Dasavatharam : It's all about Kamal!

As you can see, I am gonna talk about Dasavatharam,one of the most awaited movies in the past couple of years due to the hype of one man's 10 avatars in a movie!!! Yes, I went for the movie yesterday and seriously, people flooded the theatres. I went to Mid Valley with Jam, and when it was our turn to get the tickets there were only 45 seats left!!! And we ended up getting the front seats, 2nd row from the screen!!!! Anyway, initially I wasn't that satisfied...obviously...but, I must say I was kinda glued to the movie that my seating wasn't bothering me at all.
To be honest, I went into the cinema without much expectations...I have heard quite a lot and read quite a number of reviews and mostly people were dissapointed and a lot of comments that there was not story at all and all. But, to my suprise I thought that the movie was quite nice,quite good I would say. The movie is based on the Chaos Theory. The Chaos Theory says that everything is inter-related and that everything happens for a reason. So, the movie starts of with a short (really short, you will miss it if you are not alert) introduction of all the 10 characters that Kamal plays in the movie.
The story starts off from the 12th century, where a staunch Vaishnavite (they pray to Lord Narayana,or something like that), Rangarajan Nambi (Kamal) is forced by the king to sort of pray to Lord Siva. The king wants his people to convert to Saivism (which is also a part of Hinduism). So, Rangarajan Nambi opposes to this and gets drowned in the sea together with the Narayana statue. Right after that, his wife (Asin)also dies. After this, we are taken to this big lab in US where a scientist is working on a bio-virus or something like that.
Govind (Kamal) is this scientist who cares about the people more than money and the effort he has put in finding the vial which can destroy the world. After he learns that his boss is actually trying to sell the vial to the terrorists, Govind steals the vial.Now, the terrorist, Fletcher (Kamal) together with a translator (Mallika Sherawat) go after Govind from US to India to get the vial.
The story goes on, where Govind together with Aandal (Asin) try to keep the vial off the terrorist's hands. In short, the story is a prove of the Chaos Theory. Each and every event that takes place in the movie is related to each other and how they affect the characters involved are shown quite remarkably. The mere effort/thought that Kamal has put in to create a story based on the chaos theory is laudable and he succeeds in that. Of course, he has incorporated several themes that have been quite alien to Tamil Cinema such as the existence of God,the darker side of science (bio-weapons), discriminations based on castes,saving the environment/mother-earth and so.But,all these themes are handled with much care and are given commercial treatment that they are not so obvious. I guess Kamal didn't want the movie to be too serious or too hard for the vast majority of audience (Tamils, whom a lot of them are illiterate) to comprehend and thus has compromised to the usual commercial values like comedy. Though, if you ask me, a movie with such serious themes would have been a much better watch for me if it was given a more serious treatment.
The make-up and graphics in the movie should have been handed much better. One can immediately identify the man behind each of the characters as the make-up doesn't gel well or so. Talking about graphics, I do not know where all the money spent really went to. Because, they all brag about spending a fortune to make it look good but seriously, the tsunami part and certain parts in the movie where graphics are needed are just bad.
On performance, need I say anything at all??? Kamal once again proves that he's super talented. All the 10 roles have different characterisations and Kamal has done enough justice to each of them. But, when you think of it...10 characters are just more than needed to the story. Some characters are simply made up to round up the roles to 10,I guess!!! But, I must say that each of the character has some how a role in the story's proceedings. Although some roles' length are pretty short,they have their own importance.So, I guess we can accept that! On Asin, she only has one thing to be happy about in this movie, in my opinion that is! Although she gets two roles, none of them are as impactful as Kamal's 10 and seriously, she needs to check on her dubbing. Cuz, honestly, most of the time she's just screaming and her expressions are repetitive and irritating to say the least. Mallika Sherawat is there to do what she does best, I don't think I need to explain that.
Now, lets look at the music department. You know, some songs don't get to you until after you watch the movie.Frankly, I wasn't really interested in the songs when it was released and I hadn't heard any of it properly.But, after watching the movie I am hooked to two of the songs;Kallai Mattum Kandal and Mukundha Mukundha are simply amazing. The songs were by Himesh Rishemiya and background score by Devi Sri Prasad. The background score was apt most of the time but nothing really extraordinary.
I would still say that the movie wasn't up to the hype that was surrounding it but it's definitely something different.So, if you are an ardent fan of Kamal Hassan or if you simply love movies with an intellectual touch or with some difference, out of the usual commercial flicks, this is a must-watch!!!