Dasavatharam & lackluster ODIs

June 16, 2008

Extravagant and grandeur are the words that you need to choose for describing Kamal Hassan’s most ambitious project till to date, the magnum opus called ‘Dasavatharam’. The movie is a treat to Kamal’s fans. The first and last fifteen minutes of the movie is also a visual treat for any average movie-goer around the world who can appreciate the art of making cinema. The gigantic set that resembles the Airavatheeswarar temple at Darasuram in Kumbakonam to shoot the 12th century scenes and the set erected for creating the tsunami effect with 20 feet high waves in 50,000 sq. ft area bears a testimony to the fact no rupee was left unspent from its original budget of Rs. 60 crores. In fact the delays, casting changes, permissions and other legal hassles overshot the budget for the movie to Rs. 1.3 billion, which is the biggest in the history for any Indian movie produced so far. Just to give you an example of how prodigal the producer was in spending the money, a cool Rs. 100 million was spent on arranging a chartered flight for Jackie Chan to attend the Audio function. It is another story that Himesh Reshammiya’s music is one of the major disappointments of the movie with just couple of songs ‘ Raayini Maatram Kante…’ , ‘Mukunda Mukunda’ living upto anywhere near to the standard of original Music director chosen for the project, A.R. Rehman.

The movie does live up to all the hype, anticipation and expectation it has generated prior to its release. I sincerely feel this is a must see for all those who like watching movies, especially in India, for the sheer pleasure of experiencing something that we always looked up to Hollywood movies. i.e., Uncompromising methods and Richness in production values while creating a thrilling experience for the viewers. I personally felt thrilled and excited more than the recent Indiana Jones Movie while watching Dasavatharam during the first 40 minutes before the story moves to India and again the last 20 minutes where the Tsunami related scenes come into the fore. That is in spite of me being a bigger fan of Harrison Ford and not being able to like any of Kamal’s movies since Maniratnam’s Nayakudu.

Of course, I do understand that Kamal wanted to appear in ten roles and create a record of sorts and hence may have compromised on story and screenplay, which he incidentally claimed as the movie’s strength. Contrary to Kamal’s belief, his ten roles became a major distraction for the audience as they kept themselves trying to find out whether the actor is Kamal or not than involving themselves in the movie. Also since Kamal wanted to give importance to every role he portrayed, some characters especially those of Martial Arts Expert, Avtaar Singh & Kalifullaa which were needed to be linked to the story by hook or crook have diluted the main plot considerably. Also rarely do you come across a frame in which you don’t see at least two Kamal Hassans. This I feel is the major flaw that makes an average cine-goer not to appreciate it as a movie as he will never be able to emotionally attach him/herself with the film's narration.

If you had heard what Kamal said about himself being the Story & Screenplay writer for the ten roles he played, you would definitely agree with me. Here is what he said:

“Unfortunately you will not get to see it or probably you will but you will not realize it. That is the best I think the screenwriter in ‘Dasavatharam’ for me - it's close to my heart. Not that I don’t like the other ten, the other ten would not have been possible so believably without the eleventh man.

There are at least ten such things in the film because each character ends nicely. That gives me a high when we know that we have knotted up the story, no loose ends so I felt happy ten-times in the film. So that’s ten places in the film where I felt that it is all worth it.”

So in trying to define each of the ten characters and make them relevant for the plot the screenplay was compromised, unfortunately for the worse.

Though Kamal excelled as he only can in each of the ten characters: a 12th century staunch Vaishnavite Rangaraja Nambi to 21st century characters Scientist Govindarajan Ramaswamy, US President George Bush, EX-CIA agent Christian Fletcher, Japanese Martial Arts expert Shinghen Narahasi, Baamma Krishnaveni, Singer Avtaar Singh, Dalith Leader Vincent Poovaraagan, RAW Investigator Balram Naidu and 8’ Afghan Kalifullah Mukhtaar, the excessive makeup that was needed to mould him into all of those characters except Rangaraja Nambi and Govindrajan did not give him an opportunity to emote with his facial expressions thus limiting Kamal’s histrionics just to his eyes and body language. Even then Kamal convinced the audience so well in all those roles it’s hard to debate why he can’t be termed as the most versatile actor that the country has ever produced.

If the movie does well at the box-office credit must also go to the camera work done by Ravi Varman, Editing by Ashmith Kunder, Chief makeup artist Michael Westmore, Art Directors Sameer Chanda, Prabhakaran & Thota Tharani, Action scenes director Andy Dixon along with Devi Sri Prasad who provided superb background score. Due credit also should be given to SP Balasubrhmanyam who dubbed Kamal’s voice for most of the characters. In a movie where there was no scope for any other actor or actress Asin, Napolean, Jayaprada and Mallika Sherawath tried to do justice to their roles as much as they could do.

If the movie doesn’t do well with some sections of audience its because the whole movie is base upon vague concepts of Chaos theory and butterfly effect which essentially refers to the idea that a butterfly's wings might create tiny changes in the atmosphere that may ultimately alter the path of a tornado or delay, accelerate or even prevent the occurrence of a tornado in a certain location with its flapping wings. You can also see this phenomenon when you through a small stone in a still water thus creating a ripple effect and altering paths of fish and other creatures that swim in it. This vague and difficult to comprehend phenomenon was used to justify the drowning of 12th century Rangarajan Nambi tying him to the mammoth Sri Ranganatha Idol to the 21st century Dec 26th , 2004 Tsunami is something that is not at all convincing . Showing the skeleton of Rangaraja Nambi along with the idol surfacing after the tsunami while Asin and Kamal walks out discussing about the existence of God and Kamal saying ‘Nenu Devudu ledani analedhey.. Vunte Baagundedhannanu…’ makes one feel… ‘ Nenu story , screenplay baagoledhani anukovatam ledhe…… Vunte Baagundedhanukuntunna….’

Overall, Dasavatharam is like a Tendulkar century with dropped catches miscued shots , meddling outside the off stump deliveries and close shaves in run-outs. But a century nonetheless. If you can appreciate a Sachin’s hundred in spite of those flaws, you should appreciate Kamal’s Dasavatharam too.

Moving over to Cricket, suddenly I feel the One Day Cricket has become very boring. Blame it on recently concluded IPL or terribly one-sided affairs at the league matches level which included Bangladesh as one of the teams in the Kitply tri-nation series. Surprisingly, even the ODIs between England and New Zealnd were no contests at all for the hosts. I now safely can take a bet on the death of ODIs. It is bound to happen within next decade or so, may be slowly but surely. At the same time I am also confident that Test Cricket will benefit tremendously with the evolution of T20 format and will thrive with more and more matches producing results than ending in yawning draws.

Cricket and Cinema: My passion and obsession:
• Value for Money
• Bujjigadu & Superkings - Made in Chennai
• Influence of Great Cricketers and Actors Spurs Wins
• The Story of two halves in Cricket and Cinema
• Allu Arjun’s Top Class and Rajasthan Royals Top of the table performances
• Style and Substance
• Krazzy 4 IPL
• JALSA on Celluloid and on Cricket minefield
• Cricket and Cinema connections

About Vijay Jeedigunta: Vijay Saradhi Jeedigunta is a great fan of Cinema and Cricket and follows them as passoinately as any other Indian in spite of living in US for last 14 years. He Lived in Hyderabad,Graduated from Osmania in Electrical Engg and worked for Allwyn and Dr. Reddy's Labs before moving to USA in 1994. Before going to US he worked on some Doordarshan Documentaries and won the best TV Reviewer award for his Eenadu column called 'Cinnithera Chidvilasam'. He also had small stints as All India Radio's Official Statistician for Reliance Cup and some ODIs and Test matches. He was also a frequent contributor to Deccan Chronicle in their weekly sports page. He lives in Bridgewater, NJ with his wife and children. Currenlty employed by IBM as Managing consultant, he spends his spare time writing for dreamcricket.com. He also participates in a weekly radio show on cricket for EBCRADIO (1170 AM) in New Jersey. To know more about him you can visit his profile on orkut at http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=15920368379975419443 and his cricket blog http://cricketestats.blogspot.com You can send all your inquiries and suggestions to [email protected]