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...