Here are photos from the preview of Dasavathaaram, held for some Kamal’s colleagues, at Four Frames theatre in Chennai.
The attendees included Rajnikanth, K Balachander, Nagesh, Manorama, Prabhu, Radhika, Sathyaraj, Sarathkumar, Surya, Bharath and few directors.
Check out the updates on MSN, IndiaGlitz, Chennai 365 and Adhikaalai.com.
More photos are at Behindwoods.
[With inputs from Ananth]
[Picture courtesy: BehindWoods]
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June 13th, 2008 at 4:23 am
Mr. Randramble,
This is the correct time to convey our gratefullness to u!
Thanks f ur timely updations abt d great movie, ‘Dasavathaaram’.
Regards,
Velmurugan Renganathan
June 13th, 2008 at 9:41 am
Today morning I saw DASAVATHAARAM. NO WORDS TO EXPRESS !! I am in full excited condition.
DASA’S credit goes to NONE OTHER THAN KAMALJI !
Here, in TAMIL NADU real celebration going on. NAMBI, FLESHTCHER, KRISHNAVENI PATTI, VINCENT POOVARAGAN,BALRAM NAIDU,GOVIND,KALIFULLAH KHAN,AVTHAAR SINGH r in my eyes.
WHAT A PERFORMANCE BY KAMALJI !!
SCRIPT IS VERY STRONG & MOVIE RUNS FAST. Second Half itself TEMPO maintained. Tsunami scene is complete “MIRATTAL” Fletscher & Japanese Stunt Master FIGHT scenes MIND BLOWING. I rate one of the BEST FIGHTS in KAMALJI films.
Few songs r not fully shooted. KALLAI MATTUM & MUKUNTA songs picturised SUPERBLY ! At the end ULAGANAYAGAN song arrived with some SHOOTING TIME VIDEO SHOTS. I didn’t hear the song because WHISTLE sound around me.
Re-recording OK. But I FELT IF “MAESTRO” ILAIYARAAJA done the backround score it woulb be a great.
Dialogues r very SHARP. one thing is the first NAMBI EPISODE surely MASTER PIECE of KAMALJI. I predict this episode is a TRAILER for KAMALJI’S next MAGNUM OPUS “MARMAYOGI.”
But I fear that HINDU OUTFITS may surely file new case. This will be a problem. So, ALL KAMALJI FANS PLEASE SEE THE FILM IMMEDIATELY.
I am happy to see the FANS DISCIPLINED BEHAVIOUR during FDFS. As instruction FANS done excellent work. I saw happiness & excitement in every FAN’S face to see KAMALJI’S VIWAROOPA 10 AVATHAARAM. Digital Banners contains the ULAGANAYAGAN SONG Lyric & “expressing thanks to DINATHANTHI for publishing ULAGAYAGAN life history article daily. I enjoyed watching DASA in FDFS amidst of fan’s whistle sound & screams of praising ULAGANAYAGAN.
I recollect that for DASA CASE KAMALJI came to COURT & HIS entry & exit were showed on Sun news channel. I was very upset that day that these people r insulting a great contemporary living legend. But after seeing DASA all the efforts of KAMALJI r goes fruitfull. The verdict is clear that DASA IS SUPER HIT !
கமல்ஜியின் சாதனையை அவர் மட்டுமே முறியடிக்க முடியும்.
Totally DASA is a COMPLETE “TECHNICAL TREAT” for FANS & ALL with GRAND OPENING COLLECTIONS.
June 13th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Thanks a lot for the excellent review Hearta Z!
Can’t wait to watch the movie in IMAX on 6/14 in Indianapolis….
June 13th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Movie reviews :
http://www.dinamalar.com/cinema/dasavatharam_vimarsanam.asp
http://www.rediff.com/movies/2008/jun/13dasa.htm
June 13th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Guys,
I just came home after watching Dasavathaaram thrice today.What an astounding piece of cinema!Three hours of superbly woven scenes.Kudos to Kamalji and Ravikumar.Brilliant story.
June 14th, 2008 at 4:16 am
As a Kamal Hassan fan, I have to say, this was a very mediocre film. I do not doubt the enormous effort that has gone into the making of this film because it certainly is very ambitious in what it tries to do but all this effort has been undone by the desire and obsession of showing Kamal in 10 roles without much focus on narrative and everything else that goes into making great films. I might offend some of you here, but the truth is, the movie has not in any way lived up to the hype. The makers were pitching this as an International movie but it is far from it. I was struggling to get through it once! Poor dialogue, screenplay, make-up, special effects, editing, directing, music and the list goes on.
Screenplay , Story and Dialogues (and direction and editing) – Clunky! Where is the Kamal who wrote films like Raajapaarvai, MMKR, Mahanadhi, Dhevar Magan, Virumaandi and Hey Ram?! Those were exemplary films - they flowed! You got invested in those characters and movies so much that they took you on emotional roller-coaster rides! I would easily have compared them with the best of international films in their respective genres. With Dasavatharam, you never get invested in any of the characters - they just seemed so artificial. The narrative and dialogues were poor - some comedy bits were ok, but like with Mumbai Express, I wish Kamal had given that responsibility to Crazy Mohan. Kamal’s ability with dialogues were great with more serious subject matter (as listed above) but here, he tries to cram too much – so much so it makes no sense! Asin was miscast –she lacked the substance of actors like Gauthami, Revathi, Kushboo and so on who were critical elements of Kamal’s past efforts. This may have worked if he had chosen a simpler story and ensured that the 10 characters were necessary to the script. Here the film doesn’t know what it wants to be – a comedy or a serious thriller and fails. Most of the 10 roles and Asin were distractions more than anything. Kamal’s voice over at the beginning was jarring and lacked the effect of say a Morgan Freeman.
The Special Effects and back ground score were shocking and mediocre respectively. They don’t even match the effects and sound that were used in Jaws - and that film was made 33 years ago!! Is this really the best of what we have from Tamil cinema?! After so many exemplary pieces of background score both from within (Ilaiyaraja and Rahman) and outside the country, this was plain disappointing. Also, why bother showing a Tsunami sequence if you can’t completely do justice to it – especially when it has been done in films like Deep Impact (10 years ago) – and flood sequences (like Titanic – 11 years ago)! Those films had huge budgets but relatively speaking, so did this film! In Jaws, for example, they hardly showed the shark but it was still so effective because of clever editing and direction, and sound effects. Many scenes in Titanic were filmed in a tank!
It makes me wonder, have the positive reviews been thrown at Kamal and Dasavatharam because he IS Kamal Hassan and it would be offensive to do anything otherwise? I think this is wrong. I grew up as a fan of Kamal and Rajini and Tamizh cinema but if we want our films to be taken seriously, we need to focus on making good films and not just stroking the egos of the stars. With War of the Worlds for example, despite all the hype and budget, it turned out to be mediocre, and everyone were honest enough to point it out to the makers. Why are we so hesitant to do the same? I compare Kamal and this film to other International actors and films of calibre because he is truly a great talent, but it all false apart because it seems as if he is obsessed of wanting to flaunt himself rather than let the story take precedence. His character’s ‘over the top emotions’ was possibly the only flaw of Virumaandi which I thought was an excellent movie. I was saddened to see such enormous talent and effort being wasted this way.
I am sorry to have offended anyone on this forum or Mr. Kamal Hassan himself (in case he reads this) but this stems from my view of him as an actor in the calibre of De Niro and Hoffman and a film maker who is on par with those regarded the best in the world. I am not criticising for the sake of it, but rather with the hope that by being honest, it would help him focus on what is important. I remember an interview with Bharathiraja who said how the great Sivaji Ganesan had been so accustomed to overacting in his films because no one were daring enough to tell him that he was moving away from natural performance. Mudhal Mariyadhai brought that aspect back with one of Sivaji’s greatest performances! This again was repeated in Dhevar Magan – a short but extremely powerful and memorable role. They were natural performances. Kamal and Rajini have had this too but it looks like no one is daring enough to ask them to give natural performances anymore because of their superstardom! Perhaps work with the likes of Maniratnam, Bala, Ameer, Bharathiraja (depending on Bommalaattam) and so on could resurface this magic that they have delivered and are capable of delivering!
I can’t wait for Kamal to again take on a role that is just a normal person like in Mahanadhi or even a supporting role. But for that to happen, Kamal first needs to want it and second, us fans must be happy to support him through it. If he decides to make such a move, like Amitabh has, it will open up new and exciting prospects for Tamizh cinema.
With great hopes,
Tirukumar.
June 14th, 2008 at 8:19 am
Tirukumar,
I’d like to point out a few things in defense of Mr. Kamal Haasan. First of all, I’d like to state that I’m not a ’stupid’ fan that doesn’t possess any sort of cinematic knowledge. I’m an educated fan of Kamal and I take pride in the fact that I’m the harshest critic of Kamal Haasan, as I expect him to deliver the ‘best’ performance every single time. Now, on to your comment.
As far as this film goes, it’s not a 100% Kamal film. As you know, some big heads like KS Ravikumar and Oscar Ravichandran were involved in the project. KS Ravikumar has the reputation for directing the best ‘masala’ entertainers in the industry. And he has his reputation at stake every single time he directs a movie. So, he would obviously want to add things that will ensure minimum guarantee for the producer and himself. In this process, some classic scenes and some intense scenes might be diluted for the sake of masses who won’t be able to appreciate the former but will lap up the latter.
Oscar Ravichandran, as a producer, is known to have had problems with directors and actors in the past. He would obviously want to make sure his film doesn’t flop by any means, just like any other producer. Hence the enormous hype for the film and inviting Jackie Chan for the audio release, etc. Personally, I think Kamal wouldn’t have enjoyed the idea of having Jackie Chan for the audio release for three reasons.
1. It’s not needed. At least, in Tamilnadu it’s not needed because a film sells for Kamal’s name alone.
2. Jackie Chan was reportedly paid around 5 crores, which is on par with the salary that Kamal got for the entire film. It’s utterly rubbish.
3. The launch of audio CD was delayed only because Jackie Chan was not able to get a visa. Otherwise, they could have released it earlier and released the film earlier, like Kamal expected.
So, right from scratch, Kamal has to cope with two big heads - KS Ravikumar and Oscar Ravi. In this case, you can’t expect Kamal to do a Mahanadhi, Hey Ram, Guna, or Virumaandi.
Moreover, Kamal never publicized this movie as a classy one. It was an attempt at making the most talked about movie in the recent times. It was an attempt at showing Kamal’s value at the box office, especially after Rajni proved it without a doubt with Sivaji. So, you can’t expect a storyline or treatment similar to Hey Ram or Virumaandi.
At the end of the day, if the film goes on to become a huge box office success, it would justify everything. After all, that’s the output that is expected of a film like this. Not awards. For award winning performances and gripping storyline, we’ll have to wait for another movie which Kamal decides to direct himself.
June 14th, 2008 at 10:26 am
some of you who are classical fans of kamal didnt like dasavatharam as much as you would have liked films like mahanadhi or kurudhipunal or heyram but the problem is without getting much recognition from ordinary c center movie going fans kamal cant do that kind of films regularly and cant gamble with his market when people who came yeterday are making tall claims in box office he never said dasavatharam will be a classic as he said it will be an entertainer in it there will be woven intricate parts of his questions about religion,faith,god and after all physics.if you didnt find it alas you didnt see the film in the right spirit.if you want only classics wait for marmayogi.
June 15th, 2008 at 11:55 am
Hi,
I liked the film but won’t watch it again (this is indeed a sorry state of affairs for someone whose reaction to ‘Hey Ram’ was ‘how many times can I see it in one day at the theater?’)
Lest my views get mistaken for Kamal bashing (I wouldn’t do that for a million bucks…the man deserves respect for what he is and what he has made of his life), I’ll list the positive aspects first and then play the role of an impartial critic
1. Dasavatharam has a very intelligent screenplay…it won’t be appreciated by people who are not privy to the ‘Butterfly Effect’…and Kamal has managed to provide an on-screen narrative which can be easily interpreted on a vedAntic or rationalistic basis depending on one’s persuasion…the climax resolves nothing and leaves the viewer to take one of two possible stands (God is real, or God is just a figment of the human imagination)…to present such a narrative without letting the balance tip either way is very difficult and kudos to Kamal for pulling it off
2. None of the characters are unnecessary…all 10 have a part…and the Rangaraja Nambi sequence cannot be understood by those who do not know SriVaishNavA history (for instance, the allusion to KooratthAzhwAn will escape most people..and it did, in the theater where I watched the film’). Most people don’t know history (as was amply proven when Hey Ram was dealt a death blow by the moviegoing public), and rAmAnujA is not everyone’s favourite philosopher. There were murmurs in the audience that Kamal had taken a pro-IyengAr stance. He is just stating historical facts (there was Saiavite persection of VaishNavites and all that..but Rangaraja nambi is purely fictitious…there is no record of any such person in the texts of the tradition) and as he ruffled feathers while making Hey Ram…(which some nuts still think is ‘Anti-Gandhi)
3. The first sequence shows a SriVaishNavA accept death for the sake of God..and the last bit shows a man from the dalit community (if I am not wrong), Vincent bhuvarAhan drown for the sake of a child…brilliant…both deaths are poignant and both men command respect for their deeds. The old lady crying over the corpse of Vincent is another stroke of genius…as it silences caste tensions in one fell stroke of human emotion.
4. The dialogues are witty and measured…and I don’t think Crazy Mohan would have made it sound different…after all they share the same wavelength and Dasavatharam is amusing in many places in subtle ways.
5. In the film even vehicles like trucks and vans are used with the dual-interpretation of the main narrative in mind…so you find Govind jumping onto a truck that has SriRamajayam on it, and throughout each vehicle the hero and heroine use has some deity’s name written on it…adding another layer to the scene.
6. Seen from a kArmic/vedAntic perspective, RangarAja Nambi and AndAL can be seen in Govindarajan and Kothai…and they are brought together by Lord Govindaraja whose moola-vigraham was involved in their separation in an earlier birth…although this interpretation can be discarded for an atheistic one which looks at how apparently random events bring about changes in so many parts of the world. Also, Fletcher trying to make away with the idol and dying of a horrible viral disease seems to imply that he is the reincarnation of ‘Kirumi kanda Chozhan’…hence his involvement in Govind’s life and his death near Govindaraja PerumAl whose moolavar he threw into the sea! This resonates eerily with Rangaraja Nambi’s warning in the first sequence. Also the scene where an elephant wearing the saiva markings on its forehead flings the Utsava-vigraham of Govindraja PerumAL is a beautiful play on the word ‘matham’…and an ironic replay of the 12th century act…and Govind’s arrival on the scene to prevent PerumAL from hitting the ground/falling into the wrong hands…is Kamal’s touch and not silly heroics.
7. The movie very intelligently pays tribute to Kamal’s earlier films like Apoorva SaghodharagaL (when Kamal and Asin go on a trolley of sorts while Kamal clings to a bus), Hey Ram (an elephant runs amok), VirumAndi (same scenes but two interpretations), AaLavandhAn(Fletcher repeats Nandu’s actions…and his words before taking the viral concoction evoke Nandu’s riposte to major Ravi in the other film), the mailing lists business (probably from the passenger lists scene from VV), BhuvarAhan has shades of Nallasivam..and Kamal wears a cross-shaped bandage as Govind for sometime…even the punishment meted out to Nambi has a very Christian flavour to it (being hooked and hung). As the film ends we are shown the moola-vigraham of Lord Govindaraja, on whom Govind and Kodai rest their arms before ‘coming together’ in a conscious meaningful sense…which again leads to two interpretations.
Dasavatharam is disappointing to me for several reasons (and I admire Kamal wholeheartedly)
1. Lousy music…even Kallai mattum kandal sounds horribly wrong for the time and context…
2. Unhelpful background score…with bits picked up from Spiderman 3 (the trailer…please check it out if you doubt me)
3. The make-up is a sore point…it clearly shows in some scenes…how did this happen???
4. The film has an anti-west feeling and unwanted jingoism (the white villain says ‘Tera Bharat Mahan’ before kicking Govind)…this is not very enlightened and shows a bias had by Kamal that needs correction…it beats me why he has to endorse patriotism when he rubbishes eevry other ‘ism’…surely patriotism is as bad as regionalism and casteism…as was proved in the case of those who adored the German fatherland
5. The science is not explained well..and the tsunami sequence is overrated…mediocre special effects…even ALavandAn had a greater ‘look and feel’
6. Bush is presented as a caricature rather than a character…which does provide comic relief but Kamal’s eyes are clearly visible through the make-up spoiling the effect
7. Govind comes across as too ineffective as a communicator, AvtAr singh’s cancer and teary-eyed profession of ‘pyAr’ for his wife are pretty corny
On the whole, an entertainer (which was what it was intended to be) that’s worth watching…once!
(I watch Hey Ram, Devar Magan, Kuruthippunal,etc several times and will never tire of these and other KH classics).
Best Wishes
Mukundan
June 15th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
You stole the words from my mouth, Mukundan.
June 15th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
But Mukundan, isn’t it strange that there’s so much stuff (as you listed) in an entertainer? Anyway, kudos to you on observing so much in just one viewing!
June 15th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Krishnan,
Thanks…:)
Randramble,
Well, there’s so much in an entertainr because Kamal took story, screenplay and dialogues into his hands…had he directed it as well, it would have become a classic as opposed to a good entertainer! Thanks for your compliment…you simply can’t watch KH movies without looking for subtexts…and in terms of subtexts Hey Ram remains a landmark in Indian Cinema
Best Wishes
Mukundan
June 15th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
I think it was the right idea to make it an entertainer since the production cost was so high. Also, we should be happy that the movie reaches a lot of people. Even if most don’t understand everything, atleast they will get bits of it.
Hey Ram was a costly experiment which is highly acclaimed, but what about return of investment? Coming to that, this site knows too well about that movie, as evidenced by the numerous posts on it.
June 16th, 2008 at 3:28 am
I AM PROUD TO SEE A TAMIL MOVIE BASED ON CHAOS THEORY AND BUTTERFLY EFFECT BOTH WHICH CAN TRACED TO QUANTUM PHYSICS. AND I AM MORE PROUD TO SEE IT MADE INTO AN ENTERTAINING MOVIE.THE MOVIE HAS SET THE STANDARD TO FIGHTING SCENCES( NO MORE ONE MAN FIGHTING 10 PEOPLE).K.S. RAVIKUMAR HAS PROVEN HIS SKILL IN DIRECTING MOVIES. ANY WAY CAN ANYONE PLEASE TELL ME THE BOX OFFICE COLLECTION OF DASA IN INDIA AND U.S.A? I AGREE THERE ARE SOME FLAWS IN THE MOVIE BUT THIS EASILY ECLIPSED BY THE RICHNESS OF THE MOVIE IN MANY ASPECT.CAN THE MOVIE BEAT SIVAJI’S COLLECTION IN TAMIL NADU? PLEASE REPLY!
June 16th, 2008 at 4:57 am
Randramble; that was precisely my opinion too. If you can look at the reply I wrote for Tirukumar’s comment, you can understand my feelings.
June 16th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Now don’t attack me for my personal opinion. The below is again not a propaganda but my personal opinion on a constructive forum.
I am surprised that none in the postings to confront the truth and say that Dasavatharam was a bad movie. Being a Kamal fan from a very young age helped me watch logical,thought provoking movies and question the idiosynchrancies in a movie. When I walked out of the theatre, I was just shaking my head. I felt that I had lost all the moral right to question any tamil movie’s script in the near future because I thought that anything cannot get worse than this movie.I felt insulted in the sense that he sacrificed all the intelligence of his fans for his self-desire of donning 10 roles which were so disconnected.
It’s interesting Krishnan, that you said that you were a well educated Kamal fan but shiftly blamed KS Ravikumar and the Producer for the final output of the movie.It’s funny because if there’s anyone who should whine,it’s those guys since they were used as nothing but a sounding board.
Kamal as a screenplay writer gets a 2 out of 10. If you look at all this movies where he wrote the screenplay,although the story had a strong conceptual footing,things have gone wrong in the final presentation. Be it Hey Ram or Anbe Sivam (which was an extraordinary movie with a great message except for the injection of communist propogonda which bogged down the movie), Alavandan was nice when read as a short story for 30 minutes but the presentation went gory.
Something which concerns me is that he seems to have never learnt from his experiences and still thinks screenplay writing as his forte. I understand that experimenting and doing something unique might be his passion but this was one of the costliest experiment which took lots of time/resources from several other folks who just went into this experiment with his credibility. He should have been more accountable and responsible enough with the final product.
It’s a sad day indeed since I never thought I would be writing this to a KamalHassan movie.
I am sorry to say that he lost lots of his fans respect with this film. Again,probably every single citizen around the globe will watch the movie atleast once and producer will collect his money but something importent he lost is his credibility among his fans.
June 16th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
I totally second what Surya says.
June 18th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Rajni openly admits that he cannot provide variety like Kamal…
June 20th, 2008 at 2:04 am
RANDIE I AM NOT TRYING TO CREATE TROUBLE. I JUST WANT TO KNOW HOW WELL IS DASA DOING SINCE NOBODY IS POSTING ANYTHING ON THE PERFORMANCE OF DASA.MAYBE YOU COULD GIVE SOME INFO ON THAT.
June 22nd, 2008 at 4:25 am
See some Dasavatharam news here.
http://www.cinesnacks.com/tamil-movie-news/viewupdates.php?nid=184
http://www.cinesnacks.com/tamil-movie-news/viewupdates.php?nid=218
http://www.cinesnacks.com/tamil-movie-news/viewupdates.php?nid=220
September 18th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
kamal the evergreen tallented guy that i have never seen in the world…… all the best kamal sir
September 18th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
i have seen dasavatharam movie two times with my family it grandly a superb film that i have never seen like this in my career