DASAVATHARAM

I really regret watching this movie on the first day of its release because I missed the best part of the movie, its clever, witty dialogues. However, This movie was expected to be talked about for a different reason, the ten avatars of Kamal. The make-up has been a big let down, considering the fact that the makeup was supposed to be the main talking point of the movie.

I guess, the makeup artist, Michael Westmore is still in his StarTrek hangover. Most of the avatars are ludicrously odd like the StarTrek characters especially the Bush and the Dalit activist avatars

Since this movie was made with the sole aim of asserting Kamal's versatility as an actor and his dedication to his trade, the screenplay, though intelligently crafted fails to make an impact on the junta. In every scene, the screenwriter Kamal has made an exhibition of his impudence, be it during the explanation of chaos theory or his dialogues on atheism. One cannot write a better screenplay connecting the ten characters, However, some of the 10 characters had no role at all.

The movie's humour is intrinsic and the rendezvous between the protagonist and the Telugu CBI officer, Balram Naidu is Top notch. As in every Kamal movie, poking fun at gults and their accent has been the main source of humour. The rest of the cast pulled off a decent show, especially Napoleon in his brief cameo as the chola king and the Chinese female with her accented Tamil. Asin had little to do, though she shares a lot of screenspace alongside Kamal. Mallika on the other hand, though she appears only in a couple of songs, impresses with her raunchy, lapdance number. However, One gets the feel that every other actor apart from Kamal just make cameo appearances.

The main plot is quite simple. The protagonist(Govind Ramaswamy), a BioTech scientist is on a racy mission to prevent a biological weapon from falling into the hands of the villain(Christian Fletcher), an ex CIA agent, now a felon. Needless to say, Both of them are played by Kamal.

And there are subplots weaved around this, involving the Sand Mafia, a Sikh Pop Singer diagnosed with cancer, a mentally unstable old woman in the small town of Chidambaram.

Kamal's dubbing for the different characters has been phenomenal. He does the ten voices, all very distinct and very difficult to perfect, with so much ease. But Kamal as we know, is a magician in these kinda stuff. We have known this fact from his different versions of telugu in "Marocharitraa" and his southern tamil from "16 Vayathinilae" to "Virumandi" and his amazing Kovai accent in "Sathileelavathy".

The film makes some direct accusations on Bush for having funded the creation of biological

weapons, which should have been avoided. The graphics is something that has come out quite well. It looks a bit amateurish in the stunt and chase sequences. However the climax Tsunami sequence is breathtaking fully worth the amount of money and hardwork that went into it.

Overall, A very intelligent and enjoyable visual treat for the neutral. However, the imagery of the film’s final act is suggestive of an anti-religious parable about rejecting God.

I give it a 50/100