The true impact of the imagination, creativity, hard work, amazing attempt and last but definitely not the least - the sheer genius of the movie will only hit you at the end. This movie can only be understood once you are out of the theater plus if you prefer masala movies than this is a skip for you. Those who are willing and know that they will enjoy an intelligent movie can see it.
Having said, you get a sense of the grandeur and the history making that this movie not just portrays and achieves, at the start of the title credits when this line of text scrolls on the screen:
For the first time
in the history of world cinema
Dr. Kamal Haasan, Universal Actor
in Ten Roles The begins in 12th century Tamil Nadu where the Chola Dynasty King, Kulothunga Chola II,who is a big Lord Shiva devotee, decides to start a major redevelopment of the Nataraja Temple in Chidambaram, which also housed the Lord Vishnu idol in the form of Lord Govindarajan and decides to remove the idol forcibly against the wishes of Vaishnavites, followers of Lord Vishnu. This at the height of the (disputed) religious persecution of Vaishnavites by Shaivites led by Kulothunga Chola II. Enter, Rangaraj Nambi a Vaishnavite who grew up with the Chola King and was buddies with him, who resists the effort of the King to remove idol, the King does not pay heed and tells Rangaraj that if he praised Lord Shiva, then he would spare his life, Rangaraj refused and he is chained to the idol and immersed in the sea alongwith the idol.
The scene shifts to modern day America, where Govind the scientist is working on a lethal biological weapon and testing it on a monkey called Hanu. Govind prevents the biological weapon from being sold to rogue people by his boss. His quest to ensure that the terrorists do not end up with the biological weapon takes him to India where we get introduced to other 6 characters (apart from Rangaraj, Govind, Christian Fletcher - the ex CIA man one of the rogues, George W Bush Jr. - all played by Kamal Haasan) - a Japanese karate expert, an Indian intelligence official, a 95 year old lady, a environmentalist, a 6.5+ foot tall Afghani merchant, a Punjabi pop singer.
The story then revolves around whether Govind saves the world from a huge biological disaster or not and the true genius of the movie lies in how all these 6 characters are tied in and none of the characters appear forced and each have a role to play.
The movie scores highly in the manner in which these characters and their story are interwoven and are joined by a common thread. The movie can very well be termed India's first genuine attempt at sci-fi thriller. Kamal Haasan does an amazing job as a scriptwriter where the theme running through the film is questioning the existence of God but in a very balanced manner placing both sides of arguments in favor of theism and atheism, which clearly brings to fore his intelligent questioning mind. Also, the way he uses tsunami to show how the tsunami protects the world eventually, shows that he has an optimist tendency where even a catastrophe has something good that happens. It's a script where he presents strong arguments both in favor of and against the existence of God.
The challenge for the viewer though is that it is very difficult to pick which is Kamal's best role in the movie. Despite 10 characters to choose from, it becomes a problem of plenty and is very difficult to even do a top 10 countdown.
The amazing visual effects that are used in two scenes involving the ocean, the one where the idol gets immersed in sea in 12th century and the tsunami climax scene. The tsunami climax scene which alone cost Rs. 3.5-4 crores for that one scene was an amazing scene which showed how it came.
Kamal Haasan proves why he is India's best actor - no one would have the guts to take on a movie like this and pull it off as well as he did.
Asin in her role as the Brahmin girl who is overly possessive about the idol can sometimes be irritating because of over acting but she does play a role in adding to the comic effect in the movie. Mallika Sherawat provides glamour to the movie. Though her character as a deadly assassin's deadly assistant did not have much meat, she was bearable.
The biggest letdown in the movie for me was the music, not surprisingly as it was Himesh Reshammiya who was the music director and to expect good music from him is to expect intelligence from George W Bush. The background score is excellent and really adds spice to the proceedings thanks to Devi Prasad who provided the background score.
K S Ravikumar proves his mettle as a very capable director as he unveils an amazing array of directorial skills to direct this magnum opus.
Dasavathaaram - Legen .wait for it .. darry (you need to be a How I Met Your Mother fan to understand it :)) Dasavathaaram is a must watch for those who can sit through and enjoy and think about an intelligent movie, not for the usual tamil film masala lovers.
Having said, you get a sense of the grandeur and the history making that this movie not just portrays and achieves, at the start of the title credits when this line of text scrolls on the screen:
For the first time
in the history of world cinema
Dr. Kamal Haasan, Universal Actor
in Ten Roles The begins in 12th century Tamil Nadu where the Chola Dynasty King, Kulothunga Chola II,who is a big Lord Shiva devotee, decides to start a major redevelopment of the Nataraja Temple in Chidambaram, which also housed the Lord Vishnu idol in the form of Lord Govindarajan and decides to remove the idol forcibly against the wishes of Vaishnavites, followers of Lord Vishnu. This at the height of the (disputed) religious persecution of Vaishnavites by Shaivites led by Kulothunga Chola II. Enter, Rangaraj Nambi a Vaishnavite who grew up with the Chola King and was buddies with him, who resists the effort of the King to remove idol, the King does not pay heed and tells Rangaraj that if he praised Lord Shiva, then he would spare his life, Rangaraj refused and he is chained to the idol and immersed in the sea alongwith the idol.
The scene shifts to modern day America, where Govind the scientist is working on a lethal biological weapon and testing it on a monkey called Hanu. Govind prevents the biological weapon from being sold to rogue people by his boss. His quest to ensure that the terrorists do not end up with the biological weapon takes him to India where we get introduced to other 6 characters (apart from Rangaraj, Govind, Christian Fletcher - the ex CIA man one of the rogues, George W Bush Jr. - all played by Kamal Haasan) - a Japanese karate expert, an Indian intelligence official, a 95 year old lady, a environmentalist, a 6.5+ foot tall Afghani merchant, a Punjabi pop singer.
The story then revolves around whether Govind saves the world from a huge biological disaster or not and the true genius of the movie lies in how all these 6 characters are tied in and none of the characters appear forced and each have a role to play.
The movie scores highly in the manner in which these characters and their story are interwoven and are joined by a common thread. The movie can very well be termed India's first genuine attempt at sci-fi thriller. Kamal Haasan does an amazing job as a scriptwriter where the theme running through the film is questioning the existence of God but in a very balanced manner placing both sides of arguments in favor of theism and atheism, which clearly brings to fore his intelligent questioning mind. Also, the way he uses tsunami to show how the tsunami protects the world eventually, shows that he has an optimist tendency where even a catastrophe has something good that happens. It's a script where he presents strong arguments both in favor of and against the existence of God.
The challenge for the viewer though is that it is very difficult to pick which is Kamal's best role in the movie. Despite 10 characters to choose from, it becomes a problem of plenty and is very difficult to even do a top 10 countdown.
The amazing visual effects that are used in two scenes involving the ocean, the one where the idol gets immersed in sea in 12th century and the tsunami climax scene. The tsunami climax scene which alone cost Rs. 3.5-4 crores for that one scene was an amazing scene which showed how it came.
Kamal Haasan proves why he is India's best actor - no one would have the guts to take on a movie like this and pull it off as well as he did.
Asin in her role as the Brahmin girl who is overly possessive about the idol can sometimes be irritating because of over acting but she does play a role in adding to the comic effect in the movie. Mallika Sherawat provides glamour to the movie. Though her character as a deadly assassin's deadly assistant did not have much meat, she was bearable.
The biggest letdown in the movie for me was the music, not surprisingly as it was Himesh Reshammiya who was the music director and to expect good music from him is to expect intelligence from George W Bush. The background score is excellent and really adds spice to the proceedings thanks to Devi Prasad who provided the background score.
K S Ravikumar proves his mettle as a very capable director as he unveils an amazing array of directorial skills to direct this magnum opus.
Dasavathaaram - Legen .wait for it .. darry (you need to be a How I Met Your Mother fan to understand it :)) Dasavathaaram is a must watch for those who can sit through and enjoy and think about an intelligent movie, not for the usual tamil film masala lovers.