Rev # 35 . Review on Dasavatharam Movie

I am unsure of the Sanskrit word for 35th and clearly am a lazy person to find it out by Googling as well. So, why pain my fingers for typing out my thoughts on this movie?

1. Firstly, I like Rajnikanth

very very much - I am not a fan of SSRK the Actor; but I like Mr. Shivaji Rao Gaekwad the person.

1. Many reviews are pulling Thalaivar into this movie and Kamal

   
   




2. I too spent 15 USD and waited for an hour to watch this movie

   
   




3. It raised my hopes with the first story and then it totally changed track.

   
   

So, here goes.(This is biased on the circumstances under which I watched the movie)

The first story line is about Nambi the priest at the Mahavishnu aalayam(temple) at Chidambaram. The king(played by Napolean) [I wish this character was played by Rajinikanth, he would have given it such a cruel twist] wants nothing to do with Lord Vishnu and ends up drowning the priest along with the statue. The song sequence, fight, and Kamal’s excellent use of voice modulation especially while reciting Shaanthagaram shloka truly set the tone(or raised the expectation) for a spectacular movie.

But immediately after this, I loose track of the plot. We quickly jump to USA and a Bio-weapons lab with Mr. Govind the scientist. Who is this Govind-guy, who are his parents, what is his family like, any past or background information has been deemed unnecessary - apparently. So, lets assume he was cloned and quickly became a scientist at a US Researchs lab [or he was a child prodigy of some ABCD - American Born Confused Desi - that quickly got into a research program on Bio weapons - whichever suits you]

Now, the plot becomes one of deceipt and the ’all-so-important’ vial becomes the central character [Reminds me of an old MGR movie where he uses a similar prop right thru the movie] The plot is now clearly a chase-movie running really fast.

At such insane speeds we reach India [does this Govind guy always keep his passport with him? hmm. I wonder] Then, Balram Naidu and a huge dig at Telegu folks follows. [My parents are native Keralites, and myself a born-Chennaite; why make fun of other language folks in a Tamil movie, beats me?] I was hoping there weren’t too many Telegu folks in the theater at Florida that were going to get mad at such pathetic PJs. That’s a different story - anyways, returning back to the movie.

Going gets more funnier and much more action-packed once inside Singara Semma Hot Machi Chennai.

We have a panty-bra dance by the sultry(should it not be slutty) Mallika Sherawat - thrown in somewhere in the middle of all this action-packed chase.Then the comedy continues into the agraharam at Chidambaram and some more comedy is being packed into the movie. Then, we have some more emotions being pushed into the movie with the Dalit-leader standing against the rape of Mother Earth [as if the human-kind raping the other parts of Mother Nature is totally acceptable] I’d like to know how this works - you dont use one aperture but abuse the others? You dont steal sand but its okay to plunder her for Oil & Petroleum; but its okay to keep testing Nuclear and Atomic bombs; but its okay to keep procreating and causing more and more resources to be used by human kind and causing an imbalance in the natural eco?

Slowly the comedy dies a painful death and the movie goes on rambling for some more time to try and reason out why Lord Vishnu came up with a Tsunami.

That sums up the movie review.

END of my thoughts about the movie’s STORY Line

A special REQUEST: Guys in the USA - PLEASE THINK AT LEAST TWO TIMES before going to this movie. This is not a MMKR or a Aboorva Sagodharargal or a Nayagan. Unlike Rajni film, you dont throw your logic outside the theater for a Kamal film. So when you see the Tsunami coming for such a specific reason; or when you see Asin turning the sand lorry to cause an accident; or when you see the US President dancing or making funny moves on the podium at Chennai; or when you are asked to believe that people can jump from and jump into a running train at a railroad crossing - please please please do not cause harm to yourself or others.

Since I like SSRK I say the next few sentences,

If it were a Rajni movie, all this is expected and usual; but this is a Kamal Hassan movie. I like a Rajni movie done by Rajni and have no restrictions to seeing Thalaivar fight out even a 100 conmen on the struss of the Binny factory; but thats just me. And Thalaivar fans are usually not against seeing him do such super-human(and, yes of course, so childish) stunts. We go for a Thalaivar padam to get ourselves rid of all the mundane problems & issues; we go there to enjoy and watch things that can not happen in real life being accomplished by Thalaivar; we go there for the ’impossible-to-achieve-in-real-life’ fights; we go there because there is some indescribable magnetism he has; I go there because I like his simplicity & down-to-earth living in real life.

Conclusion:

I feel a little frustrated about having to wait for an hour outside the theater in the USA to watch a movie that was way too much hyped. For the amount of money spent on this, I could have watched Jumpers, Matrix or even Jurassic Park another time(those have exemplary CG & Special Effects). So, if you have enough time to kill and enough patience to listen to an innovative reasoning of the Tsunami; please plan to watch this movie. Of course, if you like Kamal Hassan and have a very special liking towards his movies, PLEASE DEFINITELY watch the movie. I can say with 100% confidence its not as bad as Guna or Aalavandan; but definitely nothing when compared with Anbe Sivam, Nayagan, MMKR. It fits somewhere in the middle; and for a 100C or 80C budget, one would have expected better. Its particularly difficult to identify this into any one genre; its not a comedy like MMKR or even a PKS or Kaadhala Kaadhala, its not too heavily subject-oriented like a Mahanadi or Guna; its not too restrictive like a Pushpak(Pesum Padam) or Aalavandan; its not a complete masala-type movie like an Indian or a Vasool Raja; if anyone can describe the movie sensibly in a sentence, please venture your say in the Comments.

Appreciate your patience for having read my thoughts about this wonderful movie & I end this by praising Kamal and the team for the excessive amount of hard-work, dedication they’ve put into this movie - I definitely believe for Indian(& Tamil) standards, they’ve surely achieved "Excellence"; however, like what Kamal has himself said, excellence keeps changing from time to time. Does this film classify ’excellence’ in our times(when we include flicks like The Matrix, stories like Nayagan, acting portrayed in MMKR), I really doubt it.

[MMRK - Michael Madana Kama Rajan; PKS - Pammal K Sambandham]