Dasavatharam - A Disaster of Epic Proportions

Let me see where I can start - right when the movie was announced where it was revealed that Kamal will come in 10 roles, I was never even remotely looking forward to this movie. I have never been a big fan of Kamal's make-up adventures. So, naturally, the very thought of Kamal in various prosthetic makeups completely put me off and I had already stopped looking forward to the movie. And when the audio & later the trailer was released a month back, I was like 'Seriously, is this what they could come up with after 2 years of filming?' To say the songs were terrible, would be an understatement. Kamal's movies usually have some pretty good songs and I can't recall the last movie of Kamal that had such awful songs. So, as I entered the movie hall tonight, I was going in with relatively less expectations since IMO, there has not been a perfect Kamal movie since Mahanadhi happened all those years ago.

The movie actually started off in an interesting fashion though one had to read the subtitles to understand what was going on. I couldn't decipher what most of them were talking. But after a few minutes into the movie as the other roles were introduced, it became such a pain to watch Kamal come in every single important role in the movie. Seriously, there was no reason for him to come in this many roles except of course, to fulfill his thirst for wasting another producer's hard-earned money. Plus, the terrible make-ups didn't help either. One had to cringe when some of the make-ups were shown in close-ups. If you thought Indian thaathaa was bad, get ready to face Kamal's version of George Bush & Fletcher. Indian was released more than a decade ago and if a movie that is released all these years later could not even match 50% of the makeup success that was accomplished in Indian, it speaks so badly about the main in charge - Kamal himself.

The biggest problem for me with the movie was that it does not fall under any genre. Is this another full-fledged comedy from the KSR-Kamal combination, much like Thenali & Panchathanthiram? NO. Is this an action thriller that keeps the viewer at the edge of his seat throughout the movie, with a crisp screenplay? NO. Is this some serious movie that conveys some sort of message to us, as to why and whether God exists? NO. Is this a movie that was made to fulfill Kamal's egoistic ambitions to be the first actor to don 10 roles? heck, YES.

The screenplay was terrible, to say the least. Characters and incidents come & go for no reason whatsoever. It looked like Kamal had watched movies like Babel and Crash, one too many times.There were times when there will be a sequence that will evince interest in us and make us look forward to the following scenes. But then, you will be left disappointed bcos Kamal had other important things to do - introduce the next of his 10 useless avathaars. The dialogs were pathetic with the conversation between Kamal & Asin in the climax taking the cake. The Balram Naidu character was the only one that had some funny dialogs but even they were lost in this huge mess that Kamal had created in the name of screenplay. The jokes just did not stick in the overall narrative of the movie. After seeing this, one only hoped that K.S.Ravikumar had been given a free hand in the making of this movie, for one can see Kamal's finger prints in just about anything and everything in the movie.

If this is what Kamal can conjure up after 2 years, there is only 1 conclusion that one can arrive at - he has completely lost it and he has become too egoistic to even put himself in the shoes of the Tamil film watching public. The song 'Ulaganaayagane' was such a turn-off for me with the song's lyrics going to ridiculous levels in praising the actor. I thought this amount of self-praise was only to be seen in Thalaivar's movies. I guess, I am wrong.

He did not have many opportunities to show off his acting skills but in the couple of scenes where he did get them, he did his job. When an actor invests so much energy and time into a movie, that has to be appreciated, no matter who it is. And here, it is pretty clear that he has put in so much effort into this movie but when the output is so bad, it hurts and eventually you start feeling sorry for the guy. As Kamal's make-up procedures were paraded as the end credits rolled, only one thought flashed my mind "All that hard work for this?"

Now to the rest of the cast - there is not much to write about if every freaking role after another is done by Kamal. Asin was plain annoying. When Asin uttered her first dialog as the 12th century Nambi's wife, the whole theater just erupted in laughter. Her voice was ridiculous. But if you thought her modern day avathar will fare better, you were wrong. Her antics became plain irritating as the movie progressed that it was a torture to sit through an already boring & long movie. Napolean, Jayapradha, Mallika Sherawat all came & went in some insignificant roles. Even Kamal's usual favorites like Nagesh, Santhana Bharathi come in miniscule roles that one will miss if you were not paying attention.

Technically, the movie is such a big letdown. That was one aspect I thought the movie will not disappoint, given the budget that went into the making of this movie. And boy, was I wrong. The CGI scenes that all the web sites were hyping about were pukeworthy. There is a scene that comes at the beginning of the movie where Kamal would be tied to Vishnu's idol and would be taken through a backwater into the sea. The backwater in that scene was done through CG and it looked so bad that even a child can make it out that CG had been used. The tsunami scene, that was so much talked about, turned out to be a damp squib. Most of the scenes where more than 1 Kamal was in the screen, they appeared so tacky and made-up. The fights were plain bad and stupid, with people walking out of some terrible car crashes as though nothing had happened. I know, we all have seen this in so many movies but in this movie, it has been taken to a whole new level to the point of making the viewer stupid. In all this mess, one has to point the few positives in the movie - Ravi Varman's camera work and the art direction. They both were really outstanding.

If you are a Thalaivar fan, I would say - go watch it!! Seriously, all those times when during the Thalaivar - Kamal fights, the Kamal fans ridiculed us about the illogical scenes in Thalaivar's movies. Take heart, as this movie has loads and loads of the very same stupid and illogical scenes, that would make even a Vijayakanth film look better. The scene where the bullet takes away the cancerous growth in the Sardar Kamal's throat is the hands down winner and brought the loudest cheers from the audience. So, again, I request you to watch this movie and when you do go, take along a few other Thalaivar fans. I can gaurantee pure fun in the screening, just like me as I went with 3 other Thalaivar fans.

For Kamal fans, I am sure this is one huge embarrassment and its every bit of their worst night mares coming true. I mean, to have waited for this bunch of crap for 2 long years, I am sure every one of his fans will be devastated.

If you thought Aalavandhaan was one of the worst movies of Kamal, wait till you watch this one. It is THAT bad. But unlike many who usually want their money back when a movie disappoints like this, I didn't care one bit, for I had fulsome entertainment ridiculing the movie, which it thoroughly deserves.