Friday, June 20, 2008

Dasavatharam - Confused on Incarnations


Decided to watch Dasavatharam today which was released in Doha last week. couldn't go because of other commitments.Today there was a special prog on Dasavatharam in Star Vijay  conducted by cartoonist Madan, in which director ravikumar gave the comparison with vishnu's dasavatharam, in which only poovaragan (dalit's) character, nambi and japanese characters are  convincing. Calling the villain as parasurama is too much.

One more interesting thing is the japanese name, he is supposed to be narasimha avatar (convincing) name also resembled. Shingen Narahasi (Narasimha jumbled).

The list is as shown below. 

 Matsya-Nambi Rangarajan in 12th century obvious fish in water

Koorma-Bush the turtle was beneath the huge churning that emitted poison leading Asuras and Devas into battle Varaha/Vamana -Khalifullah, the tall God also dwarfed by minority community status 
Parasurama hatchet man/Fletcher-the hitman 
Balram-Balram Naidu 
Rama-Avtar Singh in love for his wife 
Narasimha-Shingen Narahasi, the man who takes on the disbeliever on the shore, at dusk in bare combact (remember hiroshima?>>>  
Krishna -Vincent, saves the girl from molestation when she calls Narayana, loses out the political negotiations as his community is bought over by drink. Krishna tries for a Yadava -Kaurava negotiation hat fails as Yadavas succumb to booze and Krishna and Vincent die by the seashore, their feet wounded. 
Buddha-paati and today Buddhism is the religion of the Dalits in India, Vincent seems like her son as she attains enlightenment 
Kalki-Govind, harbinger of doomsday through virus.

Personally, I was disappointed by this movie as  What could have been an exiting adventure is spoilt due to Kamal Haasan’s indulgence and  wanting to be the first actor to do 10 roles in a film. but we can't blame him for that considering the great pains he has taken to do these roles. The only fantastic  feature of this film is the first 15 minutes set in the 12th century. Quite Brilliant and excellent and is par with hollywood. Also to some extent the last 15 minutes of Tsunami but Computer Graphics has got some flaws. especially, you can't compare with Hollywood Tsunami (it is no where near 'Day After Tomorrow' scene).
 
Those who couldn't understand the first dialogues of Kamal in Nehru Stadium, he talks about 'Chaos Theory' and 'Butterfly effect'(which is a component of Chaos Theory) , which is true and no one has attempted these things in Indian Cinema.
 
The idol that is drowned in the sea along with Rangarajan(first kamalahaasan)  in 12th century by Chozha king results in a fault being developed at the bottom of the ocean and creates tremors more than 800 years later. These tremors result in the Tsunami. This is classic example of  'Butter Fly' effect.  (The phrase refers to the idea that a butterfly's wings might create tiny changes in the atmosphere that may ultimately alter the path of a tornado or delay, accelerate or even prevent the occurrence of a tornado in a certain location. ) Another explanation is that Govind is in fact the reincaranation of Rangarajan. As Rangarajani he couldn’t protect God and died in the name of God.In order to fulfill his Karma,he is reincarnated as Govind Ramasamy who ultimately saves the world from destruction.The idol in the end somewhat hints to this theory; his story began with the idol and it ends with the idol.
 
Basically a chaotic system  is one wherein long term predictions are impossible. Like for example, if I push a car, I know that it is going to move and it will continue to do so if I go on pushing it on and on. However, in a chaotic system, this situation cannot be predicted over a long period of time. Weather, for example, is a chaotic system.
 
Here in the movie, The 1st scene is perfectly connected to the climax, remember what Kamal says in the first scene, that he will not say “Om Nama Shivaya” , but Asin tells him to chant it , but still Kamal refuses , he believes in his god more than anything, but Asin feels “Its ok if we change the god or chant other god’s name, its life thats most important.” Now if u see the climax its JUST OPPOSITE…. Kamal doesn’t believe in god much and values lives of people the most…. but Asin deeply believes in god and that too this dialogue comes when both Asin and Kamal’s hand is on the god which came from the sea , and it also means that they are getting united from the place they departed hundreds of years back ( Kamal and Asin).
 
All these points if you analyze  are really great, but execution of the other parts  and dragging scenes spoil the film.
 
(One more personal point, I liked the scene in which my favourite Apple Computer is shown. George bush is using Apple Macbook Pro.)
You should not forget to mention kamalhaasan acting. from India glitz which had given a good review on Kamalhaasan. The eyes are considered the most effective tools in creating the right kind of attitude for any actor and Kamal Haasan is a master at that. There are many a time in the film when the audience would have to force themselves to believe that it is the same actor who is the good guy as well as the bad guy.The expressive and determined eyes of the priest, the mushy and yet funny countenance of Balaram Naidu, the hilarious CBI officer and the peaceful martial artist eyes of the Japanese character have all shaped up to fit into any acting text book. Hats off to Kamal Haasan on the acting front!!

 


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