Dasavatharam - My View

I watched Dasavatharam yesterday and here is my write-up on that. It probably would appeal to someone who has seen the movie.

Dasavatharam - My view

I can only write my View and not a Review on Dasavatharam because I dont understand Tamil/Tamizh.

And that too a multi-lingual movie like this where we got Tamil, Telugised Tamil, Anglicised Tamil, Tamilised English, Punjabised Tamil, Tamilised Punjabi, Mallu Tamil and ya, the Bush English to add to that.

They all sounded the same to me though!

Why did I watch the movie? I hardly say no to movies, and this one had 10 heroes (1 actor), 2 hero-ines(1 actress),one item-bomb and a lot of hype. How could I miss.

One thing is for sure that Tamil industry has got talent and money. Be it acting, producing, costumes, make-up, cinematography, were very impressive. But the great "Ulaga-Nayaka" (Universal Hero), Dr.Kamal Hassan hasn't given himself a good script to go with the rest of the effort, which are supreme for Indian standards.

Lets walk through the 10 roles and the supports.

Dasavataaras:

1) Dr.Govind, a bio-weopen scientist working for an American Agency where every employee except the security guard speaks Tamil. The monkeys here have super-monkey brains and can key-in the passwords for high security access zones.

2) Rangaraaja Nambi, the pro-Vishnu devotee, who takes on the pro-Shiva group to protect his deity, only to get tied to the idol and thrown into the Sea. I always thought pro-Shiva king looked like Rajnikanth! But, this was my favourite part of the movie. Very well shot. Good that they chose a big idol for the scene, as Kamal's huge paunch and biceps could have made it look too small.

3) George Bush, who is more a Tamil hero than the President, with his antics on stage. But Kamal does a good job of taking Bush from Dumb, dumber to dumbest levels. I loved the expression when he is told Sodium Chloride when he asks "What's NaCl".

4) Mr.Fletcher, the "son of a Gun" guy, and ex-CIA who has got the Terminator look and also plays one. His mission for whatever reason was to feature till the end of the movie to get his hands on a small chemical weapon. He had his share of joy. Gets married to Mallika Sherawat with some near-intimate scenes. Not that they look good, but Kamal wouldn't let off the opportunity.

5) Mr.Naidu, CBI officer with Telugised Tamil , was fantastic till he took a chopper to gun down the "Son of a Gun" guy! I am sure he had some good lines to say, coz he attracted some laughs in the hall.

6) The Paatti, a strong mentally weak 100 years old granny, who for a change offers a chemical weapon to the Lord (Perumal). She is also waiting for the return of her son who died in 1954 and holds his "colour" photograph. I guess Calvin's Dad can explain this better.

Back to the "view"

7) Khali-full-ah, the giant Muslim guy with a name of contradictions. I could not figure out what his role in the movie was, apart from being accused of being a terrorist and giving way for some jokes on his height. (Bin Ladder??!!)

8) Victor Something, a Mallu, speaking Mallu Tamil who has an aandolan against the Land Mafia, puts the heroine rape scene under spotlights to save her, and finally sacrifices his life to Tsunami to save a kid.

9) Avataar Singh, a Punjabi pop star,who keeps forgetting he is a Punjabi, sings Tamil, speaks Tamil(with his Punjabi wife too). Some cancer angle to create a twist and a funny cure too! Get shot! Now, after this, Surgical Instruments will be a .35 magnum for headaches, AK-47s for kidney failure, an M24 sniper weapon for infectious diseases and a battle tank for elephantiasis .

10) The Kung-Fu master, speaks Japanese (Hey, we also got Tamilised Japanese too!!), who is set to avenge his daughter's killing and he is also the first to utter the word "Tsunami". Intelligent stuff here, as not many Indians knew the word till then and Japanese are pretty used to it.

Side-Casts:

1) Rangaraaja's wife(Asin 1) - All she got to do was to make him say "Om namah Shivay" to save her Maangalyaa, which she failed.

2) Andaal (Asin 2) - This for me, was where the movie went totally wrong. It just couldn't get off with the Andaal Perumaal scenario. I din't get the dialogues, but never liked the length of her screen presence and the tone in which she spoke. (If Kamal didn’t play 10 roles, would it be hyped as Asin's double role??? Hmmm)

3) Jasmine( Mallika Sherawat) - A pole dancer in US, whose Tamil is better than her curves. She marries the ex-CIA and becomes his translator and the partner of crime. Its not typical Mallika, as she doesnt get to show too much skin, not to her liking. For Tamil audience??

This was my "view" of Dasavatharam. Did I enjoy the movie? Yes, I did. Do I recommend to watch it? Ofcourse I do.