I very rarely review movies but for Dasavathaaram (Ten Incarnations) (trailer) - Kamal Haasan’s magnum opus, I am more than willing to make an exception.
I had heard about this movie because it was Kamal Haasan’s latest movie and with him doing 10 different roles it was a movie that I was waiting to watch, though it’s release got postponed so many times that I lost track of when it will release till recently my cousin brother in law got the tickets for the movie today as it released Friday July 13th 2008 (I wonder whether it being Friday the 13th will have any impact on the movie’s success though)
I was gung ho about the movie and man did Kamal Haasan not only not disappoint me but he exceeded all expectations that I had from the movie. In a short sentence, Dasavathaaram, leaves you riveted on your seat, leaves you thinking plus leaves you short of words to describe it - beat that!!! Though one way to describe the movie is that this movie proves why Kamal Haasan is India’s best in fact the bestest actor which is not as surprising as the fact that Kamal Haasan can now claim to being India’s finest scriptwriter too. What an amazing movie!!
It has been roughly 18 hours since I saw the movie and still describing the movie in words is difficult for me, I would never be up at 7 am in the morning writing a review for a movie if it did not impact me in a huge way, so I would try to put together scenes which made the most impact on me.
The true impact of the imagination, creativity, hard work, amazing attempt and last but definitely not the least - the sheer genius of the movie will only hit you at the end. But, you get a sense of the grandeur and the history making that this movie not just portrays and achieves, at the start of the title credits when this line of text scrolls on the screen:
For the first time
in the history of world cinema
Dr. Kamal Haasan, Universal Actor
in Ten Roles
The begins in 12th century Tamil Nadu where the Chola Dynasty King, Kulothunga Chola II,who is a big Lord Shiva devotee, decides to start a major redevelopment of the Nataraja Temple in Chidambaram, which also housed the Lord Vishnu idol in the form of Lord Govindarajan and decides to remove the idol forcibly against the wishes of Vaishnavites, followers of Lord Vishnu. This at the height of the (disputed) religious persecution of Vaishnavites by Shaivites led by Kulothunga Chola II. Enter, Rangaraj Nambi a Vaishnavite who grew up with the Chola King and was buddies with him, who resists the effort of the King to remove idol, the King does not pay heed and tells Rangaraj that if he praised Lord Shiva, then he would spare his life, Rangaraj refused and he is chained to the idol and immersed in the sea alongwith the idol.
The scene shifts to modern day America, where Govind the scientist is working on a lethal biological weapon and testing it on a monkey called Hanu. Govind prevents the biological weapon from being sold to rogue people by his boss. His quest to ensure that the terrorists do not end up with the biological weapon takes him to India where we get introduced to other 6 characters (apart from Rangaraj, Govind, Christian Fletcher - the ex CIA man one of the rogues, George W Bush Jr. - all played by Kamal Haasan) - a Japanese karate expert, an Indian intelligence official, a 95 year old lady, a environmentalist, a 6.5+ foot tall man, a Punjabi pop singer.
The movie scores highly in the manner in which these characters and their story are interwoven and are joined by a common thread. The movie can very well be termed India’s first genuine attempt at sci-fi thriller. Kamal Haasan does an amazing job as a scriptwriter where the theme running through the film is questioning the existence of God but in a very balanced manner placing both sides of arguments in favor of theism and atheism, which clearly brings to fore his intelligent questioning mind. Also, the way he uses tsunami to show how the tsunami protects the world eventually, shows that he has an optimist tendency where even a catastrophe has something good that happens. It’s a script where he presents strong arguments both in favor of and against the existence of God.
The challenge for the viewer though is that it is very difficult to pick which is Kamal’s best role in the movie. Despite 10 characters to choose from, it becomes a problem of plenty and is very difficult to even do a top 10 countdown.
The amazing visual effects that are used in two scenes involving the ocean, the one where the idol gets immersed in sea in 12th century and the tsunami climax scene. The tsunami climax scene which alone cost Rs. 3.5-4 crores for that one scene was an amazing scene which showed how it came.
Also, Kamal’s perfectionist tendency were fully out in fore as the Japanese character is the one who understands that it is Tsunami, as it is a Japanese word, be it the scientist’s inability to explain the biological weapon in simple words to non scientists including the intelligence officer - which will be a major turn off for those who do not understand what biological weapons especially the mass theatre goers in TN, starting and ending the movie with the idol and spinning the story around it so it is a full circle.
Kamal Haasan proves why he is India’s best actor - no one would have the guts to take on a movie like this and pull it off as well as he did.
Asin in her role as the Brahmin girl who is overly possessive about the idol can sometimes be irritating because of over acting but she does play a role in adding to the comic effect in the movie. Mallika Sherawat provides glamour to the movie. Though her character as a deadly assasin’s deadly assistant did not have much meat, she was bearable.
The biggest letdown in the movie for me was the music, not surprisingly as it was Himesh Reshammiya who was the music director and to expect good music from him is to expect intelligence from George W Bush. The background score is excellent and really adds spice to the proceedings thanks to Devi Prasad who provided the background score.
K S Ravikumar proves his mettle as a very capable director as he unveils an amazing array of directorial skills to direct this magnum opus.
Dasavathaaram - Legen…………….wait for it ….. darry (you need to be a How I Met Your Mother fan to understand it :))
Dasavathaaram is a must watch.
I cut half a star for Himesh Reshammiya’s music. I am listing the sound tracks of the songs in the movie courtesy wikipedia. I like the 2nd song Kallai Matum (listen lyrics) as that song is about how the point of view makes humans consider a statue made of stone to be the Supreme being or just a statue.
Soundtrack
| No. | Song | Singers | Length (m:ss) | Lyrics | Notes |
| 1 | Ulaga Nayagan | Vinit Singh | 5:34 | Vairamuthu | Features K. S. Ravikumar dancing with the various avatars of Kamal Haasan in the background. |
| 2 | Kallai Mattum | Hariharan, Chorus | 5:28 | Vaali | Picturized a 13th century episode with Haasan as Rangaraja Nambi, whilst Napolean as Kulothunga Chola II. |
| 3 | Oh…Ho…Sanam | Kamal Haasan, Mahalakshmi Iyer | 5:31 | Vairamuthu | Picturizes Kamal Haasan as Avtar Singh in concert with his on screen wife, Ranjitha, played by Jayaprada. |
| 4 | Mukundha Mukundha | Kamal Haasan, Sadhana Sargam | 6:32 | Vaali | Features Asin Thottumkal singing in praise of Vishnu, with Haasan lurking behind as an old woman. |
| 5 | Kaa…Karuppanukkum | Shalini Singh | 5:06 | Vairamuthu | Features Kamal Haasan dancing with Mallika Sherawat in posh nightclubs. |
| 6 | Oh…Ho…Sanam (Re-Mix) |
Himesh Reshammiya, Mahalakshmi Iyer | 3:47 | Vairamuthu | An extra soundtrack but not a part of the film. |
Let me know what you think of the movie after you see it. I will be following this post soon with a detailed post containing the story and how it is connected by next weekend (weekend for me in Dubai is Friday and Saturday).
Hope you liked the review and more importantly the movie too. Enjoy 
I give Dasavathaaram a Rating: 
June 15th, 2008 at 6:49 am |Quote|
Movie was just OK.
Except for Kamal’s acting, Nothing in the Movie.
Looked like a wild goose chase through out and WHY, IN THE HELL, SHOULD A god’s statue be thrown around like that.
Just trying to hurt sentiments, nothing else !!!!!!!!!!!!!
June 15th, 2008 at 6:50 am |Quote|
June 16th, 2008 at 1:56 pm |Quote|
This was one point which no review has mentioned so far. Being a big fan of kamal, watched this movie on the very first day lest any spoilers leak out. The first 15 min was a never before done magnum opus Indian cinema at its best. I wud love to watch Nambi for more than 30 min role but sadly it was very limited. The first half was like a racy fast paced english novel with twists and turns , and every scene moving from one place to other. Can give a 5 star to the first half.
It is only in the second half, I felt a little impatient, a little bored and Asin is to be blamed for her over possessive role. Imagine she worrying only about the statue when she is responsible to hit the car and cause injuries to another family, she worrying abt statue even if Tsunami comes up, She complaining abt scientist all the time..gimme a break on that part..No justification. i thought all those scenes cud have been edited and the duration was cut down( asin scenes). Her presence only makes more closer to a English novel aka sophie in Da-Vinci-Code but a unintelligent irritating one here. So much she irritated that i am writing more lines against her than praising kamal for his work
Of all the 10 roles of kamal, I liked only 4. Devotee Nambi,Scientist Govind, Ex CIA Fletcher, and the telugu/tamil local cop. Remaining characters were just fillers especially the atifullah and sardar roles. Bush was shown as utterly stupid (not knowing what NaCl is, walking on the dais like a ramp up model in the last scene. )
I would like to see a review speaking of the consequences of this movie on Indian cinema. No one is speaking the +ves, either they are complaining on length or some other aspects. Regional politics? In any case, this movie has set the benchmark for technical brilliance in Indian cinema.
I think director Shankar must be getting impatient to launch his ROBO and set a new mile stone now
Just forget all the Hollywood movies you have seen so far and go to theaters to watch out for a never been done before Indian cinema.
June 18th, 2008 at 6:00 pm |Quote|
One thing we had noticed is why people didn’t get the real subtext and reason for the various roles and hence the title. If you knew the real dasavatharams of Lord Vishnu and their characters you can appreciate the script more.
Let me explain, starting with the best adapted role:
Krishna avatar - Vincent Poovaraghavan Lord krishna is actually a dalit, he is dark-skinned [shyamalam]. He saved draupadi when she was being violated and he was the actual diplomat in mahabharatham. Lord krishna dies of an arrow striking his lower leg. Now look at how vincent was introduced.. he appears when asin is about to be molested and he saves her like draupadi. Vincent is the dalit diplomat, fights for land issue [soil issue to be exact] and dies from the metal rod striking his leg. Oh even five of vincent’s men are drugged at P. Vasu’s.. sounds familiar???
Balarama avatar - Balarama naidu This is an easy given. as the name suggests and the role personifies you can easily get it.
Mathsya avatar - Ranagaraja nambi nambi is thrown into water in an act of trying to save lord from being thrown into sea, though vainly. what more clue do you want?
Varaha avatar - Krishnaveni paatti During the mukunda song, krishnaveni paatti does varaha avatar in the shadow puppetry. The frame freezes on it for a second. there is the clue. Moreover, in varaha avatar lord actually hides earth so as to protect life forms. Here too krishnaveni hides the germs - life form inside the statue so as to protect.
Vamana avatar - Kalifulla khan remember in vamana avatar, lord vishnu takes the vishvaroopa, that is the giant form! Hence the giant kalifulla here symbolises vamana avatar.
Parasurama avatar - Christian Fletcher Parasurama is actually on an angry killing spree and killed 21 generations of the particular kshatriya vamsa. Hence the real KILLER… Guess what thats what our Fletcher is! He comes around with the gun [modern upgrade for axe] and kills everyone around. I have to check if he kills 21 people though.
Narasimha avatar - Shingen Narahashi first of all the name itself is a play on the words singam [means lion in tamil] and narasimha [the avatar being symbolised]. Lord Narasimha manifests himelf to kill the bad guy and he also teaches prahaladha. In the movie, he shows up to kill the killer fletcher! and is also a teacher.. Lord Narasimha had to kill the asura with bare hands and hence the martial arts exponent here.. get it?
Rama avatar - Avatar Singh Lord Rama stands for the one man one woman maxim, kind of symbolising true love.. Here Avatar portrays that spirit by saying that he loves his woman more than anything and wants to live for her.
Kalki avatar - Govindaraj Ramasamy As you know, the hero in kaliyug can be none other than the Kalki avatar!!!
Koorma avatar - Bush This is the most loose adaptation I couldn’t clearly comprehend. But if you look at the real koorma avatar, the lord is the turtle/tortoise that helps in stirring the ksheera sagara and bringing out the amruth. This essentially creates war among the devas and asuras. Similarly today Bush facilitates war between you know whom… May be Kamal also indicates that this avatar is a bit dumb like the tortoise…
June 21st, 2008 at 7:48 pm |Quote|
TOTALLY ABSURD. Under the pretext of fun we cannot demean the Hindu religion in totality with a set of absurd statements made over the core faith that the 10 incarnations of Vishnu was/is/will be for the benefit of mankind.
1. Krishna – was not a Dalit. He was born for Vasudeva a Kshatriya king (in-law of Kamsa). He was just grown by Yasoda / Nandagopa who belonged to Yadava family. Dark skinned does not mean dalit – this statement might offend the Dalit people too.
2. Varaha avatar lord actually hides earth so as to protect life forms – This information is completely wrong. In Varaha avatar the lord does not hide earth, rather, He brings back the life for earthly creatures by restoring the structure of earth which was submerged under sea waters and set back its rotation. Vedic tradition still maintains that the present earth rotates with the force sustained by the initial spin spun by Sri SHWETHA Varaha and hence the present cycle of years and yugas i.e. the Kalpa is named as SHWETHA VARAHA Kalpa.
3. Parasurama avatar - Hence the real KILLER…Again absurd. In every avatar the lord kills or destroys or weakens the evils directly or indirectly. Parasurama killed 21 generations of Kshatriyas who were bad but not all Kshatriyas in the world. Killer is a sick term to denote that. Otherwise, we should claim ourselves the killers as we kill tons of mosquitoes in our lifetime.
4. … May be Kamal also indicates that this avatar is a bit dumb like the tortoise… - Another absurd adjective before the tortoise – “dumb”. Even by mistake I would not want to readers to read that this tortoise would mean the Koormam. Who ever said Koorma avatar was dumb? Refer to the books for the detailed puranic events behind this avatar and its importance. One would end up his/her life just reading the book – it is so huge.
Keep a film, a film! Even for the sake of fun please do not correlate films with sensitive religious beliefs – or at the least don’t publish it to a mass. Had this been a correlation with other faiths, I am sure we would have seen turmoil of mails wouldn’t we?
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:12 pm |Quote|
I regret if it hurt anybody’s feelings. I didn’t mean fun by the way.
You made more sense
July 11th, 2008 at 7:30 pm |Quote|
Mr Narasimhan
Please keep ur hindu sentiments with ur self
The above artical for Lord Vishnu and their characters Dasavathaaram. And it is just a movie no one is here to hurt eachothers feelings.
plsease try and admire the talent
and kind of hard work they done for the movie
And no one will work hard to hurt others feeling