Well Well ! I watched the much hyped up Dasavatharam at last. Sangam Cinemas -> 18th June 2008 -> 3:00 PM -> Sangam Screen.
And here's my review of the chase sequence I watched. This will sound more like a retort against Kamal fans because it is one![:D]. A review + a retort. Whatever you call it. And here it goes .. ..
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JK Rowling's Harry Potter is based on Chaos Theory. If Lily hadn't come in the middle of Voldemort and sacrificed herself, Harry wouln't have been "The chosen One". Dumbledore wouldn't have died. And probably many others too! And Voldemort may have survived too. Vijay's Ghilli is also based on "Chaos Theory". If Vijay's father hadn't opposed him from playing Kabaddi, he wouldn't have run away to Madurai and would have never found his lady love. Harry Potter is yet again in the Chaos Theory mess. If Harry had allowed Sirius Black to kill Peter Pettigrew, he would not have been saved in Malfoy Manor in Book 7. Well, for every twist in life, there's an explanation on the basis of "The Chaos Theory". And if you don't agree with my earlier said points, please don't watch Dasavatharam because it is supposedly based on the so called Chaos Theory and Butterfly effect and many more such fancy named theories according to Kamal fans. And dont carry on reading this review as well.
Dasa talks about eight characters who are inconsequential as such, but are integrated in a larger picture. Without Bush, the plane would have been called back. Without Shinghen, Govind would be dead. Without the tsunami, the world would have been destroyed. Even Krishnaveni (the old woman) plays a very important role. If she had not put the vial in the idol, maybe Govind would have recovered it then and there and a powerful weapon would have been unleashed. The very fact that it went into the idol meant that it was being accelerated to its destiny. Without Kaifulllah Khan, Govind would have never escaped.
This is an explanation given by a Kamal fan on Sify!Movies when asked about the lack of story in Dasavatharam. Well, if this can connect the story, then what not! There's no semblance of a story anywhere. Kamal fans pride themselves on being Kamal fans and mocked at Shivaji for the masala movie it was and here's their cult hero dishing out the costliest and crappiest commercial in Tamil Cinema and probably Indian Cinema. They said Shivaji has no story. Where is the story in Dasavatharam ? They said Vijay movies have one line stories. This one doesn't even have a one-line story. Kamal should have restricted his name in the titles to just Screenplay because there's no story at all.
Cast and performances:
Kamal Hassan : One man army. Plays every character possible. I still have this doubt as to why he left Asin's character to Asin and Mallika's with her. He could have played them as well. He has done justice to very few of the 10 roles. He was awesome as Balram Naidu, the Telugu Speaking RAW officer. He was adequate as Govind, the scientist. He was good as Nambi in the 12th century. And was probably the best negative character since Muthupandi in Ghilli, Pandya in Kaakha Kaakha as Christian Fletcher. But the rest were just a mish-mash of make-up, plascticine. The overdose of plaster of Paris can be seen everywhere on the movie. The character of George Bush was as important as Sourav Ganguly was in the Indian Team after 2001 till 2006.[:D].Kalifulah was another unnecessary aspect as was Vincent Poovaraghan. Avtar Singh was yet another mash but Kamal was atleast watchable as Avtar because he had just grown a beard to cover up his face. Krishnaveni Paati never fit into the plot anywhere. Here role of dropping the vial into the idol could have been done in some other way. The Japanese Kamal as the Karate Instructor looked so much like Bharat's Nepali character with his make-up. Why did Kamal have to play ever single of the characters he wanted in the movie? He could have stopped with Govind, Fletcher, Balram Naidu. The grandmom character could have been given to some one else if he so desparately wanted it in. Kalifullah and Vincent Poovaragan could have been more effective if they had been played by character artistes. They got Jackie chan for the audio release. Instead they should have got him to play that Japanese guy's role. It would have been far more convincing. But Kamal needed to satisfy is ever-so-huge ego and wanted to exceed Sivaji Ganesan's masterpiece Navarathri where the thespian played 9 roles. Hence the introduction of a few unnecessary characters. The George bush character could have been dropped. He looked more like a cartoon when he played Bush.
Asin: The first role of Asin in the 12th century could have been done even by an extra. She had nothing to do there absolutely. And the second role as "Andal" was easily THE most irritating character in the history of Tamil Cinema with her constant "En Perumale", "Ayo.En Perumal" dialogues. So much that the audience at Sangam started booing her towards the end! She had nothing to do in the movie except run around with Kamal and spout those dialogues now and then. And if you didn't get irritated with her, you are highly patient.
Mallika Sherawat : With the skimpiest costumes one can wear, she did all that was expected of her.[:p].Her lip sync was as awful as that of Shreya's.Even her role was totally unnecessary to the plot of the story.
Napolean had this two minute bit role as Kulothunga Chozha. And his Tamil diction and lip-sync as the chozha king can give tough competition to Udit Narayan. MS Basker as the guide was adequate.Well. Everything else was Kamal. At first, I thought even that monkey in the bio-lab was also played by Kamal.[:D]
Screenplay: (Since there is no story) [:p]
Kamal should have left it to some one more experienced at it. He just kills the screenplay. The 12th Century bit at the end was highly unneeded. If you had missed the first 10-15 minutes of the movie, it would have made no difference to you.Was still yet to unravel the mystery behind the 12th century scenes when I read this.
"The idol that is drowned in the sea along with Rangarajan in 12th century by Chozha king results in a fault being developed at the bottom of the ocean and creates tremors more than 800 years later. These tremors result in the Tsunami. This again is a classic case of Butterfly Effect wherein a seemingly inconsequential event (the drowning of the idol) saves Tamil Nadu from being wiped off the face of the earth."
Kamal fans are making a fool of themselves by offering such explanations. Did any one give such stupid explanations when asked "How did the Ghilli team reach the finals after loosing in the semifinals of the Kabaddi Tournament?" This is probably the worst possible explanation for the 12th century bit. If drowning an idol into the ocean can cause a fault on the crust of the earth, then I kindly appeal to the Government of India to stop all the Vinayaka Chaturthi Processions because so many idols are drowned in the ocean. They may result in faults being formed on the crust of the earth and another Tsunami may be caused.
Ivanga padam naa epdilam venalum explanations kudupanga but vijay movie na ellathukum kelvi varum.Appo mattum ellathukum reasons venum ivanungaluku.Hereafter if anyone asks questions about logical loopholes in Vijay movies, I will also talk about chaos thoery, butterfly effect, special theory of relativity, newton's laws, fuzzy logic and more such peter laws that will cover up all logical loopholes.[:D]
All said and done, this is one of the worst romance tracks in Tamil cinema after Thirupachchi. Man, how does Asin fall in love at all! Atleast in Ghilli, which was a similar chase story, Vijay was saving Trisha from the villian. Here, Kamal drags Asin into trouble and then Asin falls in love. I was like WTF when Asin was talking her dialogues towards the end asking if Kamal loved her and all.
Sets: The setting were awesome. Probably they should have built the temple also as a set instead of going for Poor CG versions of it in the 12th century.
Camera: Ravi Verman's camera work was awesome all thorough the movie. It gave the rich look to the movie. The chase sequences by car were all splendidly shot by him. And if you ask me, his camera work has been overshadowed by Kamal's hype here.
Editing: No words said. If only he had cut out the 12th century portion itself, the movie would have been much shorter. The multiple role scenes have been well edited and there's no difference in lighting and other minor glitches as they were there in ATM. Another unheralded hero for the movie.
Graphics: Probably the biggest drawback of the movie IMO. They kept raving about the graphics in the movie in interviews and newspapers. But, the butterfly in the beginning of the movie was no better than the ants in ATM.[:D] and the Temple no better. Instead they could have had a real temple with all the money they spent. The much talked about Tsunami scenes were also very poor as you could clearly make out the boats being of different brightness and stuff. For all the hype that was given, all I could see was nothing.
Stunts: The stunts can give Kuruvi a run for its money. If Kuruvi was unbelievable, then Dasavatharam was as bad as Kuruvi on the stunts front. Kamal does what Vijay did in Kuruvi. He jumps on to a running train. Atleast Vijay did it alone. Kamal does it with Asin in tow. He jumps from building tops to the ground. He jumps from a bridge to the bottom and lands safely again with Asin in tow. He jumps safely from a fast-moving train to the river bed. He can walk on building ledges ala Spiderman. And yeah, as the Japanese guy, he can break bones. If Kamal does all this, no questions are asked. But if Vijay does the same, the movie is trashed about everywhere.I'd also blame the Tamil cinema watchers. If someone like a Japanese does stunts, they will watch with their mouths wide open.[:D]
Music and Picturisation of Songs:
Himmesh Reshamiyya is one of the most hated Music Directors around India more so for his nasal voice.[:p] Thank god Kamal realised his mistake and got DSP in for the background score atleast.
1) Kallai Mattum Kanda - The tune is a lift from "Baggy Jeansum", a Malayalam song. Youtube this for the original song. Himmesh has reworked this tune quite well and Hariharan has given lots of life to the song. Lyrics are awesome all-through. Has been picturised quite well in the 12th century. Good job.
Verdict:9/10
2) Ka Karuppanukkum - Pop Shalini's voice fits like a T for the song. The lyrics are crap but considering it is being picturised on Mallika Sherawat you may have to ignore that. Picturisation aint too good either. It's toilet time for most people.[:p]
Verdict:6/10
3) Mukundha Mukundha - Himmesh's Divine composition is here and it sounds so much like a mixture of "Chanakya Chanakya" from Dum and "Konjum Mainakkale" from "Kandukonden^2". Sadhana Sargam is very poor with her pronunciation which is so important for such a song. On the other side, it is quite pleasant to hear and the pick of the album along with "Kallai Mattum Kanda". Was well picturised on a puppet show.
Verdict:8.5/10
4) Oh Ho Sanam - Kamal's voice again suits the song's genre though it sounds quite Bollywoodish to me. The female voice could have been better chosen. Grandly picturised on a concert of Avtar Singh, a pop singer.
Verdict:7/10
5) Ulaga Nayagane - Here's the self praise song from Kamal. I thought this trend was only present in the so called masala movie heros' movies. Kamal proves he is no better than them. Quite listenable with a good voice and beat.Was picturised in the beggining as an item number by KS Ravikumar and later shows the make-up and hardwork put in by Kamal through the movie.
Verdict:8/10
6) Oh ho Sanam - Remix - The first thing that strikes you and strikes you hard is Himmesh's nasal twang and his comical diction - wannabe Udit Narayan although the pace overrides the diction in most places. Isn't picturised in the movie.
Verdict: 6/10
Album verdict: For such a hyped up and big movie, surely they could have got a better music director than Himmesh. Most of the tunes are sadly lifted.It has been poorly recorded as well (or is it due to the streaming?) Better voice selection would have helped the album. And a special request to Himmesh. Stop singing, please.[:D]
7.5/10
BGM: Thank goodness, they got DSP to do the re-recording and the background score. Otherwise Dasavatharam would have been poorer.BGMs were good at most places but they did miss the ARR touch for a project as big as this one.
Other Loopholes/Drawbacks:
* Govind speaking Tamil in the serious conference and asking someone to translate it for the other guy. That was seriously shitty. They could have done what they did all along till then. Had him speak English and used Tamil sub-titles.
* There are loads of people inc Kamal fans (and me) who mock at Vijaykant's movies for its comical turnds and scenes. Kamal has tried to give captain a serious fight with his Avtar Singh episode where the bullet hits him right on the throat and doesn't harm his vocal cord, but removes his cancer.[:D].Way to go Kamal.
* As I said earlier, Kamal should have left a few characters to other people. Dasavatharam is more like a "Jack of all trades,Master of none" story.
* In order to escape from Tsunami when you are on the beach, all you have to do is to sit on a boat at a height. Poor people of Tamil Nadu didn't know this during the Tsunami and hence many lives were lost. I sincerely request the CBSE to add this point to their Disaster Management textbooks.[:D][:p]
* The bloody dialogues show brahmins in very poor light. Kamal is still in the ages of yore when Brahmins and lower castes were segregated. I guess this has been eradicated in most cities. And except in a few villages here and there. But he shows Asin as this low caste hater and speaking "Showchalayaha" and shit like that. In which world is he .. Seriously![:X]
* Kamal should have refrained from thrusting his atheist principles through the movie. We blame Vijayakant for using his movies as political propoganda. But Kamal is doing the same here with his "Atheism" propoganda.
* Kamal has proved how big an idiot he is and his whole point behind the movie with the dialogue - "Kadavul illai nnu naan sollaliye.Iruntha nalla irukkum nnu thaane sonnen."
Verdict:
The film wasn't about Chaos theory, it was all about chaos itself.[:D].What happened to Mr.Perfectionist and the best commercial director of Tamil Cinema? [:p]
Going back to the chaos theory itself from where I began .. If Sivaji ganesan hadn't done 9 roles in Navarathri, I would have probably saved Rs.200/- yesterday. [:D][:p]
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PS: These are my personal views which are not being forced upon anyone else. And yeah, this was my quickest post in terms of writing time in a long long time.[:D][:D].
PPS: Thanks to Srini anna who also provided a few points for the review/retort.[:)]
Pictures Courtesy : Indiaglitz Tamil [:)]
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