Dasavatharam - Butterfly Effect & Kamal the great

I watched Kamal’s Dasavatharam last Friday. I went into the movie hall after hearing/reading only 2 comments/reviews about the movie by people who had watched it. Either they said its great watch,in tune with a Hollywood with all the special effects or that they didn’t expect this kind of a movie from Kamal, a spoiler from Kamal, waste of money.

There were few of my close friends who asked me not to waste my time by watching the movie. Being a ardent fan of Kamal I decided to watch the movie irrespective of the feedbacks I got from them. This blog post is not a review of the movie, its just what I feel about the movie. I might not even discuss about anything like the story, music etc. as I dont think I am an expert to write reviews.

There would be no doubt in anyone’s mind that Kamal is probably the best actor in the country. His acting skills are impeccable and the emotions that he brings on to the screen clubbed with the body language of the characters are just awesome. But sadly in this movie though the body language is great as always for the different characters the emotions don’t come out well as they get lost under the thick makeup that 6 of the 10 characters. My favorite characters in the movie are the first avatar Nambi, the funny RAW agent and the rugged Fletcher. This I think is the opinion of the many who have watched the movie. I also liked the characterization of of Vincent Poovarag and best of the lot would be Bush.

The theme of the movie is Butterfly effect or Chaos Theory. Kamal the story writer would have done lot of research and brain storming sessions before coming out with the final draft of the screen play, which is evident in the way every character jumps in with those small events which carry greater consequence at the end of the movie.

Kamal movies have always been critically acclaimed but don’t go that well with the mass ( read box office) as most of them claim they don’t understand the message he tries to bring out. Classic examples of this are movies like Kurudhipunal, Hey Ram and Anbe Sivam. But in this movie I think Kamal had consciously decided not to make that mistake again and come out with a story that will reach the masses.

To bring out a story with a theme of Chaos Theory and also make it reach the masses Kamal has done a great job. But what people like me expect from Kamal is not a movie for the masses but a classy movie, as Kamal is associated with class and not mass. May be had Kamal come out with a movie like many of his earlier ones, which get a great reception among the so called “A Class” audience I think the movie would have been spectacular with Kamal stamp written all over it. But considering the budget of the movie had he made a movie for the A Class the producer would have gone bankrupt.

Another thing that might not work in favor of the film is the expectation. With news that Kamal dons 10 avatars I think people expected equal importance to all the 10 roles. But the very nature of the story is about the minor in- consequent events that lead to a major event. In that sense Kamal has done a great job is not giving importance to all the roles in a big way and just using most of the avatars to get the movie going with small events that finally had a huge impact. Be it the 12^th century event which he claims caused the Tsunami after 800 years or the old lady who throws the viral into the Statue of the Lord thereby making sure Fletcher doesn’t get it or the character of Vincent who saves Asin & Kamal from the sand Mafia, these are all great work of how in-consequent events which had a great effect later on.

As I mentioned earlier all the reviews and comments were opining only 2 thoughts, but I came out taking the middle path "it wasn’t bad nor was it great", definitely worth a watch. With all the great special effects in the movie it would have been a great watch only if someone other than Kamal had acted. Just that it is Kamal the expectations were more. For all the hard work Kamal has put in, if the movie flops I think the blame should be put on only one thing "EXPECTATION".

But we should appreciate Kamal is trying to tell a story based on complex theory like the Butterfly Effect in a simple manner to audience who are used to movies with 5 songs, 6 fights, heroism, punch dialogues etc..

As I didn't want to elaborate on the 10 roles and the significance of them in the movie or butterfly effect, I have added few links for people who didn’t understand the link:

http://sathyaphoenix.wordpress.com/2008/06/18/dasavatharam-the-link-between-the-12th-century-and-21st-century-avatars/

http://ravis.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/dasavatharam-trivia/

RJ