Dasavatharam – THE review!

Since every Tom and Harry is giving his review of this movie, let me also give mine and be the Dick!

On Saturday morning, I got to watch the movie Dasavatharam at Mayajal, along with my parents, Raghu and his wife Madhu. The tickets were arranged courtesy the HR folks of my unit. The tickets for the employees were sponsored by the company whilst those of family and friends had to be paid without any discount. This was pretty much the same arrangement that I did while organizing the special screening of Sivaji last year.

Anyways, here is my review of the movie that has witnessed quite a lot of “intellectual” hype.

The movie essentially has a very simple plot. Move to circa December 2004. There is a virus being studied by a research company in the USA with funding from their Government. This is a deadly strain that can kill people by the millions when exposed to air and the only cure is common salt! The boss of the project tries to sell it off to “bad” people and the protagonist who works as a scientist there, gets to know it. He steals it from the lab to prevent the sinister plans of his boss. The boss and the interested parties hire an ex-CIA goon to put things back in their control. But somehow the vial with the virus and the scientist manage to reach India via a cargo plane. The movie then traces the vial, the scientist, the goons and as assortment of characters who come along the way. Towards the end of the movie, the goon consumes this virus and lo behold, the infamous Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004 hits the shores of Tamil Nadu and the abundant salt in the sea water prevents any damage to humans from the virus.

Unfortunately, if the makers of the movie had simply stuck to executing this plot, instead of trying to satisfy Kamal Hassan’s insatiable ego, the movie would have worked wonders.

I want you to think for a minute about one thing. Given the plot above, what is the number of meaningful characters you can create in this script? The protagonist, the goon, the mandatory damsel in distress who gets caught in the action and a handful of one to two scene characters who help the protagonist along the way. And probably, since the action involves illegal entry into the country, killing of people etc., there has to be a police official thrown in the mix somewhere.

But the creators of this movie (the Producer, the Director and of course Kamal) decided that they had to spend money on “special effects” and also get Kamal to do more than 2 roles involving “Hollywood make-up” technicians. Probably, the Producer thought that since he was anyway going to pay a huge sum of money to Kamal, he decided to cut down the number of supporting actors that he’d have to sign up. Perhaps the make-up guy was playing hard-ball during his negotiations and so the Producer must have decided that he’d get him to do more work. And since he was anyway going to pay for special effects, he decided to throw in some additional work on the characters as well. Thus seems to have born Dasavatharam featuring Kamal in 10 different roles.

Now tell me, how difficult it is to relate to just one character in a movie. Maximum screen space is usually given to the hero and then the villain/heroine depending on whether the movie is a romantic one or an action based one. There would of course, be the mandatory comedy track from one of the Vs. At best, you would have 1 or 2 cameo performances from some exceptional small time actors. Given this, how would you fit in a leading actor into 10 different characters in a single movie? You would obviously have to thrust them into the movie just to see how things work out. If the Producer and Director did not have such a constraint, they’d have taken off 5-6 of the characters that Kamal played. Or at least some small time actor would have been cast in it with probably better effect.

But one must admire the confidence that the producer and the director had in this veteran actor’s ability to act as more than one person in one movie. I think he has featured in many movies where he has played dual roles. Probably only Sarath Kumar with his constant same-person-as-father-same-person-as-son formula, comes anywhere close to him in doing ‘double action’ movies. If Kamal doesn’t represent himself as twin brothers or lost brothers or father-son, he becomes a person who masquerades as someone else like in Avvai Shanmugi.

Coming back to 10A (that’s how Kamal’s fanatics call this movie), the useless/redundant/superfluous roles that I am referring to in this movie include (and not limited to):
1. The President of the US of A – George Bush
2. The Japanese martial arts exponent
3. The Vaishnavite
4. The diminutive old lady
5. The 7 foot Pathan
6. The Punjabi singer
7. The Dalit leader / social activist

All of these characters didn’t really have any direct influence on the course of action in the movie other than being there because the makers of the movie wanted them to be there. They may have been strong characters per se and may have even been portrayed well by Kamal, but the important question you need to ask was whether they change the course of the plot – did they help him or did they trouble him? The answer is neither. I repeat, they were there because the makers wanted them to be there.

The other 3 characters played by Kamal that I left out are the hero (a normal Kamal), the ex-CIA goon and the RAW agent in charge of investigating Kamal’s sudden appearance with a virus in India. Of these, the most impressive character was that of the police officer / RAW agent or whatever that post was and that too because, it came with a slightly humorous element.

Now, coming to the make-up which has been hyped as being very realistic. WTF? Are you kidding me? You call this make-up to be of high standards? If you can make George Bush look like Abraham Lincoln, then I think you need to seriously get your eyes examined. Or at least read surf the internet to see how these two people looked like. Next the Punjabi singer. When you picture a Sardarji, you generally tend to imagine a tall and well-built person, perhaps with some malai da lassi sticking on his moustache. But here, what we got was a short and stocky person with tons of sambhar left on his facial hair. He looked exactly the way I would look like in a bloody bhangra costume. Then that Pathan? Aren’t they used to eating a lot of dry fruits and stuff which is good for blood? But, this character seemed to be suffering from acute anemia and was practically white in color. And that brings us to the other main character in the movie, the goon. In terms of proportions, imagine the head of a cow being fixed on a cat’s body. That’s how out of proportion this character was. Not to mention that he looked like Jay Leno, Arnold Schwarzenegger and a G.I.Joe action doll that has been trampled upon.

Then the special effects which are said to be of Hollywood standards. Once again, WTF? The only thing admirable in the special effects was how the artists got it done using just notepad!

Let me now move on to few of the disconnects / logical flaws in the movie:
1. The Vaishnavite character that appears at the start of the movie – once again, that historic misrepresentation had no relevance to the story that came up later. Fanatics of the lead actor can probably look for idiotic links like the person getting injured in the same body part and all that. But there was no clear link between what was happening in this century to what happened in the 12the century BC.
Now, whenever anyone poses this question to a fan, the response is that the lead characters of the present age are reincarnations of those featured in the 12th century. They go on to explain some coincides like the injury and how the present day Kamal jumps on to a lorry which has “Sri Ramanuja Thunai” or some such wording. That Asin in the old ages throws her thaali on the king and this lands on a statue and that the present day Asin bumps into the statue…
You know what? I will give you more links. The old Kamal had 2 eyes, 2 ears, 1 nose, 1 mouth, 2 hands and 2 legs. So did the present day one. The old Kamal was beat up many people and so did the present day Kamal. But I can’t say the same of Asin though. The old one didn’t wear a blouse and this one did. So I am not able to establish the link!
2. The Pathan – I am willing to overlook the fact that everyone in his family is below average height and will not bother about his 7 feet height. Let us set that aside as a freak of nature. But pray tell me, why he speaks the “Eetikkaaran Tamizh” when his parents and family speak normal Tamizh?
3. The medical miracle of a bullet curing the cancerous cell in the Punjabi singer’s throat without harming his vocal chords. Move over Gabtun; since you are busy in politics, we needed a replacement and have found one.
4. The old lady – she is supposed to be this short 90 year old lady with a much wrinkled face. She did have this face and even her hands were wrinkled. But these were the arms of a man who has spent hours at the gym. Not of someone who is supposed to be a 90+ year old Iyengar widow in Chidambaram. And oh, for a nonagenarian she walks faster than the people coming out the of the movie hall after watching this movie. And for someone with mental issues and poor eyesight, she is somehow nimble enough to walk on the shoulders of people to reach the idol of Perumaall.
5. In the climax – the Japanese dude kicks some real Caucasian ass. He beats the goon almost incessantly. Constant punches to the face. He breaks his hand. Kicked him like my father used to kick his Bajaj scooter. Yet, the goon’s sunglasses neither fallout of his face nor do they suffer even a minor scratch. I must get them!
6. What was the Dalit leader trying to broker with that other politician played by P.Vasu? I simply didn’t understand what was happening there.
7. Do people use Segue to move within a cramped laboratory too? Isn’t it easier to walk?
8. The President of the USA is waving to the public from inside his bullet proof limo. Err, no one heard of tinted glass / sun film is it?

There are lots more of such logical flaws, but the average movie goer may not spot it and the Kamal fanatic is bound to defend it with some absurd theory.

Having said all this, I still believe this movie could have been made better if they removed all the unnecessary characters played by Kamal. Or at the minimum, they should have not allowed Kamal to play those roles and should have let other people take it up. It would have definitely helped in creating a much stronger characterization and given more importance to the script; even the God exists vs. God does not exist arguments that was briefly touched upon at the end could have received better attention and created some interesting scenes.

And I am not saying that all characterization and casting was incorrect. For example, Mallika Sherawat’s role was the best defined and excellently cast in the whole movie. The character was probably so close to her real-life that you could very well say that she didn’t act, but lived the part of the character, until she was killed of course (the movie character not the real Mallika).

Apparently, the director of the movie mentioned in an interview that they had some more avatars planned in the movie and these might come out in another movie. The makers of that movie can rest assured that there are at least 5 people who aren’t going to watch it.