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Dasavatharam Kamal hassan stills

Kamal Hassan's die-hard fans will love him in his 10 different avatars. But for many others, Dasavatharam will fall short of the huge expectation and hype it had generated.
So what went wrong? It had absolutely no story to speak of, and the twists and turns were predictable. In the end, it turned out to be a routine film rendered more aggravating by its incessant near-miss plot structure. You desperately want to like the film for its maddeningly zany characters played out by Kamal Hassan. Alas! There's only so much life an actor can pump into a moribund script. It once again proves the old theory that, without a proper story and script, no film, however big the actors are, can succeed.

The plot

The film opens in the 12th century where Rangaraja Nambi (Kamal Hassan), a staunch Vaishnavite, opposes the removal of Lord Vishnu's idol by King Kulothunga Chozhan (Napoleon), who is a strong believer of Shiva. Nambi is punished and thrown into the deep sea tied to the idol. His wife Kothai (Asin) also kills herself. Then the story cuts to the US where Dr Govind (Kamal) discovers a deadly virus, which catches the attention of the government including President George Bush (Kamal). But his boss tries to sell the vial to the enemies and now it’s the turn of our hero to protect it from causing damage.

Dr Govind is pursued by a former CIA agent-turned-mercenary Keith Fletcher (Kamal) and his Tamil interpreter (Mallika Sherawat), who land up in Tamil Nadu. An array of other characters are drawn into the chase—Balram Naidu (Kamal), the Telugu speaking RAW chief, a Chinese martial arts teacher (Kamal) thirsting to take revenge on Fletcher, Vincent Poovarahan (Kamal) a Dalit activist , Krishnaveni Patti (Kamal), Khalifullah Khan (Kamal) and a Punjabi pop singer Avatar Singh(Kamal). Andal, a Brahmin girl, is also unwittingly drawn into a long chase. What follows is a cat and mouse game till the Tsunami climax.

It's actually hard to believe that in this age of experimentation within the commercial format, the director could think of such a moth-balled story. The earlier Kamal films in which he played dual or multiple roles, like Avvai Shanmukhi, Michael Madan Kamaraj and Indian, were far superior in style and content compared to his latest 10 avatars.



The trouble with the format is that far too many characters of the actor criss-cross without any reason—or they don’t make any difference to the story. It is obvious that characters like the Punjabi pop singer Avatar Singh, the tall Khalifullah Khan, the Japanese martial arts expert , etc., are unnecessarily stitched together to make it a perfect 10. The real crisis point in the film is nebulous. The film also coasts along at a doleful pace—185 minutes. Kamal’s prosthetic makeup, especially as George Bush, Fletcher and Khan, is a bit of a dampener. But Brian Jennings’ special effects, mainly of the climax Tsunami scene, are top class by Indian standards.

Himesh Reshammiya’s music is nothing much to talk about other than Kallai Mattum. But Devi Sri Prasad’s background score is superb and makes up for everything. Cinematographer Ravi Varman may take a bow, as his camerawork is glossy and superb. The big plus for watching the movie is the one-man acting school, Kamal Hassan. He pitches in yet another fantastic performance. Among the 10 avataars, the pick of the lot is Naidu the bumbling cop, as the actor is able to bring out his impeccable sense of comic timing. Asin looks cute as the chirpy Andal, but beyond a point her character irritates you with her frequent Perumale.. calls.Her dubbing is top class and deserves special mention. Mallika, in a brief role sizzles. M.S.Bhaskar and napolean in small roles shines.

Yes, the film is hugely flawed, but it is still worth a look for its overall packaging and richness in production value.

Kamal hasan and his cute daughter Shruti Hasan

Take a look at these sexy pictures of new babe on the block, flaunting her cleavage in sexy outfit.Kamal hasan is showing his affection by giving her a little kiss(no pun intended), she walked THE RAMP in

Well, we have the child of two yesteryear superstars gearing up to step into the glamour world. Talking about Shruti Hassan, daughter of Kamal Hassan and Sarika, she rocks the covers of the latest issue of ‘Verve’. The issue talks about Shruti, what it is to be a child of two superstars and about her fancy for black nail polish and army jackets.

Shruti does not have just looks, she also writes her own songs, croons, jams with the tabla and piano, and has performed at bigger venues than your mind can ever think. Though Shruti does not have any Bollywood project in her hands at present, she is waiting for the right moment to knock at her doors. Well, Shruti, we are more than convinced that the right moment is not far behind!!

WLFIW.

Kamal Hassan’s Dasavatharam

Kamal Haasan has once again proved that he is a rare kind of artiste who leaves no stones unturned when it comes to novelty on screen.

Everyone knows that Kamal Haasan dons ten different roles in ‘Dasavadharam’, directed by K.S. Ravikumar. But few would have known how much pains he has taken to handle so much of roles.

Each and every role demanded a lot of hard work and pain to the actor, informs Anil Pemgirikar, the co-make up artist. "For example, for the role of a 98 year old lady, the makeup process consumed eight hours per day. We shot for 45 days for this scene. But, you know, the scene runs only for fifteen minutes in the film”, says Anil.

Similarly, informs Anil, Kamal watched all possible clippings of President George W. Bush for the scene featuring him and the unit shot the scene for 60 days. The screen time for the scene is just seven minutes.

Kamal’s makeup process used to go up to 8-9 hours daily. The actor used to wake up at three o’ clock in the morning to start the process. "But the shooting would last for only for an hour, as the make up would peel off after an hour", Anil explains. “Kamal underwent a lot of pain while the makeup was taken off. He also had a lot of skin allergies. But the actor was unperturbed and raring to go”, says Anil with lot of admiration towards the actor.

Kamal’s efforts received applause from none other than his friend Rajinikanth. The Superstar came to sets one day and witnessed the proceedings. He was so impressed that he spontaneously clapped in absolute fascination, recalls Anil.

Meanwhile, following Jackie Chan’s confirmation on his arrival, the date of ‘Dasavadharam’ audio release is finalized (on April 25). Kamal Haasan is all praise for the producer Oscar Ravichandran for his whole hearted cooperation. According to Kamal, the film is arguably the costliest film ever made in India.

Coming to the post production works, four reels have been completed with rerecording and special effects work. It took nearly four weeks as opposed to the normal period of one week for these works. Though Himesh Reshammiya scores the music, it is Devi Sri Prasad, who does the rerecording.

Dasavathaaram: Biggest talents of 21st century Kollywood.

Kamal Haasan’s movies are always much-awaited and always create waves, whether they subsequently become flops or hits. No middle-of-the-line approach for one of the biggest talents of twentyfirst century Kollywood.

Himesh Reshammiya and Devi Sri Prasad have composed music for Dasavathaaram. At present, though Devi Sri Prasad is busy with several other projects such as Kanthaswamy, still he accepted the challenge of the background score for Dasavathaaram.

He says, “It will definitely be a challenge as there will be 10 Kamals in the movie and each requires a different tone and mood. The background score will be on the lines of a Hollywood score with each role of Kamal’s getting a different musical score and mood.”

This is the first time in the world that an actor has appeared in 10 roles in a movie.

Almost all the hurdles for ’Dasavatharam’ of Kamal Haasan were cleared and presently sub-titles are getting ready for the movie.

The producer is making efforts to release the film on June 13 simultaneously in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi languages. The film unit has plans to release the film in some other languages.The release of the film was delayed as they were busy in providing sub-titles in other languages, say sources from Oscar Films.

The film is likely to hit screen with over 1,000 prints across the world. It is worth mentioning here that Sri Vaishnava Dharma Samrakshana Sangh moved the court over certain scenes degrading the Vaishnavite community but the High Court dismissed the petition.

The film was made with a very heavy budget, which is never before in Indian film industry’s history. The shooting of the film was done for more than two and a half years and there were lots of expectations on the flick.