Starring: Kamal Haasan, Asin Thottumkal, Mallika Sherawat
Directed by: K.S. Ravikumar
Bottomline: Too many characters, too many side-stories, too many Kamals!
I must admit that I was pretty excited as I walked into the theater to watch Kamal Haasan's latest undertaking. While news reports claimed that Dasavathaaram was the costliest Indian movie ever made, the posters and trailer promised an epic in the making. No expense was spared on the publicity – Jackie Chan was flown in for the release of the film's soundtrack. Adding to all the hype and hoopla was the fact that Kamal Haasan was going to portray ten different characters in the movie, a world record that would eclipse the nine roles that Shivaji Ganesan had performed in Navarathri. Tickets were sold out for the first two weeks in the major multiplexes around Chennai. Back in Houston, a huge queue extended outside the theater and into the parking lot over an hour before the show was to start. Standing second in line, I was party to the high expectations .
Walking out of the theater a little over 166 minutes later, I was left wondering if the wait had been worth it.
Dasavathaaram's premise is simple but its execution is incredibly convoluted. Our hero Govind (Kamal Haasan) is a scientist who works in a biotechnology research facility in the United States. This facility develops, for no discernible reason, a deadly virus that can destroy the world. Govind uncovers a plot by his superiors to sell a vial containing this virus to terrorists. He smuggles out the vial from the facility and intends to deliver it to the FBI – but never makes it.
The bad guys hire an assassin, Christian Fletcher (Kamal Haasan) to hunt down Govind and retrieve the vial. The entire movie from this point on, is a chase. The hunt takes them to all sorts of places, and the vial ends up in the base of an idol of Perumal. Andal (Asin Thottumkal), a religious Brahmin girl, joins Govind as she refuses to give up the idol
Photo:Tamil Masalaa
Kamal Haasan was truly menacing as the ex-CIA agent Christian Fletcher.
At its half-way point, Dasavathaaram as a story is interesting, and seems to work for the most part. Most dialogues are well written, the screenplay is reasonably intelligent, and the action pretty exciting (though there was unnecessarily graphic violence). While I did run into some people in the theater who were bemused by the plot, I must say that I still had hope that the movie could turn out to be pretty good.
How wrong I was.
The second half of the movie was a terrible let down. There was almost no twist in the tale; just a series of events that seemed to lead nowhere. Dasavathaaram moves at an excruciatingly slow pace for a movie that claims to be an edge-of-the-seat thriller. The dialogues get repetitive, and the main characters seem to be distracted, not knowing what to do. The chase just goes on and on, and it was hard not to get impatient with it all.
It must be said that the post-production for the most part is top notch. The make-up is incredible, and it is hard to tell one Kamal Haasan from another. As an actor, he breathed life into almost every role he played, varying his accent and delivery brilliantly to showcase his versatile abilities. He truly excelled as the murderer Fletcher, and the Research and Analysis Wing officer Balram Naidu. Asin played the part of a highly strung, devout Hindu pretty well. The special effects too deserve a special mention. They are truly revolutionary for an Indian movie. However, they fail to be realistic in the much talked about tsunami sequences in the climax.
Dasavathaaram was a technician's delight. The sets, camera work and stunts are impressive. But KS Ravikumar's direction, Kamal Haasan's script, and Himesh Reshammiya's songs are all part of a jarring creative mess.
At the end of the day, Kamal Haasan tried too many things with this movie. Just like too many cooks can spoil the broth, too many Kamals spoil the plot. He forced himself to try and give each of his characters a background and history. Instead of adding depth to the story, this only served as a distraction. Moreover, Dasavathaaram is a melting pot of too many themes. What are arguments about atheism and religion, or talk of the ‘butterfly effect' doing in an action movie? Why are we transported back to the 12 th century to see the story of a devout priest who died due to his faith? If religion were going to be such a central theme to the story, it should have been played up more throughout the tale. The script falls prey to inexperience – by the end of the film, no one remembers why Christian Fletcher is after the vial in the first place.
On paper, Dasavathaaram seems to have all of the right elements. But on the screen, it just fails to work.
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