Dasavatharam -The over riding factor

Read the blog titled "Dazzling Dasavatharam" before this...

Dasavatharam does not have a theme like Anbe Sivam (those helping people in need are God) or typical Shankar movies concentrating on corruption... Was there a deliberate attempt made to package too many things and obfuscate the viewer while also managing to get across their personal manifesto?

Kamal movie and controversy have been kind of going hand-in-hand ever since Virumandi. The only difference being that opposition that was raised this time were dismissed outright by the court. And i wonder how not. Because the opposition is not the violent type. When the name of the movie itself caused so much furore and forced kamal to change it from 'sandiyar' to 'virumandi', dasavatharam is not a name patented by kamal. An old tamil movie, 40 years old, already exists in this name,and for all his meticulousness, his proficiency in tamizh, his quest for originality and perfection, Kamal could have found some other title (with tax rebate) for his dream project.

Boovaragan's character was used to stress on dalit magnanimity, dedication and liberalization. There was a massacre of dalits in melavalavu in south Tamilnadu involving some upper caste (again related to virumandi & co) in late 1990s. For all his screen play skills, Kamal could have squeezed it in the storyline. But would he have dared to to after the virumandi episode? There has been a case of forced religion conversion, involving some christian missionaries sometime ago, maybe he could have touched upon that. How about tailoring Da Vinci code for tamil audience, a book that shook the entire world, which proclaimed Jesus was no supreme being and in fact had earthly descendants; would have been a mouthwatering prospect for Kamal. But when the opposition managed to block the screening in Pondicherry of a movie made 15,000 miles across in Hollywood, Kamal would have been lynched had he tried to...

"The word Shouchalayam (toilet) also has aalayam (temple) in it" - And this guy technically is a brahmin. With the community deciding to keep quiet and watch, and just because he has the control over a mass medium doesn't mean he can get away saying anything and everything he wants.

"At a time when Shiva and Vishnu, perhaps because they were the only Gods that existed wished to fight through their devotees" For someone who screens in the initial scene that it is based on proof and imagination mixed, he should have known that even before the trimurthy, there was a Goddess supreme, who was the starting point for everything...

I'm a hybrid. So my views will not be biased to one side in this regard. I accept whatever exists in history/mythology as granted including the episode involving Rangarajan Nambi.

Mahabharatha was written by Lord Ganesha, son of Lord Shiva. If as per Kamal's vyagyanam, the Gods were at loggerheads, Lord Ganesha would have annihilated Ved Vyasa, as Mahabharatha's main protagonist, star attraction was Mukundha, Lord Vishnu's incarnation.
Hanuman is identified as 11th avtar of Lord Shiva. Rama bhakta Hanuman is an epitome of devotion to Lord Rama, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Just one reckless statement mentioning devotees fighting with each other can be interpreted in different situations. I'm sure if Kamal is given guarantee of security to life and all the time he wants (provided he has too), he would go on a talkathon about these...
Had it not been for Lord Ganesha's tricks, the lanka bound statue of Lord Ranganatha would not have landed in Srirangam.
Bhaja Govindam was written by Saiva guru Adi sankara even before Ramanujacharya came into the picture. When both saivites and vaishnavities are atleast not fighting now, picking a slice from history in the form of Chola king's lunacy and dramatizing it will needlessly hurt sentiments.
Why does kamal not give any justification for tsumani water not entering the mosque?
The mosque's architecture was such that it could block water at the rate of xyz cubic metres per second? During Tsunami 2004, the waters receded in the shore temple of Tiruchendur, Kanyakumari. Any explanations for why that was not shown Universal Hero?maybe technical non feasibility or maybe because these two temples were housing saiva Gods?

I see a contradiction throughout the movie. Someone wants Perumal to be under the spotlight throughout the movie but also wants to say it would be good if God existed. Meaning he won't accept it existed until proven so.Much like a classic court judgment where a person is accused until proven not guilty.Also, you can wake up someone who is sleeping, not someone who is acting like he is asleep. Likewise,this guy, irrespective of the attempts made will not change his stand

As per him, every human is God. But do we act like human? Do we have any consideration for other creatures with whom we share this planet? Poaching, disturbing the food chain, killing animals in the name of God, We plunder Mother nature. Hurricane, Tsunami and earth quakes are some ways in which Mother Nature shows her displeasure. How can Kamal explain how almost all the animals in a lankan zoo in Colombo managed to reach higher plains and escape the onslaught of Tsunami?Yes, discovery channels may give a scientific explanation. But why don't humans have those traits?Who will kamal blame for humans not having that foresight to see disaster?Obviously God. Even if he had, Man, equipped with the sixth sense, has become arrogant and calculating to the core.

Under the guise of rationality and a careful thought process, we are hell bent upon pulling each other down, we fight within ourselves, we kill each other. The gift of thinking and analysing bestowed upon man would certainly have given him self confidence in the initial stages of evolution. But over a period of time, man has become so much obsessed with it that it has made him feel that faith and the concept of an almighty can be discounted with. When a space probe gets successfully by Nasa, it is good work by scientists, but by chance the space probe gets burnt in space (like it did when Kalpana Chawla was on board), atleast the bereaved family members would first blame God. When they cannot fathom why something happened, they find a party to put the blame on.

Where there is complete faith, probability of miracles happening is quite high. There is literature mentioning that Saint Thyagaraja has seen Lord Rama, just 200 years ago. But the world is devoid of people of such faith. It has literally only 'suyanalavadhigal', who remember God only during troubled times and not when something good happens to them.

Alertness, brought upon by self confidence and faith, brought upon by belief in another power and subsequently considering oneself relatively a lesser being are kind of two contradicting schools of thought.Trying to maintain a fine balance of both is the trouble most of the humans who believe the existence of a supreme power have to contend with. Some people, who can't digest this situation of dilemma invariably take up the side of alertness, the reasons of which can be tracked back to the obsession with the capability of self...

Man has taken for granted that everything has an explanation (Even I've suffered from this syndrome in recent times; leading to a lot of heartburn and headache) There are many things beyond human comprehension. Why are planets aligned the way they are?Why does sun rise in east and set in the west?When people haven't cared to know about these ever since they came onto this earth, just using words like "pagutharivu" and "reasoning" at places convenient to them amounts to hypocrisy.

Just taking a small slice of history and over dramatizing it, capitalizing on the loophole in the form of limited availability of literature represents narrow minded thinking. Why do I have to crib so much when Kamal has not done it for the first time? It's because he has used the background of God to stress upon his doctrine of non-existence of God. As the face of tamilnadu and the nation as well, he has a lot of respect and is revered. Of late, his penchant for endorsing Athiesm, albeit subtly has increased. He has been candid in his views about sex and censoring in Indian movies. At this rate, maybe he will make a blue film in the near future and fight for its release. Quite possible!!!

This film has come at a time when the political forces are hell bent upon breaking down the Adam's bridge (spiritual and ecological opposition not withstanding) Such broadcasting would only pep these groups up and make the resolve of these groups stronger. How else can someone who hates hearing anything related to God appear as a guest in a movie bearing God's name?If this group has its way, faith of 80 million Indians would be shattered by a handful of people. Is this how democracy is supposed to operate? The only reason for me to be unhappy with Mahakavi Bharathiyar for these lines "sethuvai meduruthi vidhisamaippom".

There were a bunch of blind men who hit a block while moving by the road in the night. One guy touches the block and said it is a tree trunk, next guy touches and says it is a pillar holding some structure. Like this, all blind men keep giving some explanation and start fighting over it. After sometime, a guy with normal eyesight passes by and says "you fools!you have been touching an elephant's leg till this point. It is an elephant, okay... now chill".

The point is the blind men due to their poor vision could not get the complete picture of the thing as an elephant and started bickering that their point of view is right. The deeds and actions of humans could span beyond this present life. No mortal can interpret it, some accept it as it is (faith oriented), Some try and find a meaning and eventually give up and restrict themselves to a smaller zone of thinking. As a riposte to this narrow vision syndrome suffered by kamal, I'm forced to rephrase a couple of lines from the opening song...

"Kaalai mattum kandaal yaanai theriyadhu
Yaanai mattum kandaal kaalae theriyadhu"

:D

Dazzling Dasavatharam

It's been just less than an hour since I came out of the theatre. My disappointment at missing out on the initial day was compensated to a good extent as a centre of the theatre cozy seat at Sathyam awaited me as I entered at 2:30 PM. So let me get down straight to my opinions about the movie. This blog is written by the cinema fan in me. I'm not a Kamalhasan Sycophant/Fanatic. Be assured that my review would be as neutral as it could get..

It would be naive to put the review down in a couple of words. There are many superlatives that can associated with it. Acknowledging my limited repertoire in English language, I'll try and put my thoughts across as lucidly as possible...

Cast:

I must be joking. It's all one man show. Rest of them are just people like us who just managed to get their faces onto the camera... No one else in the world could have had the patience and courage to don the grease paint to this level. The behind-the-scenes portion in "ulaga nayagan" song is a testimony...Voice modulation, body language, accent... Lot of attention has been paid and you expect that from Kamal... It would be unjust on my part to pick one avatar as better and some other as bad as I'm sure he has taken pain staking efforts on all of them...

Asin, the actor with the second highest screen time (a very distant second) has done her bit well... I found the character irritating at times.

Screenplay/Pace:

Though Andal character's occasional tantrums made me feel irritated and look at the watch, 3.5 hours just flew by like a breeze...

Also having watched "Indy - Kingdom of Crystal Skull" two weeks back, I got a feeling of Deja vu involving running with the idol as both involved protecting some artifact before safely depositing it in the rightful place.

I am quite sure that I'm not speaking too early about this. I was suggested to concentrate every minute of the movie, else told that I may miss out something. However, I never had to do anything special like tweaking my CPU...Maybe I subconsciously enhanced my alertness or maybe because I've got used to brain bending English movies like "The Prestige", "Butterfly Effect", "Twelve Monkeys", I found it a piece of cake...

Aaidha Ezuthu, Alaipayudhe, and Virumandi were revelations in the screenplay department. This cannot be put in the same bracket, but the frenetic pace of events and with so many kamals popping up, you need to be on your vigil.

Lighting/Camera/Makeup:

Just brilliant, all 10 look different.Nowhere do you get the doubt that the concept of two persons looking alike could exist..However, some concerns. The foreign characters, Fletcher, Bush and Japanese look like they have put on some face mask. I was amazed with the way cinematography has progressed when I watched Nirav Shah make gangsters roaming in the night a scenic beauty in Billa 2007... Maybe, something could have been done with respect to lighting on just these foreign faces. Technically feasible?I've no idea though.Just an afterthought...

Having said that, camera work was a delight to watch in this movie. Standing on tall buildings in the night in the U.S. or covering car chases, it was a pleasure to see...

Sets

Kamal,arguably, was the first tamizhan to introduce the word Tsunami to us. Recollect in Anbe Sivam, when in the hotel with Madhavan, Kamal would say that his dad was washed away by Tsunami... So I wasn't completely surprised when I read Tsunami was about to be recreated as part of this movie. But the execution has been done so professionally. Just recollect a video as simple as the beginning bike scene of "paartha mudhal naale" was made a hash of, because of some terrible editing and graphics work. A recreation as complicated as Tsunami, something never done before too, Hats off!!!

Stunts
Awesome!!!I felt like seeing some Jackie Chan movie when i saw the climax fight between the Japanese and Fletcher.No gravity defying somersaults, a trademark of Vijay or boot flying or transformer bursting. Very much believable stunts picturizations. Another deparment which has come out with flying colours in this film...

Background/Songs

I definitely don't have anything positive to say about songs, except for mukundha and kallai mattum... Background score will not stay in your memory after 2 months, I bet. Compare this with "kalaba kadhala" from "kaakha kaakha", soundtracks from "kadhal kondaen", "baba" rap, "Sivaji background". It doesn't stand a chance, background looks more like extension of the other lousy songs. I can use one word "indianizing death metal" as Himesh's work on the other 2 songs... Harris Jeyaraj or Yuvan Shankr Raja would have done a much better work. Especially Harris, who is a director's musician and Kamal would have found him best suited for this project...

Substance

The ten characters cover all regions from U.S. to Japan.Caste system has been touched upon with Boovaragan character and caste equality gets a boost in the scene when an insane old upper caste lady Krishnaveni starts crying over the dead body of Boovaragan and telling that boovaragan is indeed her lost son Aaravamudhan who has darkened in complexion in sun...

Avatar Singh's passion for singing, Fletcher's win-at-all-costs approach, Japanese avenging his sister's death, Boovagaran's dedication, Kalifullah's innocence, all emotions were packaged into this film.

Verdict

All the makings of a box office blockbuster. Already production costs have been recovered. I was nonplussed to see so many people as jobless as me at satyam theatre on a weekday afternoon when the sun was beating down hard. A commercially successful venture for the producer, a visual treat for kamal fans, and a racy entertainer on the lines for cinema lovers like me...

I would like to close my review on this note. However, I have a couple of observations or rather describing some different feelings that I experienced after the movie ended.

Too much of a visual treat to the eyes, too many emotions, too many facets of human life discussed, too much to tell, too little time, looked like even 3.5 hours was not enough.In this background, a question that I would pose is, is there something over riding all the above technical aspects that would have a higher recall value in the audience minds?

I would like to shed my cinema lover image and would like to take over to my next post to discuss about this...

Cricket - My Musings

I wasn't completely glued to the Indo-Pak final y'day night. Despite the loss, our boys did put up a good fight after tottering at 105/4 in the 17th over. But my musings have their roots in some of the performances by the opposition left handers against India in the last decade.Some of the terms that I can quickly associate with India's scourge

'Left' is right
Matthew Hayden - Resurrection
Sanath Jayasuriya - Annihilation
Saeed Anwar - Demolition
Shivnarine Chanderpaul - Apparition
Andy Flower - Crucifiction
Adam Gilchrist - Asphyxiation
Brian Charles Lara - Exception

Also, when selected to make their debut, many of our players are touted as good with both bat and ball. Were they really?

Bowling Allrounder
Ajit Agarkar was a fast bowler who could also double up as a useful lower order batsman. But after 10 years, fastest ODI fifty by an Indian,a test century at Lords, and 7 consecutive ducks in Australia, Mr. Reliable continues to remain an enigma.
(I heard in a commentary sometime ago, that Agarkar, in his under-15 days was a top order batsman who could bowl part time medium pace. Ironic, indeed)

Compare this with Shaun Pollock. 'Polly' came in as an opening bowler who later went on to become a dangerous lower middle order batsman.

Batting Allrounder
Saurav Ganguly, Virendra Sehwag, Suresh Raina, Hrishikesh Kanitkar. This is one long list indeed. Anyone heard of the fifth bowler problem perennially plaguing India? What does the captain do?Throw the ball to the part timers like Sehwag, Yuvraj, Sachin, etc. From batting allrounder to full time batsman and part time bowler?Is this what they call as 'specializing as you progress in your career'?

Compare this with Jacques Kallis. He started bowling against Holland as part timer in WC '96 but by 1999 had developed into a world class allrounder.

Opening -a problem without closure
Sanath Jayasuriya, Mark Richardson - left arm spinners converted into opening batsmen. But India's conundrum of opening batsman has been continuing for decades.

There are so many more I wish to write. The only problem that there is no way to even come close to understanding why these occurred. So I'll reserve my stock for a later day...

IPL - League Loyalty and Success

The 8 O'clock factor (the absurdity of ad 'Mano Ranjan ka baap kaun hai', not withstanding),skeptics eating humble pie, glamour and sport feeding on each other...IPL had it all.

Some of my observations,opinions and my two cents on what would really define IPL's success...

The concept of league loyalty with respect to the viewers is not that difficult to implement. Our guys and many for that matter associate ourselves well, when the action is closer to us or involves our people; familiarizing with Yorkshire for Tendulkar, for instance in 1991.

Sticking with England, Compare Natwest Trophy vs Ranji trophy. Just because the action is closer to us, it would be presumptuous to conclude that Ranji trophy is a hit. In fact, it has never been so far. Apart from being close to the fans, role of marketing is vital as can be seen from overwhelming response to IPL and Ranji trophy's historically miserable reception.

And with respect to the players, league loyalty has been forced on them. If you happened to read the recent news on the impending T20 Champions League (am a proud football fan, another concept borrowed :)), IPL will get a first pick on the players. So, Matty Hayden, for all his attachment to Brisbane and Gabba will have to play for Chennai Superkings rather than Queensland in the event of both teams qualifying for T20 Champions League. Richest cricket league's financial muscle at work...

But is the league really for those, who have a wider knowledge base and who like to see superstars face off or play in one side?

Practically, I have wished so many times why there is a 4 foreigners restriction? If entertainment is what everyone wants, why not lift this 4 players' restriction. Especially when you see Palani Amarnath get hit all over the park, you crave to see two all rounders Oram, Morkel in the team. But you want Hayden, Hussey and Murali too. Where is the room for the fifth one?Why not have a team filled with Flintoff, Pietersen, Symonds, Afridi, Dhoni, Gilchrist, Sachin, Lara, Mcgrath, Akhtar, and Warne? (recipe for disaster in hindsight, Deccan dechargers :) )

This is what English Premier League has done. The league is the most competitive league in the world, but the african imports from Ivory Coast gets the nod to play in Arsenal's first eleven ahead of a local lad brought up in nearby Islington, London whose family members also happen to be lifelong club supporters. However, EPL is getting back to its roots now, as similar to IPL, they are also going to bring in a 6-5 combination of local and abroad players, w.e.f 2012.

So providing an avenue for local talent is paramount. Its effects will not show instantly.We need to bide our time to reap the rewards of this system. These guys compete with the best. Such tough conditions makes IPL their expressway to get into the Indian team.

Thus the demands of the fans, craving for home grown talent have been addressed, sufficiently, but has not been marketed that well as these young guys aren't going to help their franchisees sell more T-shirts like an Akhtar or Warne. The learning curve for our youngsters would steepen due to this foreign influence.Yes, you may see a Chennai grown Yomahesh play for Delhi and Punjab-da-puttar Gony play for Chennai, but to me, the long term success of the league would lie in showcasing local talent to the selectors and viewers alike.

Imagine, If you want entertainment and also a chance to spot bright young talent (feeling like a real life superselectors, so to speak), would you rather watch a Ranji trophy final at Brabourne stadium with free tickets and look at probably 15-20 young talent versus an IPL match at Wankhede with only 8 youngsters to look at. That's the real difference IPL has managed to bring. Viewers can see little guys unheard of (like asnodkar) explode on the big stage and witness fireworks from the Watsons and Symonds. Franchisee owners would be delighted to see their coffers filled up so fast. Selectors get a relaxed atmosphere to assess exciting talent. This win-win-win combination and keeping up the good work is what will really define the success of IPL.

(To be concluded...) :)