Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Dasavatharam... Brilliant work

I had to wait for so long to see the movie of the year - I think you could call it that, given the amount of hype and hard work put into the making of the movie - thanks to my busy schedule (hee hee, sorry for the build-up) and to the fact that the movie was sold out for almost all the shows in all the theatres it is running in Chennai!!!

After watching the movie, I couldn’t help but admire and applaud the creative genius that Kamal Hassan is – no wonder; he is the true Ulaga Nayagan. The movie has science, religion, philosophies, humour, ironies – how much time did Kamal actually take to write the screenplay??? Absolutely mind-boggling!

Few of the incidents that made me go wooooooooooow were:

1. Asin (in the current world) while running behind Kamal (in the place where they bury the Perumal idol) bangs her leg on the same Shiva idol that Asin (in the 12th century, as Kothai) hit her head on and died after Rangarajan Nambi was thrown into the Ocean. Does this mean they are being united again after being killed atrociously in their previous birth?
2. Also they lean against the same Vishnu idol after the tsunami and talk about their future. Does it mean that the same God for whom they left their lives has brought them back together (this includes the small Perumal idol that had the vial in it)?
3. Another interesting incident is where Krishnaveni paatti takes Vincent’s body and puts it on her lap and claims it is her son (even when the other guy – Asin’s father? – says she shouldn’t be doing it).
4. I read about Chaos Theory and Butterfly effect. Is it really possible that a butterfly flapping its wings in China could create an earthquake in Cambodia? I was awed…
5. After the movie got over, I could not help but think that Vincent’s intention of taking the sand smugglers to task is like a step to stop the world from getting destroyed by tsunami and other natural calamities that occur as a result of ecosystem getting disturbed by mankind.
6. Vincent laid down his life while protecting his enemies and their family, even though they had vowed to stop Vincent and his mission; even going to the extent of getting Vincent’s men drunk.
7. Kaliphulla Khan and his entire locality are made to assemble at their mosque when tsunami strikes. Does this mean that God (in the form of local policemen who wanted to question them) saved them?

Balram Naidu is a classic character. Made me wonder if Crazy Mohan was part of the crew! Chris Fletcher is evil personified. Especially the dialogue between him and Narahasi (in the final face-off, “Remember Hiroshima?” and “Remember Pearl Harbour?”)made the crowd go crazy. Amazing!!!

I initially (by that I mean before watching the movie) thought the movie might end up being a big fancy dress competition with only one participant. Thankfully, I was wrong. The story and screenplay was so engrossing that not only does one have to keep wondering what is next, but also forget the fact that it is the same man that is playing all those key characters, thereby justifying the need for ten characters (though some do have the feeling that so many characters were included to be played by Ulaga Nayagan just to achieve the magic figure of ten and therefore justify the title of the movie – I disagree).

Now to a few could-have-taken-more-care things:

1. Apart from Rangarajan Nambi and Govind, the other character’s expressions were not too clear (especially because, we all know what a great actor Kamal is and we still can’t forget his expressions in Nayagan) because of the heavy make up. But still, Kamal totally rocks!!! Hats off to him!!!
2. Before the tsunami, Asin has a red dhupatta (of her salwar) around her neck. This remains exactly so even after the huge turmoil.
3. Tsunami hit the Indian coast at around 8:30am on December 26th, 2004. But in the fight between Fletcher and Narahasi that takes place minutes before tsunami strikes, their shadows are too short (like how it will be at say 11am) for us to believe it was 8:30am.
4. Did they kill a poor monkey during the shoot??? :-(

This movie has made me think so much and now I strongly believe that whatever is happening, there is a reason behind it – some call it God, some call it butterfly effect and some call it karma!!! Finally, what you sow is what you reap!!!

8 comments:

  1. Movie review is the beaten track.
    Unless , it makes a new point, that looks very ordinary.
    It is not surprising ,that you have the preceptions 'Kamal-the legend'and it clearly shows in the review.

    Most of the points , this post discussed here already raised by the media and the so called film critics widely.

    But the below one, i have not read anywhere ,about dasavatharam.

    5. After the movie got over, I could not help but think that Vincent’s intention of taking the sand smugglers to task is like a step to stop the world from getting destroyed by tsunami and other natural calamities that occur as a result of ecosystem getting disturbed by mankind.

    good.

    We can add one more line to here.

    Finally, what you sow is what you reap!!!

    Uppu thinna thanni kudichuthan aganum..

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I haven't written a review. These are a few things that made me think and few things that I noticed in the movie. I haven't gone into the details of how the music/cinematography/art work/editing and all other related technical stuff... I have just taken the story and given my opinion. IT IS NOT A REVIEW!!!

    And, yes, I am completely awed by how much Kamal has done and no doubt, he is a legend...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sandhya,

    I was not able to believe that Music was given by Himesh Reshamiya especially the first song.It was too good.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I seen the movie too., but i've slightly different opinion to the ones that i read here.

    It was my first experience watching a Tamil movie with Tamilians., Believe me, I was holding my head and sitting by the end. It was a late night show and i somehow wanted it to get over so that i can getback home and apply some balm on my head.

    It was just a commercial flick., which worked just because of some hype.

    Few Questions which i had was.

    1) Was those 10 roles necessarily be done by Kamal ?

    2) Was some characters like Khalifulla Khan really necessary ?

    3) I heard my friends saying, Tsunami was a blessing in disguise, Now, If thats the case, do we want another Tsunami to happen ?

    Overall a total crap, just because it was released in chennai and there are still people being a frog in a well, did this movie work.

    I personally like Kamal for his roles in movies like Saagar and Sadma (hindi), but if one were to say that he took 2 years to make this crap, I was disappointed.... I have to start doubting his talent.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I would say Mr. Anonymous (Dinesh) that you probably understood very lil' of the movie as I know how good your tamil is. You wouldn't understand if I spoke a lil' fast; how can you understand complex theories (that too in Tamil)?

    But I do agree that it was unnecessary for Kamal to have taken up 10 roles (just to justify the name of the movie)...

    I wonder why a person who has "understood" so much about the unnecessary characters hasn't written one single word about Mallika's (obviously useless) character!!!

    Anyways, thnx for your comments!!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  8. All type of Indian photo galleries without logos,
    http://www.okgot.com/Telugu.asp

    ReplyDelete

What do you think?