You might find all my cine reviews appreciating the movie but then I have so far felt like writing a review for only those films that caught my imagination.I did watch Kuruvi and Arai En 305il Kadavul in the same weekend but wrote a review only for the latter.
Now that I have clarified this aspect...I want to start off by saying that an amazing storyline, non stop entertainment filled screenplay and a few amazing characterizations make Dasavatharam a very fulfilling movie watching experience.
More than the 10 characters essayed by the legendary actor....it is the story writer in him that stands out as the ultimate hero of this whole project. Off course the humungous effort that this perfectionist puts into each frame of the movie makes you pray for his success lest we lose his talent to the dictate of market forces. But I do not think that is anyway required for this movie of his as it has the ability to carry itself and go on to be a blockbuster.
I would want to emphatically state before even analysing the movie any further that it lives up to all its hype and deserves every bit of promotion that it has got so far.
Before writing this review I glanced at some of those rumoured photographs that got out before the movie released that showed him and Asin as Bush and his wife....I could not stop laughing....for it was far removed from the actual quality of what was shown in the movie....
- On the one hand Kamal is made to look exactly like Bush and not as shown in that rumoured promotional still....(which looks more like Mike Atherton than Bush) and
- On the other Asin does not play US's first lady in the movie.
The movie has a mix of technical brilliance as well as technical glitches. The scenes that have different characters of Kamal appearing in the same scene is technically brilliant w.r.t the characters merging on the scene as if it were done by different physical people at the same point of time. The graphics of the initial 12th Century BC boat ride through a water way and the Tsunami are not that appealing as it is too obvious a computer imagery to make you a part of the experience like how a Titanic could get you involved.
But if you are watching this movie....please do not focus on this negativity as the entertainment value of this film has so many other facets to it that you will only be the loser for having paid for the ticket and focussing on all the irrelevant aspects to criticize in an Indian movie.
The story line is an exceptional one that uses chaos theory as its canvas to interconnect seemingly unconnected dots into an overall pattern of events culminating into a message that even as big a human tragedy as the Tsunami could have had a much greater design behind it such that the hidden benefit of it far outweighs the loss it created.
The movie starts off with an episode set in 12th Century BC where a forceful ruler King Kulothungan (played very effectively by Napolean) who is an ardent Shiva worshipper, orders the deity of Lord Vishnu to be immersed in the Sea as a measure to force all of South India to be only Lord Shiva worshippers.
Kamal who plays an Iyengar Priest (and a child hood friend of the King) vehemently opposes the same but is not able to do anything against the force of the King and gets immersed in the sea along with the deity for refusing to utter a prayer in the name of Lord Shiva.
The story moves on to the present generation where Kamal as Govinda Raju plays a Indian Scientist in US who is part of an advanced research team working on cutting edge bio technology.
They are shown to be studying a dangerous substance which can cause havoc to humanity if not utilized properly and this substance (virus) gets sold to the wrong hands by the senior management of the research team.
Govind who gets suspicious of this plot steals that substance from the lab so that he can hand it over to the FBI and expose the scam.
However he is chased down by a ex CIA agent (Fletcher) also played by Kamal who is hired by the corrupt management of the research lab.....and in an attempt to escape him with the help of his friend, Govind gets his parcel mixed up with that of his friend who is sending a shipment to India....and hence the story shifts to India....
Fletcher along with Mallika Sherawat (CIA trained Tamilian) as his translator follow Govind to India....
Here comes the entry of Balram Naidu (Kamal as a Telugu speaking RAW officer) which sustains your interest in the movie till the last frame. I think this role will be the newest feather in this legend's cap. The humour that this character evokes in the movie is to be seen to be believed as all the entertainment is situational and is based on his blind loyalty to the Telugu speaking fraternity.
Govind is initially in the custody of Balram Naidu and is then kidnapped by Fletcher and Mallika so that they can get their hands on the substance
What then follows is a edge of the seat thriller which introduces the rest of Kamal's characterizations at appropriate intervals.
Patti(Grandma) Character - to whose address Govind randomnly misdirects the shipment of the virus (so that it does not fall in wrong hands). Kamal plays a woman in her nineties who has lost it in the mind due to an untimely demise of her son in the 1950s and refuses to believe in it and is still expecting parcels and letters from him.....it is one of those parcels which well wishers of her family keep sending from US to keep her hopes alive that Govind chooses to keep the virus container in for safe custody.
The naughty patti refuses to part with the virus parcel thinking it is meant for her and eventually drops it inside of a Lord Vishnu statue which is going on a religious parade instead of handing it over to Govind.
This makes Govind forcefully take the Lord Vishnu statue and flee with Andal (Asin's 2nd gen character) in hot pursuit.... Andal is one character which gets on your nerve...but to be fair to Asin her comic timing keeps pace with that of Kamal and does not spoil the movie's pace.
Japanese Martial Arts Teacher- who is initially behind Govind and then after Fletcher as he gets to know that it is Fletcher and not Govind who was behind the murder of his sister. (Govind's friend in US is married to a Japanese both of whom are killed by Fletcher in an encounter to get at Govind)
Dalit Leader character - this character is typical of Anbe Sivam (Nallasivam) who is an activist against sand quarrying by P Vasu and Santhanabharathi and whose actions save Govind and Andal from the clutches of the quarry gang.
Khalifulla character - a 7 foot muslim whose family gets injured in a road accident as Kamal and Andal escape in a lorry from the clutches of the quarry gang. Andal's irresponsible behaviour causes the lorry to collide with the Van.
Avtar Singh character - A punjabi pop star who is suffering from throat cancer and who gets admitted in the same hospital that Khalifulla's family gets admitted. Oh Oh Sanam being Avtar's last stage show before his operation.
George Bush - Kamal plays GB to perfection. The makeup looks very professional and is almost like a mask of his face instead of a make up. Kamal's accent is perfected to that of an American.
This role is very limited in terms of scene exposure and is used to only make some comic statements in typical Bush style without realizing the impact of the out break of Virus. The only reason Kamal seems to have donned this character is because you cannot hire Bush himself to act and expose his intellect like this and if someone has to act him out....who better can it be than Kamal himself.
The climax is one where Fletcher manages to get hold of the virus parcel from Govind after a long hard chase that ends on the sea shore. By that time the Japanse martial arts teacher also reaches the sea shore and declares that Fletcher has to die for killing his sister.
A very good martial arts fight sequence ends with Fletcher being brutally defeated and Balram Naidu reaching the spot in a helicopter by then (He atlasts gets his investigative skills right in the climax as all the while he chases Govind as the terrorist).
A cornered Fletcher consumes the virus in an attempt to spread it....(this is one part that is not acceptable since Fletcher is shown as a merciless mercenary who kills for the sake of money and him consuming the virus as if he is a brainwashed terrorist out to destroy the world is not properly fitting into the overall cogency of the screen play).
Fletcher is quickly reduced to the blood vomitting and decaying corpse which has a potential to spread the virus to millions around his epicenter.......requiring tons and tons of NaCL to quell the impact.........
Lo and behold comes the awe invoking TSUNAMI of Dec 2004 and washes away Fletcher and the deadly virus along with it (The NaCL in the sea water also acting as an effective antedote to the spread of the virus).
Andal and Govind are then shown interacting with each other in an attempt to convey their love interest to each other.....Andal putting a very strict condition that it will be impossible to consummate their love into marriage if Govind keeps denying the existence of God....
Govind's interesting response to Andal is that "I never told that God does not exist. I am only saying it will be good if he exists" :-)
And as if to answer the scientist character's pondering, the screenplay writer in Kamal responds with an apt answer.
As the camera zooms out it shows Govind and Andal walking away from the backside of the 12th Century BC statue that gets washed ashore by the Tsunami....
The symbolic interpretation here being that it can only take a Tsunami to bring that huge deity out from the depths of the ocean onto the sea shore and amidst humanity where it rightfully belongs.....and further that God chooses that point of time to come ashore (riding on the Tsunami) so as to quell the impact of a major virus that could have affected a greater section of the humanity....(as compared to the loss of life on the immediate shoreline).
It is a well known fact that Kamal is an atheist in real life....but that is not what he is telling in this movie.
The scientist character is an Atheist and reflects the real life view of the actor......however Kamal as the story writer has left it to the imagination of the viewer whether to construe the greater design behind the tragedy is
==> What the scientifically inclined world knows it better as chaos theory (or butterfly effect)
Or
==> What the spiritually inclined world believes it as "an act of God"
Let me sum up the movie with this conclusion
Is there value for money for your ticket if you watch this movie????Well
IT CANNOT GET BIGGER THAN THISKamal you are a genius....it is as simple as that.....it is but naturual then, that I doff my hat :-)
