Dasavatharam Review
Written by
Sunday, 8 June 2008 01:03
Cast: Kamal Hassan, Asin, Mallika Sherawat, Jayaprada, and others
Direction: KS Ravi Kumar
Music: Himesh Reshamiya, Re-recording by Devi Sri Prasad.
Producer: Oscar films
As expected the much hyped and much awaited magnum opus and film with thrilling climax has finally hit the screens with its lavish way of entry. This film has been totally powered by finance to make it a sure shot blockbuster of 2008. The visual effects and the capturing of scenes into frames are amazing and awesome. Kamal lives to his fans expectations and succeeds in mastering the 10 avatars with his impeccable acting and expressions.
Story
The films first frame showcases the on par conflict between the much praised vaishnavites and shivaites. And this whole scene is depicted to be a 12th century era. The vaishnavites are adamant on the opinion that their lord Vishnu is the supreme god and on the other hand the shivaites claim that lord Shiva is the supreme lord of the whole world. This is the main reason for the conflict between the two sects and is peppered by some social reforms which add some heat to the flame.
King Chola a staunch shivaite succeeds in killing Rangaraja Namibiar (Kamal) by tying him to a big idol of lord Vishnu and drowning him in the sea along with the statue.
Then the next frame of the scene shifts to the present world that is the 20th century. Govidrajulu who is nicknamed as Govind (Kamal) works as a scientist in USA techno lab. When the September 11th attack on the word trade center takes place, the USA government consulate dictates the scientist to prepare a chemical which can tame and tackle terrorism.
Govind happens to be one of the scientists who is among the team of scientists who develop the chemical which helps in tackling terrorism. Meanwhile his boss – the in charge of the scientist team has other ideas. He shakes hand with some evil pangs of the society and wants to sell them the chemical substance. But being a well natured guy, Govind makes the plan fail and succeeds in smuggling the chemical substance.
Govind is now chased by the villains in order to kill him and take the chemical substance into their hands. One of the villains is CIA agent Fletcher (Kamal). The vial is successfully smuggled into India and is couriered into India. Along with it Govind, Fletcher and a secret under cover lady CIA agent played by Mallika sherawat and onto Indian soil.
The courier reaches the vaishnav math and is addressed on the name of a old lady which another character played by Kamal Hassan. Asin happens to be the granddaughter of the old lady and Govind wants to take the vial of chemical substance into his own hands as it can destroy lacs of people if it goes into the hands of wrong persons.
Then the breath taking climax is framed. The old lady in order to save the people hides the vial in the statue of Lord Permal. But cunning natured Fletcher comes to know this and successfully grasps it. He drinks the chemical substance and soon an epidemic breaks out.
The climax is that how the people are saved from the epidemic and how the hero succeeds in ending the evil and saving the earth.
Performances
Kamal has proved that he is a versatile and superb actor in the whole India his 10 avatars of priest, pop singer, George bush, Fletcher, chief of Raw, social activist, old lady are impeccable and awesome . The apt get up to the role is truly applaudable and it can be said that only kamal can do this film without any hiccups.
Asin gave her role a real justification by playing as a chaste girl of Chidambaram. He another, but brief role as a wife of Rangaraja of 12th century is very appraisable.
Mallika Sherawat plays the role of a CIA agent with perfection. Her hot pole dance will surely raise the temperatures in the theatres. She adds the glamour element into the film and does her job very well.
The other characters played by Jayaprada and others are also apt and very well enacted.
Music by Himesh is good and the production and the world class graphic work is truly applaudable.
The storyline is pretty simple but is well weaved and thrilling. The suspense element is maintained from the beginning to the end. The lavish sets, locations, the costumes are worth mentioning. The words to narrate the scenes are truly very less as the scenes are very well framed. The twists and turns make the movie even more thrilling and suspense filled.
The Tsunami scenes in the 12 century are very well captured onto the camera and look realistic.
On the whole this film DASAVATHRAM is a super hit and will entertaining the audience to their hearts content.
THIS IS A REALLY FANTASTIC MOVIE EVER MADE IN INDIA. KAMAL ACTING IS SUPERB WITH THE 10 GET UP. KEEP IT UP KAMAL.
Kamal’s “make up” is suppose to be the heart-beat of this movie. But it looks like Jim Gary’s “Masks” — completely pissed off.
Danush Kanth (Son-in-law of Rajini Kanth) could’ve done a better job at it.
There is three screening, 4 shows everyday, at Yishun Cinema. This afternoon around 2 pm there was a long queue to make advance bookings for the weekend. This definitely ought to be a box-office success.
It is good to see poeple bee-lining for this movie. Unfortunately, there is a lot of negative review about this movie. I strongly recommend people to watch the movie in the theaters and decide for themselves.
Please do not watch it from pirated VCDs. Please go to the theaters. If you can pay $15 for a stupid Rajini movie, couldn’t you pay the basic $10 fare for this one. Take your family to this screening. I hope this movie will be a box-office hit world over. Kamal deserves more than a box-office hit.
This movie ROCKS !!!
Great Movie…!!!!
excellent Movie!!!
This is athe first time I am seeing a hollywood movie in tamil!!
Well done guys!!!
But Music,CG and Direction is not up to THE MARK..
Actor Kamal Hassan’s quest for Oscar award is widely known; that he will stoop to any low in that direction is proved by his latest film titled ‘Dasavataram’. Having seen this film in a prominent cinema hall recently, I feel disgusted to say that the film deserves to be totally banned from public exhibition on several counts. First and foremost, the word ‘Dasavataram’ is considered sacred and very much part of Hindu culture relating to Lord Vishnu’s reincarnations primarily for destruction of evil; the word any sane man born and brought up in Hindu culture easily understands. It is ironical that this actor has dared to title his film with the noble name which invokes instant veneration and what one actually see or feel is narration of his version of events essayed in his perverted mind, in the name of freedom of expression, without caring two hoots about the impact it is going to make on public mind especially in India. This so-called versatile actor has miserably failed in his attempt to portray ’secularism’ as he supposes and understands by choosing to portray other major communities in the country like Christians, Muslims and Sikh as do-gooders and that only Hindus are religious fanatics, right from the very first frame of the film. He has further shown that individuals belonging to international communities including NRIs are bent upon leashing acts of terror on fellow human beings in other parts of the globe, for the sake of gathering wealth and in the name of science & technology. In his colossal misadventure he has even involved the current President of the United States of America by mimicry as well as the known atheist Chief Minister of Tamilnadu in his current official position, as also a fleeting portrayal of past Chief Minister Ms. Jayalalitha by showing her aerial survey of Tsunami hit areas during December 2004, all obviously for the sake of seeking cheap publicity.
The picture titled ‘Dasavataram’ is truly an example of gross misuse of freedom of expression, not confining to ethical standards expected of an esteemed actor like Kamal Hassan and his reputed team, and as such it should be banned in toto from public exhibition.
after long time i saw a which full entertainer kamal hasan what shd say he as good as ever rather on his best
Good movie but they could have worked more on it…!!!
This movie is the worst of Kamal’s. I could not agree more on what the reviewer has said. I honestly felt good that someone else also thinks like I do. I am a fan of Kamal but am not blind. Infact, I want $10 of the $15 I spent. The $5 he can keep for the Japanese and Naidu roles not because they were relevant but because they were funny. While I appreciate the effort put into this movie, I question its redundancy. I would have been very very happy if he had one character and that character was that Naidu guy…it was silly but funny at the least. To all those blind Kamal fans ask yourself this question – If I tried to cook 10 items and 2 of them turned out to be “average”, will you shut up and pay full price and be thrilled that I “tried” my hands at 10 different items or will you be upset that the experience “sucked”. Oh by the way 2 more things, my family “God” is Perumal but we are Iyers…so no partiality here. Also I am not trying to be partial to another actor that I am putting Kamal down. I watched Sivaji – The Loss the first day and wanted not the full price but 150% back for such a joke of a movie. South Indian movie goers compromise – I don’t!
A good plot, with some many valuable messages, executed with lot of attention to some details, and gaping holes in a lot others. If only Kamalahasan had resisted the tempation of acting in so many roles, he could have avoided the overuse of make-up, and saved the film from such non-human looking characters. There is a scene in the move where a police officer’s sub-ordinate talks highly of the number of languages his boss could speak, which is humorous because that topic is irrelevant when the survial of the human race is at stake. The same is true of the movie where the skill and talents of kamalahasan have been emphasized to the detriment of the movie itself. Unfortunately this is not funny for it has ruined what could have turned out to be a really great movie.
I agree that dasavatharam is one of the worst movies I have seen. The only plus point of the movie is Kamal’s acting and effort put into every role. The worst damage to the movie has come from the make-up department. At times I felt I was watching an animation movie. Also the make-up masked Kamal’s facial expressions and made the whole thing look very artificial. I think it is time for Kamal to leave his obsession for make-up and come out with character roles as in Michael madan kamarajan. Secondly, though the chaos theory concept is good, it is not convincingly portrayed in the movie. It has left even an intellectual audience wondering what the film maker was trying to tell. I am sure the movie would have made no sense to the average lay public in rural India.
Himesh Reshammiya’s music is very average. They should have given this job to ARR or Illayaraja.
I am a huge fan of Kamal. He is easily the most talented actor in India. But Dasavatharam is a big let down. I hope Maruthanayagam doesnt disappoint.
There only 5 words to say about the film
1)excellent
2)fabiolous
3)extraodinary
4)simply superb
5)hatt’s off
Dasavatharam is undoubtedly the “Movie of the Millennium”.The one and only great universal hero Dr.Kamal has proved once again that he’s the greatest actor of all times in India.This is an excellent movie which is technically superb and can be rated on par with a good Hollywood movie.Infact this is an important milestone for the Indian Film Industry after Nayagan and Indian.Kamal Haasan deserves to be conferred the Oscar Award without any hesitation whatsover for his outstanding performance in the 10 different roles.No other actor in India including Sivaji and Amitabh could even dream of performing these 10 different roles with this perfection and differentiation between each of them.All I would like to say to those who have criticised this movie is that don’t say something just because you want to say it and don’t expose your ignorance about acting and films to others by saying something bad about this movie.
What a disaster. Being in Canada, it is a struggle to actually watch a tamil movie by going to the theater. Never imagined even in my dreams that I would be subjected to such mindless torture.
This is total crap. I simply fail to understand why a brilliant person like Kamal Hasan would subject his fans to such senseless crap. There are surely better ways to fool the public.
The make-up was horrible. It was so bad that I felt like a damn fool watching the movie. What was the director, actor and the make-up man thinking? Were they on drugs???
And to think the world has seen all the make-up and Computer Graphics dished out by Hollywood. It made me really sad. Can Indian filmmakers be so far behind?
None of the characters Kamal portrayed were looking convincing. The makeup screwed it up totally. The girl’s role was to purely screw up throughout the film.
The CG as someone else said above, must have been done by children who play and watch crappy video games. Even my old Xbox is more convincing.
I would really want to forget that I wasted my time watching this movie. The movie team must have made this film for the really illiterate class in Tamil Nadu, who will swallow everything in this film as a wonder, an amazing act of God or a bolt from the Heavens or something. For the rest of the developed world – please don’t waste your time watching this movie and then feeling depressed.
Kamal Haasan has essayed his great work “Dasavaatharam”, having in mind the ten Avatars (incarnations) of Lord Vishnu.
The logic of each role in Dasavatharam is creating waves among film buffs on what basis he would have conceived the 10 characters.
If you know the real Dasavatharams of Lord Vishnu, you can appreciate the script more.
1. Krishna Avatar – Vincent Poovaraghavan
Lord Krishna is actually a dalit (sometimes called untouchables or outcasts in the Indian caste system). He is dark-skinned. He saved Draupadi (In the Ancient Indian epic Mah?bh?rata, she is the daughter of King Drupada of Panch?la) when she was being
violated and he was the actual diplomat in Mah?bh?rata. 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. Sounds familiar ???
2. Balarama Avatar – Balarama Naidu
This is an easy given. As the name suggests and the role personifies you can easily get it.
3. Mathsya (Fish in Sanskrit) Avatar – Ranagaraja Nambi
Nambi is thrown into water in an act of trying to save the Lord’s idol from being thrown into sea. What more clue do you want?
4. Varaha Avatar – Krishnaveni Grandma
During the Mukunda song, Krishnaveni Grandma does Varaha Avatar in the shadow puppetry. The frame freezes on it for a second. There is the clue. Moreover, in varaha avatar lord actually hides earth so as to protect life forms. Here too krishnaveni hides the germs – life form inside the statue so as to protect.
5. Vamana Avatar – Kalifulla Khan (A very tall man)
Remember in Vamana Avatar, Lord Vishnu takes the vishvaroopa, that is the giant form! Hence the Kalifulla here symbolises Vamana Avatar.
6. Parasurama avatar – Christian Fletcher
Parasurama is actually on an angry killing spree and killed 21generations of the particular Kshatriya vamsa. Hence the real KILLER… Guess what that’s what our Fletcher is! 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 himself to kill the bad guy and he also teaches Prahaladha (a young boy and ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu). In the movie, he shows up to kill the killer Fletcher and is also a teacher. Lord Narasimha had to kill the asura with
bare hands and hence the martial arts exponent here. Got it?
8. Rama Avatar – Avatar Singh
Lord Rama stands for the one man one woman maxim, kind of symbolising true love. Here Avatar Singh portrays that spirit by saying that he loves his woman more than anything and wants to live for her.
9. Koorma Avatar – George Bush
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 Amrita (the drink of the gods, which grants them immortality). 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…
10. Kalki Avatar – Govindaraj Ramasamy
As you know, the hero in Kaliyuga (Most interpretations of Hindu scriptures believe that our Planet Earth is currently in Kaliyuga) can be none other than the Kalki Avatar!!!
All hindi cinema fucks… Kamal is the best…
I saw the Movie. It was wonderful. The Tamil movie takes in Hollywood style. kamalhasan did his best in the movie.
The evergeen star has proved himself again his best. All technicians has did wonderful job. Definitely kamal will get a national award for his performance in this movie.
Very poor make up. We can see that the face of kamal is pasted with some papers. Sorry to tell that it is not a good film.
I had great expectation from this. movie .. but finallyt proved to be utter crap..Worst make up.. first 15 mins good to watch.. rest nothing to say… Asin being orthodox for half of the movie is untolerabel…
kamal could have done much better as world class actor.
finally Just not satisfied
I would recommened Just watch once to see how bad it is…
Please do not waste money and time..
Watched the movie
Good- Story
Bad- The way story has been told
Ugly- Makeup
“Naan kadavul illenu enga sonnen? Irundha nalla irukkum nu thaane sonnen”
Kamal has used this movie indirectly to clarify ridiculous and stupid comments charged on him in the past.
As for the movie, agraharathu paati and telugu police officer stands out from others.
The opening scene of 12th century is powerful and captivating, but climax is pathetic.
Most other roles are unnecessary for the story. Thanks to Kamal for not taking up Mallika’s role himself and doing the pole dance!
Chinku female saying
‘annathe’ ? give me a break ! Thanks for clearing her before further irritation !
I agree with Vijay’s review on the direction and makeup blunder.
Given the international story line, the director of vettayaadu vilayaadu would have done a great job.
Overall, can see the movie for Kamal and nothing else, which, is not so unusual
As usual, kamal delivers a movie where he wants to do way more than what is required. Through out the movie it looked like he was trying too hard. And oh my God the faces looked retarded. Some the “avatarams” looked like puppets, especially “Bush”, the bad white guy and the big muslim dude…
He starts off quoting the butterfly effect and gets it wrong (butterfly’s flutter to earthquake?? its tornado fool…) I wouldn’t have had a problem with it but he was making a quote….
Ofcourse the movie had nothing to do with it… unless, messing with the Gods caused the Tsunami was a part of this theory…..Several inconsistencies through out the movie makes more than un realistic…..
Ok reality is gone.. was the acting good? I don’t think his talent was used in this movie at all… and typical of his movies, none of the other charecters get any kind of chance to display their talents… if it was an important charecter, Kamal would be doing it….
I thought some of the camera work was well done… may be the first and the last scenes were the best in the movie… (could have been way better). Although the first scene had nothing to do with the entire movie and was some how supposed to be connected to the last scene…..
I think the movie had a big problem of continuity. Over all I think the movie would have made a bigger impact if he had taken just one topic and explored it completely rather than forcing 10 roles most of them were totally unncessary….
Finally I would suggest more research on topics before exploring topics such as Chaos…. or even bio wepopns…
Kamal can feel good that he is the only one who has done 10 roles in one movie, but I don’t think this is a movie he should be proud of…
I respect Kamal. He is a very good actor. But this is one of the worst movies of Kamal. I wasted my precious dollars watching this stupid movie. It’s a total torture. I just can’t wonder how people are appreciating this movie. Hopefully marmayogi should be good.
I really wish kamal (along with Rajini thatha) stop acting as heros and take some good reputed roles even if it is a guest role.
The movie was an entertainment, not so good. Why take theism as an issue, when thr r lot othr social issues that can
be mended with the influence of media??? and i firmly object the views of dr.kamal hasan, about the brahmin
community.(With reference to the death scene of vincent poovaragan) Our aacharyan RAMANUJAR himself wanted
the people of all castes to know the ASHTAKSHARAM and shouted it out himself…. this being the attitude of
vaishnavites, we had been wrongly trademarked to have discriminated the people of othr castes, by the action of
certain silly brahmins. And making fun of one of our madaadipadi’s title name(azhagiya singar), is irritating.
There are numerous nouns which sound funny to us, but have a good meaning in some othr language. why mock at
them? that was an awful joke for which people din’t even laugh at. It was like making some purposeful disregard.
So, i suggest the actor-script writer to use his talents in some productive ways to influence public for good.
AFTER SEEING THE FILM AND READING THIS BLOG WE BECAME A FAN OF VIJAY CARDIFF FOR HIS FANTASTIC ANALYZATION
TOTALLY AGREED TO Vijay, Cardiff, United kingdom,
Million doller mistake.
Dasaavatharam, the much-hyped Kamal Haasan’s magnum opus, has turned out to be a complete disaster. This poorly written (credit goes to Kamal) and directed (forget KS RaviKumar whose only role in the film is to sing lullaby to Kamal) is one of the worst experiment of actor-writer Kamal Haasan.
In the beginning, Kamal talks about chaos theory. There is no chaos theory and butterfly effect in this film, it is all just CHAOS. Better check out the movie ‘Run Lola Run’ where the chaos theory has been subtly but superbly brought out.
I just don’t understand why the great actor stopped with ten roles in the movie. He could have also done the roles of the Lab Monkey (actually I believed it is also one of his avatars) Karunanidhi, Manmohan Singh and not to mention Jayalalitha.
First let this ever-young hunk be clear what he wants to say and what he believes. I’m asking this because in the movie Kodhai and Govind are supposed to be the reincarnation of Andal and Rangarajan Nambi, if that is so, why the hell does he speak atheism throughout the movie. (I just don’t want an escapism that it is the character of the movie and Kamal just don’t support both). And what an idiotic question that why does God let tsunami happen. First for heaven-sake let him understand the truth that Tsunami or for that matter any natural disaster is caused because of humans’ remorseless exploitation of nature. It’s humans who are to be blamed and not God. And this foolish scientist thoughtlessly blames God for Tsunami and shamelessly questions the existence of God. What bullshit!
To put it short – this is but a bullshit movie from a bullshit actor/writer Kamal Haasan.
Nice Review from Vijay, Cardiff UK….. Its funny but true!
The site very professional! Keep up the good work! Oh yes, one extra comment – maybe you could add more pictures too! So, good luck to your team!