Somewhere in 2006 - Kamal hassan the universal hero sets the media ablaze by announcing his next big venture Dasavatharam.The whole world(tamil movie watching ;-) ) is waiting for the movie to hit the silverscreen.Running at a brisk pace is filming for the superstars "Sivaji" who is on a comeback trail (Does this man ever need a comeback.im sure if he stays at home till he's 70 and comes out and throws his cigarette in the air discovery will make a 5 min documentery on his physics defying skills which will be later released in collector edition DVD's and later questioned by ramadoss.).now why is rajini coming into the picture.such is the charisma of the superstar who can never be ignored and as always will feature in everything related to Tamil cinema.news about rajini meeting him on the sets of dasavatharam and being awestruck hit the headlines.The movie had its own set of problems with A.R.Rahman quitting and an unknown himesh reshammiya being roped in.to add to his troubles as in every kamal movies case innumerable stay orders ranging from plagiarism to other silly conflicts gave the movie more publicity than the producer could have thought of.
june 2007 -sivaji hits the screens and creates a wave and progresses to be the movie of the year.dasavatharam is still plagued with problems and mischief mongers turn to what they do best."kamal is scared of Rajini" "kamal doesnt wanna take on rajini" "rajini advises kamal to postpone dasa's release by a few months".while the actual truth is kamal is still finalizing his script and trying on various make-up's.
an uneventful year passes .sometime in April 2008 oscar ravichandran the producer of Dasa announces a mega audio release with jackie chan and amitabh as the guests.
come april 25th -the audio is out with himesh on the songs and Devi sri prasad on BGM.the audio launch is a stunner with jackie recieving the first copy.not to go unmentioned is bollywoods naughty gal mallika sherawat with her costume that is provocative at best.Another reason to bring the movie into the news(when has it been outta the limelight).All tamil brothers are upset ;-)....
The music is not well recieved initially with only fans buying copies.Himesh turns out to be a big let down.ppl complain abt his music containing a north indian flavour.
fans start questioning himesh's abilities in making music that will satisy the south indian ear.A presumptious lot.im sure if the covers had devi sri prasad's name on it.ppl would have accepted it.
personally the music was a bit of a let down but after a few listens it gets better.
The title song by hariharan being a blatant lift from a malayalam vikaram flick of the yesteryears-however hariharans voice makes justice to the song while actually watching the video.
oh oh sanam -2 versions.. 1 by kamal and 1 by himesh .probably the best song of the album.
himesh makes a mess of this song with his nasal screeching and unidentifiable tamil words(UTW -may i call them).
daler mahendi would have been the perfect choice after watching the video.
kaa karupanukkum by shalini singh is racy with vairamuthu again weaving magic with his words
"ஒழுக்கம் என்பது ஊர்களை பொருத்தது"
"உணர்ச்சியை வாழ விடு"
which roughly translates into
"decency is a function of the place you live in"
"let feelings live"
மன்னித்து விடுங்கள் தமிழர்களே..thats the best i cud do...
perhabs mallika's detractors need to listen to this song and understand its lyrics rather than utter crap in the name of protecting culture when they know nothing about it.
ulaga nayakane : decent number sung by vineet although the the singer could have been someone who could pronounce tamizh a little better while singing a song of the ulaga nayakan who is so well versed in tamizh..he is on no doubt competing with himesh for the title
mukunda mukunda :himesh scores big time here.a perfect south indian song and sadana sargam sings it to perfection.
a few weeks later the trailer is out.everyone's talking about it.DSP dissappoints with the BGM in the trailer.some scenes are truly shot well and makes you wanna watch the movie right away but as it progresses the music dies away and gives u little hope about the movie's BGM.
im sure you guys are pissed out with the lead up to the movie review -here it comes
come june 12th .everyone is talking about dasavatharam.kamal holds a special screening for the film fraternity.everyone is spellbound or thats wat they show.after all they r actors.
K balachander is spotted trying to lift kamal off the ground.manorama gets emotional.rajini is seen having an animated discussion with kamal.the online media has got enough to work with.previews are posted.the film fraternity says its absolute magic.
so is it really such a great movie?
well dasvatharam is very much a kollywood movie made with a paltry 70 crores as compared to hollywood movies.some would call it a novell concept.id agree to a certain extent because of the chareters involved and the difficulty involved in writing the screenplay.that by no means makes it a great movie.sure its a great attempt but its a commercial entertainer at best which gives u your money's worth.
has it lived upto the hype?
some would say yes.yes it has in the technical dept and kamal as usual playing the 10 roles to perfection.
An international movie?
doesnt stand a chance....yes the VFX is great.some scenes make you stand up and make you gape at the screen in awe.probably the best attempt in indian cinema.it would be inhuman to compare it to a hollywood movie given their budgets.the tsunami scene is purely magic-never seen before on screen-again limited to the indian audience
a true case of comparing apples and oranges.
given the budget its a stunner.every pence well accounted for.
The movie starts off in the 12th century -this part of the story doesnt blend with the rest of the movie but nevertheless the best scenes are shot with kamal playing rangaraja nambi to aplomb and the VFX captures everyone's imagination.Napolean plays a cameo as the shivaite chola king "Kulashekara kulothunga".His 12th century tamizh and dialogue delivery seems to be messed up when compared to kamals confident clear tamizh pronounciation.he should have probably taken a few lessons from kamal.
The movie slowly moves on to a biological weopon laboratory in the USA where kamal plays govinda - a scientist.a vial containing a sample of the biological weopon goes missing as kamal tries to protect it from a couple of people with vested interests.enter chris fletcher-prob the best kamal in the movie.a couple of high speed car chases with a chopper hovering around are well shot.ravivarman shows his class in a scene where kamal walks on teh scaffolding of a multi storeyed building - amazing is the word.
the waits over -mallika's in.the song kaa karuppanukkum follows with mallika wearing a little more than expected.kamal's played safe after the mumbai express debacle where the sensors scrapped an entire song having moon moon sen in skimpy costumes.a much expected kamal mallika smooch turns out to be just a gimmick much to the frustration of the fans.(if he had prob kissed her 4 inches of make up would have come of his face-fans dont understand the technical dificulties involved ;-))
somewhere in between the much expected avatar george bush makes his appearance.micheal westmore conjures up magic.bush is a revelation.absolute magic.no words for the kind of make up.the crowd is just amazed at what can be done with make up. the movie then moves on to india.balaram naidu -a telugu CBI officer steps to the fore and takes you through the rest of the movie.kamal being a linguist has mastered the art of speaking various slangs.he speaks tamil with a telugu flavour and tickles the funny bone in you.the dialogues here clearly show crazy mohan's playing a major hand in scripting them.
the movie progreses at a splendid pace with the iyengar paati making an appearance in the mukunda mukunda song- this wud prob be the worst avatar of the lot.
The second half on teh whole is a let down with the the story not assisting the charecters.ravikumar has tried his best in making the best with wat he had.the lack of scrip turns out to be a major drawback ,added to this are the unwanted avatars just to increase the head count to 10.
kamal as bhoovarajan steals the show in the second half with an amazing performance.his body language and nellai accent are unquestionable.although one might think a slight trace of kamal's sri lankan accent in TENALI is seen in a couple of words that kamal pronounces.
an 8 foot kamal makes no impression on the viewer.The climax is astounding.a tsunami recreated leaves every1 twist their head in amazement.technically brilliant.no words for it.a wonderful fight b/w the japanese kamal and fletcher is shot well.the climax is a very important part of a movie and it is that mood that the viewer takes back home.
KSR has not disappointed.the song ulaga nayakane has all his make up secrets being revealed much to everyone's surprise and george kamal bush steals the show with his rajini ishtyle demeanour .a touch of KSR's directorial acumen is seen in teh scene where bush says sen tamizh vaazhga - purely aimed at the masses.the movie ends with kamal and asin on the beach with the ranganathar which has made it to teh beach due to teh tsunami.asin needs a special mention here.she has always been a good actress but the way she rebukes kamal and her brahmin accent are the highlight.a brahmin accent is highly complex to master and though not the best has done justice to the role.there couldnt have been a second choice over Asin.
the movie ends with kamal saying
கடவுள் இல்லை ன்னு சொல்லலை ..ஆனா..............இருந்திருந்தா நல்ல இருக்கும் ன்னு சொன்னேன்.....
perfect ending - couldnt be better.
That said the movie tends to disappoint the viewer a bit during the second half due to the script.
verdict : every reason for you to get off your seat and watch the movie irrespective of your understanding of Tamil
rating : 3.5 stars .
positives :kamal,VFX,technical brilliance,tsunami scene,
negatives: script,music
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