Dasavatharam - Good concept, pathetic screenplay!. Review on Dasavatharam Movie

Dasavatharam – Kamal Hassan’s much hyped movie finally released after a string of delays. And I was more than excited to catch it on the FDFS (First Day First Show)!

The story, without the usual man against corrupt government clichés is a welcome relief to the state of Tamil Cinema…With Kamal Hassan helming the story and screenplay departments, it gave rise to expectations of a complex & powerful, yet entertaining script…

Dasavatharam deals with the protagonist Govind and his attempts to save the world from mass destruction by saving a biomedical weapon (virus enclosed in a vial) from getting into the hands of antisocial elements. Moving from a US laboratory to a coastal town of South India, the movie has the right elements for being a fast paced thriller (what with 10 Kamals being thrown along the way!) - if only the script had been more watertight!

The movie started off grandly but soon all semblance of a story that would be tightly knit disappeared. The movie is essentially reduced to one long chase sequence, peppered with unwanted characters along the way… Yes, the overall theme of Chaos Theory and the message that every event is connected and happens for a reason is a welcome change for Indian films, but without a backing strong script that at least attempts to connect all the dots, it left me hungry for more, and disappointed at more than a few happenings along the way!

For one, the tone of the movie is really inconsistent. The movie starts off on a serious note but moves to slapstick comedy mode very soon. The sequences of the ‘vial’ changing hands and ultimately getting stuck inside an Idol belong to a comedy movie, rather than a serious movie claiming to have intelligent overtones. The character of Balaram Naidu evokes some laughs in the first half, with ‘Crazy’ Mohan style dialogues. The rest of the Kamals just basically are plugged into the script. The idea of conveying that seemingly unrelated people are related to one single incident that impacts humanity, is good, but the narration should take care of evoking that response from the viewer.

Here’s a basic question:

Why didn’t an educated scientist like Govind, who knows the importance of the vial for humanity, just snatch the vial from the courier guy or from the 90 year old lady or from Asin? There was every opportunity to do so, but he chose to plead with them for it.

If this is a side plot element, then I can ignore this as a cinematic liberty. But alas, this is the pivot on which the entire movie hinges, and a logic miss here means the entire schema of things later on doesn’t make logical sense!

When are our screenwriters going to realize that every scene is like a building block. Miss one block, and the entire building is going to fall sooner or later!

Asin’s character had another major tone breach. She spends 99% of the movie trying to save the idol of her lord, rather than give any importance to the Vial inside it, which would wipe out humanity. Fair enough, since she's been raised as that kind of girl inside the Agraharam... But In the very end, she does an about-turn in her character, saying that the Tsunami, which killed thousands was better than the Virus being let loose and killing millions! Late realization, huh!

A story like Dasavatharam deserves Seriousness in treatment, not slapstick comedy and footloose narration!

The significance of the starting sequence set in the 12th century was shown in the end, but the impact was just not there. The importance given to the starting sequence and the consequent resolution of its importance didn’t quite matchup, resulting in the disappointment.

It’s one thing to dream up a hi-concept story and entirely another thing to execute it on-screen in the form of a screenplay!

I saw the movies ‘Crash’ and ‘Babel’ last year, which dealt with similar themes of chaos theory & related events. Dasavatharam does not even come a shade close to the way in which these movies had dealt with the theme. I’m not blindly comparing these two movies here… Just making a point that when you take up a subject,  full justice has to be done to the theme. Otherwise the result is only half baked!

If Indian cinema has to reach Hollywood standards, the real work lies in the area of Story and Screenplay writing, rather than special effects and makeups!

Music and Background score in Dasavatharam? - The lesser said the better. Totally not worthy of a magnus opus 100 crore movie!

Now for some positives in the movie:

Nevertheless, it is fascinating to see so many Kamal Hassan avatars in a single movie, even if only 3 of the characters make any sense with respect to the crux of the story.

The amount of effort taken for the makeup and special effects to get the characters on screen, is very evident in each frame. And for this reason alone, Dasavatharam becomes watchable, as a whole…  The tsunami scene is worthy of mention, except for some shots where the scene wore a cheap graphics look. This is understandable, since the budget is not as big as for a Hollywood movie, so we have to strive for the best effects within the limited resources.

If you expect some serious storyline and justifications for the 10 avatars, you’re bound to get disappointed. Overall, if you are not a diehard Kamal Hassan fan, or if you are not too much awed by graphics and performances alone, this movie is bound to come across as average. To hype this movie as an achievement for Indian Cinema, etc is laughable. Sending it for the Oscars? God save the jury!

I can’t help wondering how this movie could have turned out, had a seasoned scriptwriter dealt with the movie rather than have Kamal do the scriptwriting himself!