Monday Jun 16 2008, Chennai

An awesome effort gone awry

Directed by - K.S. Ravikumar

Produced by - V.Ravichandren

Music by - Himesh Reshammaiya

Casts - Kamal Haasan, Asin, Mallika Sheravat, Jayapradha, M.S. Bhaskar, Nagesh.

Banner - Aascar Films

Does the much hyped and most anticipated `Dasavatharam’ live up to the expectations? Does Kamal Haasan’s dream project, satisfy the viewers? The film opens with a grand public meeting, which is organized to felicitate a world-renowned scientist.The meeting is so big that the President of the United States of America, President of India and the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu participate in the meeting to shower praise on the scientist.  The scientist, in his speech, talks about an idol of Lord Balaji and the ‘kayas’ theory, which says that many seemingly unconnected incidents, occurring in various parts of the world, would actually affect the occurrence of each other.  Then the director gets us to the 12th century A.D.

to narrate an incident that was supposed to have taken place at that time.The period’s religious clash between Saiviites and Vaishnaviites is depicted well.Ramanuja Dasan (Kamal), a Vaishnavite priest resists the efforts of the all powerful Chola king (Napoleon), a Siviete, and ends us being pushed in to the sea tied with the Lord Vishnu idol.The director then brings us to 21st century where we get to see Govinda Ramaswamy (Kamal) an American scientist, inventing a deadly virus that can easily kill millions of human lives within no time.  While the leader of the team of scientists plots to sell the virus to terrorists, Govind opposes it and tries to remove the virus from the hands of evil forces.

The virus lands up in India by accident and Govind follows it with Fletcher, the baddie, close on the heels.The local police too hunt him mistaking him for a terrorist.The rest of story deals with how Kamal manages to save himself and the people from the clutches of the terrorists.We get to see many Kamals in the narration adding colour and confusion to the whole drama.The chase ends with the amazing depiction of the Tsunami tragedy, which also brings back the deity of Maha Vishnu, which was immerged in the sea in 12th century.

Despite the presence of an extremely talented star-cast, a director with proven caliber as a hit movie maker, and the conglomeration of the finest of technicians, the film surprisingly fails to make the desired impact in the minds of the viewers.  Kamal’s over-ambitious plans to do 10 different roles without sufficient justification in the script (penned by him) seems to be the culprit.While there is no denying Kamal’s incredible talents to handle challenging roles, uncalled for characters and forced sequences to depict ten avatars nullify the impact of such a grand effort by a highly talented team.Apart from the array of many forced characters, there are many loopholes in the script.The way in which ‘scientist’ Kamal handles the box containing the viruses makes the audience laugh.

  The way the ‘RAW’ agent handles the case and the approach of ‘Bush’ compensating the loss only lead one on to a comedy track.The chasing villain too evokes no credibility.The much-touted make-up too hasn’t been so good, to say the least.The make up of the ‘tall’ Kamal, for example, looks bizarre.One wonders as to what is Kamal’s intention by his ten avatars, most of which are unnecessary for the story.

There is no much to write about Himesh Reshammiya’s music other than the song ‘Kallai Kandaal’, while Devi Sriprasad’s background score is quite effective.On the positive side, the sequences of the 12th century A.D.appear very real and look convincing.  Naidu Kamal impresses while the role of a young Dalit leader has shaped up very well.

Kamal’s dialogues are sharp and crisp.Ravivarman’s cinematography is mind-blowing.  Mallika Sherawat sizzles with her natural sex appeal in her brief appearance.The talented and fresh looking Asin has been wasted with a weak role.M.

S.Bhaskar and Jyapradha stand out among others.Despite many positives including Kamal’s dazzling performances and well-made computer graphics, ‘Dasavatharam’ disappoints because of a weak script and forced characters.Kamal, who has been in the field for 50 years, is known for his experimentations in various fields of filmmaking.While we admire and appreciate his passion and courage to big chllanges, we wish that he should come out with a fitting script to substantiate his innovations otherwise his incredible efforts and unparalleled talents would not fetch the desired results.

Dasavatharam, the 70-Cr extravaganza, has just proved this point beyond doubt.