Guest Articles
Readers Reviews :Dasavatharam
By
Jun 15, 2008 - 9:01:09 AM

Dasavatharam - 7.5/10

What is it all about ?

Its a link between 12th and 21st Centuries using a logical chase for a bio-logical weapon.

Highlights:

-- Kamal Hasan: He is an artistic scientist and a scientific artist who always experiments with his roles. This time he puts his target a lot high and now he can sigh a relief for his commendable job.

Story: It is certainly an out of the box idea to relate a true devotee's his-story and the scientific threat in the current generation. Brilliant story point by Kamal. Introduction and climax scenes stand out.

Screenplay: Kamal took the usual treasure hunt / Moon Stone(Novel) type chase for moving the plot. He succeeds in putting interesting elements in sailing through an amazing maze.

-- Dialogues: There is good humour in the film here and there. Kamal and K.S. Ravi Kumar have excelled the art of creating confused comedy. There are some interesting comic conversations. Eg:

1) Officer Nadar to Govind: nuvvu Terrific Scientist aa leka Scientific Terrorist aa ???

2) Nadar's sidekick: Our sir knows many languages. He can speak 5 languages in Tamil.

3) Muslim guy: Sir, lorry driver guddaadu.
Officer Nadar: sariggaa cheppu, lorry driver guddaadaa ? lorry guddindaa ?

4) Kamal: shu...ushshu...
Asin: Shoe aa ??? nuvve socks...

5) Asin: devudu ledantaavaa ?
Kamal: devudu ledani neneppudannaanu, vundunte bagundedi annaanu.

-- Getups: Kamal's ten different 'getups' make us glued to the screen and it is difficult to 'get up' in the middle from our seats.

- He is too good in brand new getups:

George Bush, Giant Muslim guy, Japanese Guru, Rebel Leader, Avatar Singh.

- He was able to show good variation between different roles. Eg: Saint and a Giant.

- His body language in Bush's role is noteworthy.

- He looked good as a raw, RAW(Research and Analysis Wing) officer and provided good comic relief. It is one of the very best imitations of a Tamilian speaking Telugu. Excellent dialect but his conversations have been prolonged. Had they been cut short it would have been great.

- The climax fight between the Japanese guru and villain is an interesting way of using characters. The sentiment angle in bringing in this Japanese character is a very good move in the story.

-- The conflict between Hari-Hara devotees has been shown well with sarcastic remarks.

-- S.P.Balu has done a fair job in rendering his voice with different modulations for most of Kamal's roles.

-- The idea of using Tsunami for nullifying the impact of bio-weapon is very good.

-- The way Lord's Dasavatharams are shown by the old woman in a song is fine.

-- Music:
- 12th Century song is good and it has been used for BGM throughout the movie.
- 'Krishna...Murari' song is ok.

Lowlights:

-- This film has good story idea, excellent introduction and climax points but the screenplay in the middle involved too many chase sequences, re-covering many accidents and some prolonged conversations that dropped the range of the film. Kamal tried to open and end each of his getups with good backdrop and so took much time. He has put in great efforts to make it interesting but certain things have resulted a bit against his awesome, tiresome work.

-- Villian's role reminds Terminator.

-- Getup of some characters didn't stick well. Some of his roles have already been tried by Kamal himself.

-- Asin's character is irritating as it continues iterating same dialogues. We need an Anacin to bear Asin's role.

-- There should have been more clarity in justifying the title. Remember it is not 'Dasavatharalu' but pointing to a specific avatar, 'Dasavatharam'.

-- Avatar Singh role is too dramatic. Bringing in a cinematic point that Singh can't sing further owing to a cancer and finally saying that a bullet has taken away his ailment is unconvincing.

-- Music by Himesh Reshammiya is a big let down. Avatar Singh's stage song should have been better. This film needed much better music.

Final Touch:

Without Kamal's various getups the tale looks pale when it gets shifted from 12th to 21st century, inspite of some interesting story elements. It is good to see, Kamal touching various aspects like History, Terrorism, Nuclear/Bio weapons,American ideology, Muslim/Christian/Sikh characters, sand scams, Tsunami...etc

Its Kamal's kamaal all the way. His conviction is one which can be observed and absorbed. Enacting ten different roles in not an easy thing and is an uneasy thing for an actor. It takes atleast 6 hrs to put up a get up and 2 hrs to take it off. Still our Hasan makes it look so asaan.

May be we need to prounounce Kamal Hasan as Kamaal Asaan.

It is a one time must watch for any movie goer and 'Re-view'ing is the case for the one who are interested in resolving the complexity in the film and for the ones who like 'Panchatantram' type comedy.

Review by Ashok Verma

Next page Review by Sai Jeedi

Technically Brilliant Movie Fails to impress .

     Concept  : Science and Religion
    Story:
    The movie begins  the ancient tussle between Kulothunga cozhan played by Napolean and the Vaishnava saint Ramanujan Played by Kamal Hassan . The story immediately shifts to 21st century from 12th century  A  scientist invents a biological weapon (atomic fission ) which falls into the eyes of bad guys  lead by another Kamal  Hassan (a white man) and tries  to steal that weapon. But the  formula comes to  India   and  finally reaches a  old lady (also played by Kamal) and  and the rest of the movie deals with the efforts and attempts of the hero with heroine  to stop the American undercover agents.

    Positive  :
    Techincally the Movie is brilliant. Art directors and cameramn dominate the movie and  scores full marks
    Huge sets depicting the 12th century Cholamandalam Kingdom with elephants is worth and is a feast to your eyes .
    Sameer Chanda, Prabhakaran and Thotta Tarani's sets makes  the viewers thrill and spellbound. Settings are on par with Hollywood standards.
    Andy Dixon the Action choreographer did a brilliant job and some scenes feel you think that you are watching an Hollywood movie
    Cinematography  is simply Superb. Ravi Verman's camera work glues you to the screen
    Make-up man Micheal Westmore did a superb job
    Production values are brilliant and you can see the richness in every frame
    Kamal Hassan give brilliant performance
    First 40 minutes of the movie is awesome and provides a tight and terrific screenplay  Graphics and  for tsunami scene shot in Muttukadu is brilliant
    Asin in dual role  gave her best .
   

    Negative

    Story is the biggest disappointment  and its hard to tell what it is all about.
    Screeplay tests your patience
    Editing should have been crispy.
    There is no reason for Kamal playing all the 10 roles. Asin's Grandmother, Cop, Scheduled Tribes Leader ,Priest, George Bush ,Chinese man, Punjabi Singer .and so on
    S.P Balasubramaniyam giving dubbing to almost all characteres of Kamal Hassan.
    Mallika sheawat dancing for telugu song in Lasvegas Casino
    Himesh Reshamiya third grade  music fails  and DeviSri Prasad's  below average Background Score.
    Comedy is missing and dialogues are kind of EVV commedy where hero says shoo ( silent) and heroine says aiteh nenu socks aa. and many more in similar fashion
    Mallika sherawat has nothing much to perform

    There is nothing a director can do with such a weak story line

    Output : Hard to digest

Review by Sai Jeedi