Dasavathram Review (Strictly Not for die-hard Kamal fans)

First, I’d like to thank:

Archana – for taking me along to the movie.

Anand Iyer – for inspiring me to write another blog post, because each blog post I write lifts my spirits a bit and keeps them at that level for quite some time.

My colleague – for talking about how Dasavatharam reflects the chaos theory, butterfly etc. and heightening my respect for Kamal.

The Report of Reviewer Ranjo (I gave myself a new nick for this… Hehehe)

Thank God, Dasavathaaram hasn’t turned out to be the ‘Avathaaram’ I was worried it might be*. If any die-hard Kamal buff knows that I had that doubt I suspect he might send some delinquent fan from the Narpani Mandram (what Kamal wanted his Rasigar Mandram to be, and I hope it is) who’d do the narpani of bashing me up.

I knew absolutely nothing about the theories Dasa was based on. I just went for entertainment – which many movie-goers would expect. I would have gone a couple weeks after the movie released. But my bhaifriend** was to go for a morning show that day and the child in me insisted that I had to grab an opportunity to watch the movie asap with my hands, feet and mouth, because he was going to watch it on that day!

I was thus maha-thrilled when my friend Archana called me that morning and said she had an extra ticket for an afternoon show of the Non-avathaaram at Mayajaal. I went, visibly excited outside, and jumping like I was on an unstoppable pogo stick inside.

I settled into a seat that reclined in an amazing way, and decided that if I didn’t like the movie, the kid in me could have fun sliding back and forth.

Tada… start of movie. Credits roll out – Kamal in 10 roles, Director: KSR, Producer: Blah. (You know the blah. Now I can hear you say: Bring on the rest! Don’t bore me! Ok, so you’re reading this. Thanks… wink.)

Finally, about the Non-avathaaram…

Kamal is there in so many frames that often I missed him. Would have helped if someone had poked me and said ‘Hey, that’s Kamal’ (beneath the god-awful layers of maida paste. (err… make-up for some avatars.)) Sorry Archana, I don’t blame you.

You know where the story begins. A passionate Rangaraja Nambi who wants to protect Vaishnavism in his town, but is tied up to his beloved lord’s statue and sent a thousand feet undersea, after a few disturbing scenes of hooks digging through his flesh, and an average song playing in the background. But on the whole, thumbs up for Avathaaram 1.

Nambi turns into a scientist in USA for the 21^st century avathaaram. The monkey in the guy’s lab is truly the cutest thing about the movie. And his ‘Shit’ Ram dialogue is the most distasteful thing about the flick. Kamal, go on and say you don’t believe in God, but don’t insult people the public (excluding me) see as Gods. Whether they’ve God-like powers or not, many of them are good people.

Enter old but somewhat hot Christian Fletcher. Now, who is that actor? Hmmmm… (Awesome job, Kamal, especially the accent.) Evil Fletcher gets the leggy beauty. (blink blink, is that Mallika Sherawat? Oh, my!) Miss Exposure 38-23-36 (I assume) manages to look more cultured than in any film poster or trailer I’ve seen her in! (Except in that ‘heard-before’ type intro song.) Wow! And she actually does her part ok. This is clearly a landmark film in your career, Mallika. Way to go!

Scientist dude runs to India, with Fletcher’s hands latched to his heels. (I can exaggerate that much, can’t I?) My heart was almost in my mouth in the chase scenes. The action scenes were awesome.

The screechy Asin keeps Kamal company on the adventure. Wait I missed out the nice ‘Mukunda Mukunda’ song. And Asin’s lovable Granny! Very good, Kamal.

Mr. Ramudu Mamudu (I forgot your avathaaram’s name, Kamal... :-p :-)) was strictly ok, but didn’t provide acceptable comedy. It will elicit the: ‘Oh, I get it. You’re trying to be very funny. Ha ha… 30 min gap… Hee hee... 20 min gap… yawn’ reaction.
The funniest scene in the movie had M S Bhaskar in it.

George Bush appeared in a few scenes. But he was a bit artificial looking – someone had tossed some maida pies in his face, smoothed the surface and made markings with a sharp-edged tool.

Vincent Poovaraghan was reminiscent of Kamal in Anbe Sivam. Make-up played spoilsport again, though.

Did I forget something? Yeah! The rest of the avatars, which were unnecessarily inserted. The story was tailored just to fit two of them, and the third one was unwanted. Just because you want to play 10 people, you can’t mess with your story, Kamal.

And after the overdose action and religion (now I know why many heavy English films are just 2 hour flicks) I came out, and a couple of days later, read about the theories that were a major part of the film and went ‘Oh…’ and thought that maybe I should watch it again.

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*A fear caused by masterpieces like Aalavandhan – even though I hadn’t seen that one, I’d heard enough.

**Another new term coined by me – I should start creating a dictionary… really.