events happened - be it the way Khalif helped Govind or the old woman dumping the vial into the statue.

 

Special Effects
Needless to say the special effects were of very high standards compared to other tamil movies but may be because it was given to 10 different companies, at times, the special effects stand out as being artifical but the Tsunami scenes, the 12th century scenes and the scenes involving 2-3 kamals have been really handled well. The only other thing that stands out or in fact is glaring is Kamals make up. While some of the characters like Rangarajan, Bush and balram are really good, the other make-ups like the Old woman, Fletcher and the marshal arts teacher - all look ugly and as if a mask has been worn.

 

The Asin Effect
Too many people have been bothered by the constant nagging by the lead lady, Asin. She never seemed to be worried about anything else thats happening around her except for her own perumal. In my opinion, she has played her role to perfection. A Tam-brahm from an orthodox vaishnavite family in chidambaram has been potrayed very realistically. My own friend is a staunch Tam-brahm and I could have sworn that he would have done most, if not all what Asin did. Of course, I must admit that it has been exaggerated in the movie.

1) Clearly, an overdose of kamal - The movie would have been a lot better with just 2-3 kamals instead of 10

2) Lack of Humour - But for the RAW chief, all the other characters lacked humour - so kind of becomes monotonous

3) Make-up - overdose.

4) Himesh - Mukunda Mukunda and Oh Oh sanam are good. Was shocked to see that "Kallai Kandal" is a lift from vikrams mallu movie. Though I loved the lyrics of that song.

(Thanks to the explanation in the FAQ link, I understood the only missing piece that eluded me - How is the story that happens in the 12th cetury related to the rest of the movie)

Some other sources:
1) FAQs on Dasavatharam (http://sify.com/movies/fullstory.php?id=14695489)

2) Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory)

3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect

4) Similar reviews on Sulekha