Dasavathaaram

The most eagerly awaited movie of recent times is here at last. With Kamal donning 10 unique roles, and several of their identities having been kept secretly, the major curiosity was about how Kamal is going to surprise us on the screen. Also, there was this big question of the justification of all the 10 roles. Kamal has done a splendid job as an actor most of the time, and as a script writer, not that much. I would say that I wasnt enthralled about everything after the movie; it has its share of high moments and a few low ones as well.
The movie begins with Govind (Kamal 1) sharing the dais with Karunanidhi, Manmohan Singh and George Bush (Kamal 2) in Chennai and delivering an intense, though visually distracted speech on bioterrorism and saving the earth, and makes a reference to the 12th century, when Saiva-Vaishnava conflict was at its peak in South India. Rangaraja Nambi (Kamal 3) attempts to stop Kulothunga Cholan-II (Nepoleon) from removing the deity of Lord Vishnu from the famous Govindaswamy temple of Chidambaram. He also refuses to convert to Saivism. Both these acts anger Nepoleon, who orders Kamal to be tied to the deity and dumped into the Bay of Bengal.

Back to the 21st century, in Philadelphia, Govind is a biotechnologist, specialized in virology. He works in a private company which expertises in biological weapons. Govind and his colleagues have just invented a deadly airborne virus which attracts some bad elements to the company for a lucrative deal with some high authorities. Kamal finds about it just in time and takes away the capsule in which the virus is stored and fleds. The bad elements employ Christian Fletcher (Kamal 4), a former CIA agent to retrieve the capsule from Govind. Then begins the cat-and-mouse game, which brings all the players to Tamil Nadu. The other six characters of Kamal intersect this deadly game, which proceeds with a lot of blood spills before culminating in a gargantuan climax involving Tsunami.

The first half of the movie has one of the most fast-paced screenplays in Tamil films. Too many things happen so quickly that even the songs dont have the usual decelerating effect. The characters are well-etched and the story takes us through 12th century Chidambaram, modern Philadelphia and Washington DC, Japan and India. The second half drags in comparison to that and reduces the slickness of the movie. Asin's character is a huge letdown since she is downright irritating after the melodious and sweet 'Mukunda' song. She is the weaklink in the movie, and in the end, one cant but feel that her character could be done away with. The 'romance' between Kamal and Asin is the worst I have seen in any Kamal movies.

The role of Rangarajan Nambi is the most intense among all, though Balram Naidu role as the RAW officer wins the best of 10 avtars. He is so hilarious, with some very funny lines and body language. Fletcher comes next best, whereas the 'lighthouse' Khalifa is the least impressive, followed by the Japanese guy. Also, on the Avtar Singh show, the big question is, how come a Punjabi singer gets such a rousing reception and crowd in Chennai? Amazing how Kamal could appear very tall and quite short (the 'paatti' role). After the initial excitement of seeing Kamal in different roles fades away, we get engrossed in the proceedings of the movie, treating as though the various roles are played by different actors.

Though the story is quite weak, there are some intelligent and brilliant scenes throughout the movie, which challenge our grey matter. My favorite scenes are: the appearance of hawk when Rangarajan Nambi is tortured, a butterfly flying in some scenes (Butterfly effect), Bush's question ("What is NaCl?") and the next few seconds, a scientist's remark on NaCl ("I cant explain you more than NaCl for this stuff in Tamil"), his stand on faith ("I am not saying that God is not there, but I'm saying that it would be good if God is there"). Also, there is a lot of thinking process that has gone into naming and characterizing the Indian roles. e.g., 'Boovaraghan' is a dark-skinned (probably pork-eating) Dalit activist whose quest is to save the land (sand); 'Avtar' Singh is a singer who gets a new avtar (lease of life) after narrowly escaping from the jaws of death. And the shorter-statured 'paatti' steps onto people's shoulders before committing an act that would save the state.

The songs, as I mentioned earlier, dont have much impact on the movie, so Himesh Reshammiya's efforts appear to neither strengthen nor weaken the script. Technically it is superb, though the camera appears to move too fast in many scenes, leading to blurred images. Also, the link between the events of the 12th century and the current time is hard to see, which makes the initial episode stand aloof. (Though one can say that 'religious conflict' is the common factor, it subtly portrayed).

Dasavathaaram is a visual treat, and is breathtaking in several scenes. Had the story been little solid, it would have done full justice to all the hype and the money spent.