Dasavatharam

This is an outstanding film, one of the rare few films in the media based on Chaos theory linking it with the science behind Karma. The hard work and intelligence behind this movie is visible in every frame. The lead actor Kamalhaasan has surpassed himself and excelled in every character he has portrayed often turning up at apt moments in the film to guide the story forward. If one was not aware of the fact that Kamal has appeared in 10 characters in this film, one can find it very hard to guess that the three actors interacting in the screen are one and the same. This is a novel experience for the viewers and is one of the few movies that keeps everybody guessing in every frame.

"Kallai mattum kandaal kadavul theriyaadhu, Kadavul mattum kandaal kalladi theriyaadhu." With these words starts the movie Dasaavathaaram, which means "If you see stone, you cannot see God. If you see God, you cannot see the stone behind it." Kamal Haasan may have excelled in ten different roles in the movie, but his 11th role as a script writer, according to me dominates the film. His rationalist thinkings dominate the theme of the film. Does God exist? If He exists, then why such inequalities and turmoil in the world? God created Man, but Man created temples and idols, caste, creed, races, religion and differentiated within himself and this has resulted in the current agony facing mankind. So explains the scriptwriter in this film.

The movie starts excellently with the breathtaking story of Rangaraja Nambi, a devotee of Lord Vishnu who gives up his life for Lord Vishnu in the Shiviite - Vaishnaviite battle. Here Kamal asks questions as to why Rangaraja Nambi died? Was it due to the Lord or the man made differences between Shiviites and Vaishnaviites. The movie goes along these lines and explores all the differences - the caste differences portrayed by Dalit Kamal Vincent Poovaraghavan, the Muslim Hindu differences portrayed by Muslim Kamal Kalifulla Khan. The differences in the world leading to the emergence of the terrorists which gives rise to the 9/11 bombings and the quest by the US to develop biological weapons after that, which threatens mankind.

Here Kamal portrays himself as scientist as Govindaraj Ramaswamy. He playes as the US President Bush also, which looks a bit comical. Some evil men take advantage of these differences as portrayed by the character Christian Fletcher also acted brilliantly by Kamal and are out to destroy mankind. Scientist Govind takes it upon himself to destroy the biological weapon and is prevented by all the evil forces. A Sikh singer Avatar Singh, affected by cancer and is shown to get caught between Govind and Fletcher in which Fletcher shoots Avatar Singh accidentally and the same bullet helps Avatar Singh from cancer. The Sikh family of Avatar Singh thanks their God for the divine help. Here too the writer Kamal resurfaces to show how man made events playing a role in the life of man are attributed to God. The Muslims including Kamal Kalifulla Khan who are illegally detained in a mosque by an hilarious RAW officer Balarama Naidu are saved by the Tsunami in the climax of the film. So did Allah save them, Kamal questions. The upper castes drowned by the Tsunami are saved by the Dalits but the Dalit leader Vincent Poovaraghavan gets drowned himself. So did God not do justice to him? Kamal again asks.

The Tsunami finally saves the world from the biological weapons. Asin, the heroine of the film thanks the Lord for saving the world from this dalamity. At this point, the scientist Govindaraj Ramaswamy questions her "Did God really act as savior, when several thousands have also died by the very Tsunami." Though Kamal shows the Tsunami to be the savior in this film, he also symbolically questions the reason behind the Tsunami. The man made differences leading to quest for scientific inventions going against the forces of Nature gives rise to such global warming and Tsunamis. So man in a way is destroying mankind in the name of God, whether be it in the 12th century or the 21st century. This is the underlying message of the film conveyed beautifully through a fast paced plot where Govind Ramaswamy the scientist is chased down by the villain Fletcher right from US to India. Kamal Haasan also plays the role of Krishnaveni Patti, the grandmother and Shingen Narahashi, a martial expert.

The film moves at such a brisk pace that one forgets the many loopholes and enjoys the grandeur and spectacle of the movie. The cinematagrophy is world class and the background music brilliant. The Director of the movie Ravikumar has done a good job, but the success of the movie can be attributed to the script and screenplay of Kamal Haasan. It is difficult to encompass such a complex thought, the chaos theory into a movie to be enjoyed particularly by an Indian audience. Kamal Haasan's performance as Rangarajan Nambi,Christian Fletcher and Vincent Poovaraghan certainly deserves National and International Awards. His portrayal as Balarama Naidu and Kalifullah Khan are hilarious. I liked his portrayal as Dalit leader Vincent Poovaraghavan. Of course, the hero Govind the scientist, Kamal Haasan was first rate. Heroine Asin also displayed superb acting skills. Mallika Sherawat played her part. Music by Himesh Reshammiya was nothing had audio cassettes selling like hot cakes. As a Director, Kamal Haasan already proved with 'Hey Ram'. Dasavathaaram is another quality product from him as a script and screenplay writer, though it could have been a milestone. One can expect more from Kamal Haasan as a script writer and also as a Director in the future.

Finding fault with the graphics, makeup and other finer details of this film, is like Kamal Haasan (KH) trying to show us the beauty of the bright full moon by pointing at it with his finger and we, the ignorant ones, instead of soaking in the beauty of the moon, telling him:"Look! your finger has a big, ugly wart on it".

This movie does not deserve a 9/10 or a 10/10 overall (though for its innovativeness it does),but whoever has rated this movie anything less than 8, have merely found faults with its finer details only and not with the intention. Yes, this movie is faulty on the technical side. On the brighter side: at least this Indian movie dares to enter the unchartered waters of technicality. Movies are meant to be serious, some are comic, some happen to be entertaining and some turn to be eye-opening. This movie can be classified in the last three types that I mentioned just now.

I am a Maharastrian and unfortunately, don't understand a single word of any of the South Indian languages. But Humans don't need Languages to communicate intelligence and wisdom. And KH is both Intelligent and Wise. I am yet to watch the movies of KH, they call 'masterpieces' in the South, but I have watched a lot of his Hindi movies,commercial as well as off-the-track ones. Without exaggerating a bit , The Best Movie of India ever made till date is 'Hey Ram (2000)' followed by Swades(2004). You have to watch these to believe these. As for this movie: I, myself, don't believe in God, - for me, it's the usual 'Science versus Religion' conflict - but I do believe in the good intentions, good nature and common sense of any human being, even if he/she is a high priest of any temple. I loved every bit of word of what this guy, 'sivausa' has said about this movie. Everyone should read what he has to say about this movie. That's the whole summary of the movie. KH's all 10 performances varied from good to great, most of them great.The most entertaining of them being undoubtedly the characters of the Intelligence officer, Balaram Naidu and THE George Bush.

As a Science Professional (I'm a software engineer), I know and understand the Chaos Theory, though not every bit of it (it's deep) and love every little deed done towards understanding any phenomenon of Science. KH has done his bit in an entertaining, hilarious and a comic way and may be hopefully more movies of the revolutionary type will come from him. The Best Scientific Movie ever made till date is the Steven Spielberg's no-nonsense 'Artificial Intelligence (2001)'. And so some ignorant people will definitely laugh at KH for his efforts on movies like this one or the great movie 'Hey Ram (2000)'. But for me, what matters is the intention behind any efforts irrespective of the output at the box-office. And in this movie, even the output was great and hilarious. The direction-overall and the 'Butterfly effect'-in specific, definitely HAS to be KH's genius idea, even though director named in the credits is somebody else. That's what usually happens with great actors like a KH, Amir Khan or a Denzel Washington. They dominate the captain of the ship, the Director. And yes,... they also make for good Directors themselves. KH has tried to highlight through this movie, some major issues that haunt the world and India in particular: Caste, creed, religion, environment, politics and the biggest of them - GOD. This movie is both informative as well as entertaining. So I suggest, don't take it seriously where it is not supposed to be. Here, I am talking of the comic storyline or rather how many times KH's character loses the Vial throughout the journey. If somebody does want to attack the plot/storyline here, I would rather recommend him/her to go and watch more serious movies like 'Hey Ram(2000)', 'Schindler's List(1993)', 'The Godfather(1972-90)' or 'Artificial Intelligence(2001)' instead and dare challenge their plots there if possible.

Asin's performance was over the top and torturous sometimes but OK overall.

Reshamiya's tunes in some songs like the opening song of the Vishnu worshiper-priest/ 'Mukunda-Mukunda'/ the Pop singer's stage song, I did find to be catchy, even though I am not a fan of Himesh.

I have seen better storyline(Hey Ram(2000),'Artificial Intelligence (2001)',...long list). I have experienced better special effects('AI(2001)' again or Jurassic Park(1993), The Matrix(1999), Death Becomes Her (1992),...long list). I have observed better stunts (Any Jackie Chan / Bruce Lee movie). I watched better makeup(Star Wars(1977),Lord of the Rings(2001),Monster(2003),...many more).But still I would rate this movie no less than a full 8/10, only because of a talented KH's truly pure and great intention in making this movie.

KH is truly up there with the world's best actors, script-writers and directors.

...And yes, Kamal Haasan truly came very near to enacting a role every hot-blooded guy dreams of playing - a ruthless Schwarzenegger-style bad Terminator (as in Part One).

I also recommend viewers to watch 'The Da Vinci Code(2006)' and Swades(2004).

SHOULD APPRECIATE KAMAL'S GOOD EFFORTS .THE BEST SCI FI MOVIE EVER MADE IN TAMIL AT THE TIME OF RELEASE. IF RAJINI IS THALAIVVAR THEN KAMAL IS AANDAVAR.

I have read many user comments here and i don't know why they were disappointed by the film. This movie holds you up throughout the film. Wow awesome! Kamal excels donning ten roles with gr8 efforts differentiating each one through a different slang and body language. The movie is a racy thriller which has very right mixture of action and comedy and is splendid because of kamal's acting, makeups(one or two makeups are not very pleasing though),crazy's sensible and witty dialogues,special effects and all.I want to remind people that like any other film Dasavatharam is also a 'film' which is intend to satisfy all type of movie lovers. The plot may appear simple but the way it is portrayed in a thrilling way throughout without any flaws, introducing each role at appropriate time with most of them strongly connected to the main story(though i feel one or two characters not very needed to the film,we can give it up as they don't deviate you from the plot)is really superb.

Hello movie goers, don't even think to miss this movie. Go for the movie mainly for KamalHaasan who has taken really painful efforts and excelled in all ten lovable characters and i promise the movie will hold you up providing a 3 hour non stop entertainment in terms of action,special effects,comedy and a thrilling adventure no matter any genre lover you are..