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.

PhD - Passing with High Difficulty?

About a year ago, when I read about Kamal Hassan being conferred a PhD by some random university in Chennai, I felt that the so called custodians of the Indian education system (most of them ex-convicts or politicians; well they are actually one and the same) have tampered with and squeezed enough profit out of undergraduate education through engineering colleges that they are now targeting the doctorate degree for their next butchering act (poor Masters, nobody cares about it). And now when I read about Vijay, I was reminded of a very bad pj that my friend used to tell when we were in 3rd or 4th grade - "What is Phd? Passing with High Difficulty." That is precisely what the acronym has been reduced to. I wouldn't be surprised if I don't hear about Ajith being offered one soon (after all, the thalai can never be lagging behind the thalapadhi). So as this burlesque act continues, like a uncontrolled nuclear reaction, the PhDs will multiply and eventually destroy the system.

So what does it take to earn a PhD in India - act in a few movies? Maybe I could digest this parody if the movies that we are taking about here were at least original. But that not being the case, (90% of the movies are being made are rehashes of English or still worse, Tamil movies) what did these so called experts in the art of movie making create to be worthy of the highest academic degree. Maybe the actors associations (Since most actors are owners of some Engineering college and are also affiliated with one of two political parties, actors associations are synonymous with legislative assembly/parliament or the Directorate of Education) got together and thought "well, we cant win Academy awards with the kind of movies we make, lets honor ourselves with something that a Kurosawa, Nicholson or a Bergman don't have - a PhD".

Well, to all my friends who are still slogging it out in research labs solving differential equations and developing inventory models to obtain that coveted degree, I really really feel bad for you, because I am taking off to Kodambakkam to get my PhD in...Copyrights Violation?