Dasavatharam and Dasavatharam: An analogy

Below is a very meticulously thought out analogy between Kamal's Dasavatharam and Lord Vishnu's Dasavatharam formulated by my friend Yagna. Very well done indeed.

The 10 avatars described in movie Dasavatharam

1 Krishna avatar - Vincent Poovaraghavan Lord krishna is actually a dalit, he is dark-skinned [shyamalam]. He saved draupadi when she was being violated and he was the actual diplomat in mahabharatham. Lord krishna dies of an arrow striking his lower leg. Now look at how vincent was introduced.. he appears when asin is about to be molested and he saves her like draupadi. Vincent is the dalit diplomat, fights for land issue [soil issue to be exact] and dies from the metal rod striking his leg. Oh even five of vincent's men are drugged at P. Vasu's.. sounds familiar???

2 Balarama avatar - Balarama naidu This is an easy given. as the name suggests and the role personifies you can easily get it.

3 Mathsya avatar - Rangaraja nambi is thrown into water in an act of trying to save lord from being thrown into sea, though vainly. what more clue do you want?

4 Varaha avatar - Krishnaveni paatti During the mukunda song, krishnaveni paatti does varaha avatar in the shadow puppetry. The frame freezes on it for a second. there is the clue. Moreover, in varaha avatar lord actually hides earth so as to protect life forms. Here too krishnaveni hides the germs - life form inside the statue so as to protect.

5 Vamana avatar - Kalifulla khan remember in vamana avatar, lord vishnu takes the vishvaroopa, that is the giant form! Hence the giant kalifulla here symbolises vamana avatar.

6 Parasurama avatar - Christian Fletcher Parasurama is actually on an angry killing spree and killed 21 generations of the particular kshatriya vamsa. Hence the real KILLER… Guess what thats what our Fletcher is! He comes around with the gun [modern upgrade for ax] and kills everyone around. I have to check out if he really kills 21 people though.

7 Narasimha avatar - Shingen Narahashi first of all the name itself is a play on the words singam [means lion in tamil] and narasimha [the avatar being symbolised]. Lord Narasimha manifests himelf to kill the bad guy and he also teaches prahaladha. In the movie, he shows up to kill the killer fletcher! and is also a teacher.. Lord Narasimha had to kill the asura with bare hands and hence the martial arts exponent here.. get it?

8 Rama avatar - Avatar Singh Lord Rama stands for the one man one woman maxim, kind of symbolising true love.. Here Avatar portrays that spirit by saying that he loves his woman more than anything and wants to live for her.

9 Kalki avatar - Govindaraj Ramasamy As you know, the hero in kaliyug can be none other than the Kalki avatar!!!

10 Koorma avatar - George Bush This is the most loose adaptation I couldn't clearly comprehend. But if you look at the real koorma avatar, the lord is the turtle/tortoise that helps in stirring the ksheera sagara and bringing out the amruth. This essentially creates war among the devas and asuras. Similarly today Bush facilitates war between you know whom…
May be Kamal also indicates that.

Dasavatharam: Movie Review - When more is better

Awesome! That was my reaction when the movie ended amidst sounds of "Ulaga Nayagane" and snippets of the make-up magic that went behind the scenes to develop this magnum opus. Finally a Tamil movie that connects chaos theory/intelligent design with bio-warfare, sand-poaching, Tsunami and god. Tough job, but in the end the screenplay and direction ensure that the movie comes out trumps!

I am a great fan of Kamalhassan and I am also his greatest critic when he ruins some of his best movie concepts with his over enthusiastic ego (e.g., Anbe Sivam). But I must say that I was blown out of my mind with Dasavatharam.

The movie starts off in the 12th century, highlighting the conflict between saivites and vaishnavites under the rule of Kulothunga Cholan and it caught me by surprise that religious persecution had reached such heights during the perceived golden rule of the Cholas, perhaps a gentle reminder that history is written by the victor and not the vanquished. The first 20 minutes take the audience to dizzying heights of grandiose and kick start the story, albeit with aroused curiosity and confusion in the minds of the audience.

The movie then moves to the state-of-the-art biological sciences labs in the US where a virus and its side effects are graphically demonstrated. Needless to say, the virus falls into the hand of the bad-boys and what follows next is a classic chase story that takes the viewer from the streets of Washington DC to the agraharams of Chidambaram, touching Japan on its way and finally culminating in the beaches of Chennai with the Tsunami of 2004.

Along the way we encounter a multitude of Kamals (10, to state the obvious), some of which are exceptionally portrayed and will linger in our memories for eternity. The one who casts a lasting impression on us is Indian RAW agent Balram Naidu who is outright brilliant with his Telugu accented Tamil and comic timing and is on par with the Palakkad brahmin from Michael Madana Kama Rajan. Next is Chris Fletcher , a former CIA agent who chases Govind, the scientist Kamal who is trying to chase down the virus. Fletcher's accent and body language blows you away and he reminded me of Arnold Schwarzenegger from the Terminator movies with his shades, jacket, Harley and robot-like assassin mannerisms. Poovaragan, as a social activist stands out with his Nellai Tamil and exemplary body language, while the Japanese kung fu exponent comes close in this avatar race with terrific make-up. Kamal as President Bush is funny and authetic with his accent and IQ level I won't be surprised if Kamal has spawned a million Bushisms in India. My favorite dialogue is when Bush is briefed by his scientific aide on the effects of the virus and Bush says - "Don't explain if it is complicated!". The rest, apart from an aptly named Sardar, Avtaar singh, fail to make an impression but the movie compensates for it with crisp dialogues that are funny and intelligent and amazing action sequences that are on par with Asian/Hollywood movies.

Himesh Reshammiya's songs are good (especially since I listened to them after I saw the movie) and are expertly placed in the screenplay to carry the story forward. Kallai mattum and Mukunda stand out while O Sanam fits in well with the screenplay. Asin as the brahmin girl is effective, albeit irritating at times. Overall, credit must go to K.S. Ravikumar and Kamal for spinning a yarn that connects historical events, interspersing them with enjoyable scenes, songs, dialogues and stunts and for keeping the pace up, with distractions like Mallika Sherawat kept to the minimum. Watching the movie with my PhD-in-Biological-Sciences wife only confirmed that the research in the movie was fool-proof. (Spoiler Alert! - it was indeed a master-stroke to let the Tsunami produce the salt required to neutralize the virus).

There is a strong under-current of philosophy with the classic atheism vs. theism conflict reminiscent of Anbe Sivam, but Kamal does a good job of leaving it to the viewer to make up his mind by presenting two characters on either side of the fence. He also leaves the religious persecution bit to interpretation:

1. Man disposes against the will of nature, and nature restores equilibrium

2. Religious persecution existed in the 12th century (not to mention the crusades and the holocaust) and continues to haunt us today in the form of jihad, hindutva and the pseudo war on terror

Verdict: 8/10 overall - While the film deserves perfect Das (10) for make-up, dialogues, stunts and effort, some of the avatharams could have been better thought out. Truly international film from a truly international actor.

Hollywood's Dollies

The popular perception is that that Bollywood/Kollywood (I am just going to call it Indiewood to refer to our neck of the woods) is the only place where the same actor donned multiple roles, sometimes as flimsy as playing brothers (with and without mustache) or playing father and son (ala all Sarath Kumar movies). Though multiple roles in Hollywood may not be as regular as in Indiewood, Hollywood is definitely not immune to it.

Peter Sellers' 3 roles in Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (one of my all-time favorite movies), Mike Myers' 4 in Austin Powers movies and Eddie Murphy's uncountable roles in Nutty Professor spring to mind immediately. I was curious to find out if Hollywood was more prone to "cloning" than what meets the eye and below is a complete list that resulted out of a little digging. If not anything, it is worth a nice bite of trivia or an ice-breaker for that SuperBowl party this weekend.

• Rolf Leslie - 27 parts in the life story of Queen Victoria, Sixty Years a Queen (1913).
• Lupino Lane - 24 parts in Only Me (1929).
• Joseph Henabery - 14 characters in the Birth of a Nation (1915).
• Robert Hirsch - 12 roles in No Questions on Saturday (1964).
• Michael Ripper - 9 parts in What a Crazy World (1963).
• Sir Alec Guinness - 8 roles in Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949).
• Eddie Murphy - 8 characters in Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000) and 7 characters in The Nutty Professor (1996).
• Jerry Lewis - 7 characters in The Family Jewels (1965).
• Peter Sellers - 6 roles in Let's Go Crazy (1951), 6 roles in Soft Beds, Hard Battles (1974) and 3 roles in Dr. Strangelove (1964) and more.
• Scott Mosier 5 roles in Clerks
• Vincent Perrera 5 roles in Clerks
• Mike Myers - 4 roles in Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002).
• Terry Thomas - 3 parts in Arabella (1969).
• Red Skelton - 3 characters in Watch the Birdy (1930).
• Meg Ryan - 3 roles in "Joe Versus the Volcano" (1990)

It is noteworthy that Kamal Hassan's perfect 10 in Dasavatharam or Sivaji Ganesan's near-perfect 9 in Navarathri, though not at the top of the list are definitely in the top 5.