A very good base script, good songs,annoying background music, lot of junk animation, totally sloppy screenplay, literally zero choreo, jokes that will make you cry, ear blasting sounds, unwanted and totally Hollywood-copied stunts, mediocre make-up, unbelievable pre-launch marketing and one man’s idiosyncrasy – Well that’s Dasavataram in short. I never thought I would be so disappointed by someone whom I adored as a film maker. In my view, Dasavataram is must read case study for “how to market your product even if it is a bag full of bullshit”. ( What else can make me write a review at 4:00AM, after watching the night show and feel totally cheated )

Now bringing you the details:

To start with , a prequel :–

Dasavataram is Dr.Kamal Hassan’s much hyped up latest movie, in which he does 10 different characters. The movie had so much hype and media attention that even personalities like M.Karunanidhi, Amitabh Bachan and Jackie Chan were brought in for the audio release. But we should have easily predicted about the content when the movie’s release date was postponed due to a trivial thing like IPL.

Now the battering:

I will try, as much as possible, to not throw away the suspense (as if there were any), at least for those who have already booked tickets to watch this pathetic movie. First things first. Even though the movie starts with 12th century settings and graphics, you don’t need to be a critic or a nuclear scientist to identify that the sequence has nothing much to do with the whole film ( of course , other than adding to the number of Kamal heads – priest of temple – Kamal#1 , wasting a lot of money on graphics and to show off an irony for the climax.).

Soon after a fight takes over followed by a song in 12th century and we are suddenly put in 2004, four days before Tsunami hits the seabed of TamilNadu. Our hero, Govind – aka – Kamal#2 , is a bio-tech scientist in US and he is now in a total mess because a bio weapon they developed is about to go into wrong hands. So he takes the packet containing the bio-capsule and due to some unbelievably funny events, he ends up in Chitambaram – TamilNadu – only to be chased by Flecher an ex-CIA-bad-guy (Kamal#3). By this point Kamal#4 ie US President George Bush look alike is introduced (A totally unwanted character who is portrayed as the key behind the development of the bio-weapon technology) . But what I don’t understand is, why would Kamal want to do such stupid guest roles in his own movie? Anyways compared to other make-ups, Kamal#4 is way above par.

Also Mallika Sherawat is introduced by now (only to be killed later tragically) and she would partner Kamal#3 CIA agent till interval. Her role is crisp, to the point and she does it perfectly. ( I guess, Since Kamal takes up 90% of the film shots, the director had to kill Mallika, to give some space for other characters including Asin )

The real mess starts only after we reach India. A funny Telugu police officer comes into picture. No prizes for guesses. You have a decent Kamal#5 – Bal Ram. His jokes are the one’s which I mentioned earlier as pathetic. Still Kamal has done damn good justice to this role. The police Kamal makes sure that he chases all the 3 supposed “terrorists” through out the clock( ie ex-CIA turned criminal, Mallika and Govind ) and the sequences which follows are more like a cartoon – still watchable.

So as the chase for the bio-capsule continues more Kamals (#6) ie Asin’s grandmother takes center stage. Well this was one character Kamal could have avoided. Even though the CIA agent was very close in the race, the “patti” takes the cake for making Kamal look like one of those rubber-chin hanging alien creatures we have seen many times in Star War movies. Still imagining? Let me help you out. Imagine a Kamal face full of so much plaster of paris and makeup, that it is eventually immaterial as to who is inside those sick rubber masks. There you have Kamal#6 (Patti) , Kamal#7 (A very tall guy) and Kamal#8 ( Japanese guy). Well all these characters could have been easily done with, but for the fact that this whole movie was taken with the sole purpose of showing Kamal’s brilliance in 10 different roles. ( Its like touching your nose around the head, just because you want it that way to create a new touch-your-nose record.)

The remaining 2 Kamals are Kamal#9 (an NGO guy who fights against illegal sand mining – good role ) and Kamal#10 , A pop singer sardar where Kamal does a very good job, but again the character being totally out of scope of the movie.

So as the bio-capsule changes hands between the “Patti” , Asin, Govind and CIA, the script beautifully deals with issues like religion, bio-warfare and even illegal sand mining. But eventually the good guys have to win, right? So after many fights and songs the D-day approaches ie 26th Dec 2004, the day of Tsunami. And as the bio-capsule breaks and the virus starts spreading, the only anti-virus-agent is provided by GOD himself in the form of Tsunami. Confused ?? Well the virus-bomb can be de-activated only by usinga very complex compound named NaCl . (Well that’s the funnies part in the movie). Little did Kamal knew that, nowadays even students of class 7 are taught that common salt is also known as NaCl – and where else to find it in abundance than Sea. ( At this stage I could only think about the movie “Evolution” where shampoo saves the day). At least Kamal could have come up with some other complex stuff like uranium or magnesium which is also found in sea water.

And as everything ends fine, the viewer is left at his own mercy pondering whether he got all the 10 Kamal’s – or oops!! did He miss one ??

My final verdict : Well the movie has a solid theme and some very good acting but lacks the hyped up class and doesn’t deliver as per expectations. The animations and graphics are a total waste of money and play detrimental role but again some of the special effects like multiple Kamal’s in the same scene fighting with each other are really good. So finally I would say – Do watch the movie , but with less expectations.

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