"Dumil" Avatharam

Hi All,

Its nice to be back - 3 years in to hiding (work basically) and now I have little time left in my hands.

The first thing I wanted to do is catch a couple of movies, take a nice vacation, hike, etc. But I stopped after the first movie I caught, 'cuz it caught me unawares. I happen to see Dasavatharam and I would rather say I punished myself.

Do not get me wrong, I am a hardcore Kamal fan - i dig every movie of his. I still talk about the screen play and its finesse of Anbe Sivam. I see the movie with my wife everytime and I learn something new from that movie. But then every one comes a full circle and so has Kamal. Not that he has not given flop movies at all, but he was fairly consistent. Till date, I would rate this movie as his worst and as a movie-lover, it would top all the bad movies there, even Ram Gopal Verma ki Aag (Ramu, can be happy that some one did a worse job)

This was not a Kamal movie at all. I think this movie failed on every aspect of movie making. Most of the die-hard fans wrote a lot of reviews but then they did not collude to the actuality and hence I decided to write this blog.

The story line is to explain "Chaos Theory" but man, I guess, making this movie itself would have been total chaos. Firstly a biological lab which has a small vial of bio-warfare- thats cool. Then 1 guy escapes with it and he is not being caught. Also funnily the package gets shipped. Question 1: Are we trying to say that things that get shipped out of US through courier is not scanned? Err! wrong makkale. The movie should have ended right then and there. Alright, people are chasing him for the vial. We have state-of-the-art infrastructure to create these weapons but we have no data back up to re-create the entire process. Sharpen your ears BPO companies, may be you can offer your services to back up data and present it on a later date. Lets not run behind the poor hero. He can have his vial and think to himself that he has saved the world.

Ok lets move forward. The movie trudges along, the guy reaches india along with cargo, then things happen and he is kidnapped along with a indian cop (do you believe it-wish I could kidnap a constable at least) by American who landed in another plane. Our security is so cool that they want to check out a Punjabi Singer rather than do their job (So Indian-like). They drive around and pass over a bridge. Question 2: Can the hero just throw the vial into the water so that NaCl in the water can react against it? Err! No, he wont, needs to run the movie along

Enter herione and then the hero and herione embark on a great adventure (natural from the days of Daud). Movie just moves on at its own pace, enter different make-up clad Kamals and then finally comes to a climax with the CIA agent biting the vial. Then god comes into the picture and saves the world by creating Tsunami and sacrifices a few thousands to save a few millions. The hero ponders if there god is really there as he should not have given the idea in the first place for them to make this bio-weapon. I wonder too if god really exists, if he did, he would not have allowed the director to make the movie in the first place. Shoddy Story, incoherent screenplay, woeful music, bad CGI and purely bad acting.

CGI - They could have spent more money on CGI rather than the make-up. It would have helped to one point
Lot of characters were in and out of the movie (including other Kamals). The Punjabi singer was a real exception. He has throat cancer and then sings with his wife. His wife is worried but dances with him. When the CIA guy attacks, he watches while his wife true to her punjabi origin, fights the villian. Question 3: How do you get rid of cancer? easy, hire a contract killer, stand in front of him and ask him to shoot at the cancer (not at you). Simpe and effective - doctors and patients beware, this might get implemented very soon at a hospital near you. I really can write a 100 atleast such questions.

Icing on the cake: Bush (US President), Manmohan Singh (Indian PM) and Karunanidhi (TN CM) are all in one stage and the director himslef danced and sang to the glory (praise) of the hero - for what reason? God created Tsunami and saved millions from dying. Our hero could have destroyed the vial anywhere, he did not, or he could have jumped into the water, with the vial and die, or do better- rent a scuba diving unit, go to the sea bed, bury the vial there (its awfully cold there anyways and best place for NaCl) and come back. No he wont do all that 'cuz this is all common logic.

Only few are given chances to do artistic (thats how god made them) and then made commoners like you and me to embrace their talent. Not everyone can act, sing, write, direct, etc but here is one person who god bestowed with all talents and who was using them wisely till date. I would like to add that people who detracted on the release of Baba and then lauded Chandramukhi will again do the same thing.

Parting Shot: Of course, everyone does mistakes in this world. All of us are humans. I made the mistake of watching this movie and will correct that one by soon watching a better movie.

Auf Wiedersehen