Dasavatharam - intelligent and entertaining

hi ppl. readers who can't bear Kamal hassan may plz skip this review because its all about him. I am not gonna follow my usual template of pros and cons listed separately because i genuinely liked the movie. I will not fail to mention the sagging features though. But they might be very much hiddden, so GO! find them. I am a die hard Kamal fan and so this review is gonna be prejudiced and a answer to all the bad reviews.

So here is a film thats marvellously to the tune of a hollywood movie with so many features of a parallel cinema. Obviously they are not conspicuous but if u fail to see them there is the rest of the movie for u.

For the ordinary (yet the majority audience) man there is a racy movie with all the makings of a edge of the seat action movie. It has a hero who is just a ordinary man. He is a scientist who wants to save a Bio weapon( a la' anthrax) from the hands of the villain. The villain is just an Ex CIA agent who is paid to get the vial from the hero. Throw in excellent car chases, intelligent escapes, underplayed murders and killings and the hero lands in his country of birth-India. From here the film is fast til the interval. After which almost all of the Kamal characters are introduced. Then it is just a mixed bag of emotions, humour(though not exactly rib tickling), and action. Interestingly Kamal has given small roles to almost all his regulars. At the end of the movie when you jus rewind u could notice that there are a hell lot of ppl in there(and lot of implied meaning as well). The film ends with the triumph of good over evil(thats before they reason out the effects of tsunami). Thats it for the normal movie goer.

For the person who sees symbolism, and the basic motive in a movie, here comes the better part. I din't mention the opening part of the movie earlier because it seems to have no relevance at all. But this is where Kamal Hassan brings in the Chaos theory aspect(the initial condition- the flutter of the butterfly), The drowning of the big idol of Govindaraja perumal. be it scientific or religious, it triggers of a series of events that finally cause a great catastrophe or averts another( left to the viewer to decide). Through a whole movie he just shows u how chaos theory really works. By involving seemingly unconnected ppl into the proceedings the movie jus scores in its motive. None of the kamal roles are for the sake of it. I am lifting some of the views below from other reviews so the original writer may plz pardon it. The CBI kamal is the reason for the chase continuing till the end, The tall muslim kamal is the resaon for Kamal's escape fro the police, Tha patti kamal is the one who causes the vial to be put into the idol, the Singh kamal causes the boxes to get changed and helps kamal escape, the jap kamal is the one who saves kamal from the tsunami(and fights the villain kamal), the black local kamal is the epitome of humanitarianism, he saves the couple from the hands of sand mafia. all these reasons seem childish but they fall into place.
some other things that i found very interesting were that though the movie is an attempt to make a action movie for the front row theatre goers, the hero is no super hero. he is gullible. the heroine is annoying. But like everyone said she starts to get on your nerve before the movie ends.
Some of the symbolisms i noted were (this is not all.. the movie has many,even if kamal din't mean to put it in) the death of Vincent Boovarahan which is drawn as a parallel to Nambi's death. Vincent dies to save a child, Rangarajan nambi for the idol. Excellent parallel.
The make up is awesome. Whoever thinks the George Bush get up wasn't gr8, think again. this is probably the best u can do. i especially liked the Fletcher kamal (terminator arnie deja vu',?) jap kamal, and the CBI kamal.
One thing i hated in the movie is the music, and the picturisation wasn't gr8 either.
The movie doesn't have theist or atheist undertones, its just a plain book. Its there for you to read. Watch it carefully.