Dasavatharam from my perspective..

Dasavartharam is the kind of a movie that requires a lot of contemplation after u watch the movie. First of all, the series of events potrayed in the movie don't seem to logically fit with each other. It seems like a lot of coincidences that are hard to believe. Dasavatharam requires a whole day of reasoning and debating in order to completely understand and appreciate it.

The movie starts with Dr. Govind Ramasamy's (Kamalhassan) narration in a stadium about a chain a events leading to saving the world from a lethal virus. He starts with his questions about the existence of God, by mentioning two stories. One was of Rangarajan Nambi, an ardent vaishnavite of the 12th century, who was drowned by King Kulothunga Cholan, simply because Rangarajan did not accept the supremacy of Lord Shiva over Lord Vishnu. Another story was about the tsunami that hit Tamilnadu on 26th Dec 2004. In the first case, God let his ardent devotee drown to death and in the latter, he let lakhs of innocent people die. So the big question is - is it blind faith or is there really a God? He then narrates a sequence of events in which Govind, a biological weapons scientist in the US, discovers a plot by his senior Dr. Sethu to sell a lethal biological weapon to a terrorist group. He then steals it himself, in order to avoid it falling in to the wrong hands. From then on the chase begins. Dr. Sethu hires Ex-CIA Christian Fletcher to retrieve the vial from Dr. Govind. The vial gets sent to India by mistake and the chase comes to India. In a series of events, every role that Kamal has portrayed helps in one way or other to rescue the vial from falling in to the hands of Fletcher. Finally the chase ends in the shores of Bay of Bengal in Chidambram, where Christian Fletcher mortally wounded by Singhen Narahasi, bite the vial to release the virus, only to be finally engulfed by the huge waves of the tsunami.

From one perspective, I find that the 10 roles he has played are actually 10 avatars of God trying to save the Earth from a poisonous virus in seemingly unconnected ways. Although this fact is not mentioned explicitly. Only this time, God decides to take all the avatars at the same time. One can, on the other hand, assume that its all coincidence. If you look at this from my perspective, then u will understand why Kamal himself should play all the roles - because he is playing God :) in all 10 avatars. Incidentally, almost all the avatars have been named after Lord Vishnu - Krishnaveni, Govindrajan, Rangarajan, Balaram Naidu, etc. Even Singhen Narahasi (the Japanese martial arts role) sounds like Narashima (an avatar of Lord Vishnu). Christian Fletcher reminds me of Parasurama avatar, who killed a lot of people being angry with the murder of his father. Similarly, Kaifulla looks like a direct contrast to Vamana (dwarf) avatar. Vincent Poovaragan resembles Lord Krishna with his dark skin. Incidentally, Lord Krishna died after being wounded in his leg by an arrow, which is very similar to the way Vincent dies in this movie. Kamal also seems to present the idea of God being beyond religions and hence the avatars - Christian Fletcher, Vincent Poovaragan, Kalifulla, Avatar Singh and Narahasi are not hindus.

Most people complained that Kamal has tried too hard to put bits and pieces to make a story. It seems illogical and the events don't link well with one another. I accept that. Because thats the whole point. Seemingly unconnected events happening in different places and even different times affect each other in interesting ways. And this the story of a vial that was created in American bio labs and travels all across the world to meet its end. And there are several people who influence the vial either directly or indirectly. This is why he brings in the famous Chaos theory, which states that a butterfly's flapping wings could cause a cyclone half-the-world away. (If you can't believe this, you should read about Quantum Entanglement). One could choose to explain the series of events from a religious perspective as well. That everything is predestined to happen this way - Intelligent design by the creator. And Kamal has successfully presented both perspectives in this movie. While at the end, Aandal believes that God saved the world by causing the tsunami, Dr. Govind explains the series of events using Chaos theory. Finally, it is left to the audience to answer the question - Is there really God? The movie brings to public the popular debate between Creationism and Evolution.

Moving on to make-up, I think Kamal has done an excellent job. While I didnt like Kaifulla and Krishnaveni paati's make up, others were good. Especially, George Bush was good. His accent imitating George Bush and Fletcher's American accent were impeccable. One man in 10 make-ups with each one different from the other. We have to appreciate Kamal for his efforts. I was irritated by Kamal's dialogue comedy like 'shoo.. shoe'. The movie could have been a bit more serious. Kamal's acting in all the ten roles was brilliant. Overall, its a brilliant effort.