K Balachander was delighted by Dasavathaaram and we already heard about it. But here are his exact thoughts.

I liked the film immensely for the wonderful dialogues and the way it has been mounted. I saw the film again. Being a student of cinema I’ll watch it a third time because he’s achieved so many things in one film. I have a few things to learn.

I have a lot to learn from him as far as technique is concerned. He’s outgrown everyone in Indian cinema.

He’s a man who revels in freshness. The effort he puts in is phenomenal. Others are only making money. This man has taken two years to complete this film. He could have amassed four times the wealth if he’d worked in more films.

…Kamal teaches everyone and fine tunes every other artiste’s performance on the set. He’s selfish to the extent that he wants the product to be good.

I told him I didn’t know what to make after watching the film and he said, “You made me.” I was touched.

This interview is brought to you by S Shivakumar in The Hindu. Regular readers of this blog would have seen other stuff from him earlier — Vishnuvardhan on Kamal and interview with Kamal. As seen in the above article, Shivakumar himself has not made up his mind about the movie. Here goes his review, reproduced with his permission.

The opening scene is riveting. Set in the 12th century it shows a lone Vaishnavite taking on the Shaivite ruler attempting to replace Vishnu with Shiva in a temple. His resistance and eventual submergence in the sea tied to the idol of his lord is brilliantly shot. Cut to the present where an Indian scientist is being honoured for saving the country from a biological weapon he’s developed. Rewind to the recent past. Our scientist helps in developing a weapon of in a vial which has the potential for mass destruction. He gets wind of the fact that his boss is trying to sell it off. The vial is mistakenly shipped to India and now scientist and an ex-CIA agent turned mercenary are in hot pursuit of it for different reasons.

A simple enough story but Kamal decides to pack in his beliefs, thoughts and philosophy about life into the three hours. The film talks about the chaos theory, the butterfly effect, atheism, the ecological imbalance that the mindless sand mafia is wreaking and the fact that ultimately nature is the greatest leveler. What sets Kamal apart as a filmmaker and actor is that he doesn’t believe in mindless entertainment. He tries to make people think though he doesn’t thrust his radical views on the paying public. With the failure of masterpieces like ‘Mahanadhi’ and ‘Anbe Sivam’ he tries to pack in humour, action and the sizzling Mallika Sherawat. So does the film work? Only in parts.

The fact is that Kamal has nothing to prove as an actor. He’s undeniably the most gifted actor on-screen. His body of work is unparalleled and is the only actor who’s got success on his terms. So the essaying of ten roles is only of academic interest. The discordant note is that some of the characters he plays have nothing to do with the plot. Mainly the seven foot tall Muslim and the Sardarji pop superstar. The plot thankfully does away with lengthy fights, duets and romance. Kamal the script writer, you feel has bitten off more than he can chew. He’s a gifted screenplay writer with classics like ‘Thevar Magan’, ‘Mahanadhi’ and that cult classic, ‘Micheal Madana Kamarajan’. Here he fails to sew the scenes seamlessly. The narration is jerky in the pursuit of giving importance to all the characters. The ten characters jostle for screen space.

Surprisingly the film is technically tacky. The computer graphics leaves a lot to be desired and the ruthless fury of the tsunami leaves you cold. The photography is brilliant though, especially a chase shot in the night.

Kamal’s acting is flawless. The prosthetics is over done but the way he changes his body language, voice and accent to suit the various characters is breath taking. There’s a brief shot of the Japanese Kung Fu master walking in silhouette. His gait in that brief shot encapsulates his dedication as an actor. Asin’s incessant chatter even in the face of adversity is irritating.

Don’t miss ‘Dashavatharam’. Kamal’s failure as a script writer is more than made up for by Kamal the master of masquerade.

S.Shiva Kumar

Producer: Aaskar Ravichandran

Director: KS Ravi Kumar

Photography: Ravi Varman

Music: Himesh Reshamiya

Cast: Kamalhassan Asin

Rating****

All kinds of media have been scampering to report about Dasavathaaram — be it in a positive angle and sometimes negative. The hype increased as the movie was making its way to the theatres. Yahoo, Sify.com, Dinamalar, Thatstamil, Galatta.com, Chennai 365, Chennai Online and KollywoodToday.com were among the contributors, sometimes exaggerating numbers and facts. Web-sites like IndiaGlitz featured photos of posters and banners around the city. and fans’ celebrations. The Hindu carried a couple of snippets on theatre happenings.

A news item on NDTV featured prominent fans, Muscat Kannan and Dr. Chandrasekar. The latter was featured in an article in The Hindu too. This piece also had a photo of Gautami celebrating the release with fans.

IndiaGlitz put up a videos of audience responses from Chennai, Hyderabad and Kerala (Thiruvanathapuram?). In Hyderabad, most of the coverage was at Prasad’s Multiplex. Some of the people who spoke seem to be VIPs. For Chennai, the action was at Mayajaal. The verdict is almost unanimous — “Adipoli“, “Chaala baagundhi“, “Super”!

Box-office results are also coming in slowly. The response has been superlative from Chennai ( Webdunia | Yahoo | Sify.com ) to UK and Malaysia to USA — basically everywhere (The Economic Times | Behindwoods). A report from Box Office Mojo seems to indicate that Dasavathaaram even made it to the top 10 movies in terms of overseas collections all over the world. Below is the weekly box-office report from CNN-IBN, which confirms the above.

There was also a report on KollywoodToday.com of many industry insiders being disappointed by the success of the movie.

[With extensive inputs from Ananth]

First, let’s get my disclaimer out. I do not think I can do justice to a review of Dasavathaaram without watching it 2-3 times. Anyway, I decided to put out my thoughts, bowing to reader requests and to counter the slew of negative feedback that has been flowing all over the information superhighway.

The movie moves at break-neck speed most of the time. This is the fastest I’ve ever seen in any movie — in any language, from any country. While I was bit disappointed to not catch everything in one viewing, I was immersed in the entertainment value. (I’m amazed by some of the analyses by fans around the world — maybe, they watched it more than once.)

The really impressive aspect of the movie for me was the screenplay, the same role that Kamal himself admitted to have enjoyed the most. As a person learning screen-writing, I see what a great job it is to beautifully blend so many complex concepts like Chaos Theory and atheism into the script. For an audience wanting pure entertainment, it doesn’t burden them with any sermons that they don’t want to hear. From the days of Michael Madana Kama Rajan, I always believed that Kamal was one of the masters of screenplay in India and this movie probably put him right at the top. Sadly, Kamal has always been viewed as an actor and hence underrated in such areas. (Another digression: it’s amusing to hear people heap Bhagyaraj with such praise, just for making successful and never-boring movies.)

Yes, a couple of characters were probably not required for the story. But with the movie being called what it is, why would we assume that it’s not about the actor? Here, conveniently, some people look beyond the actor. When you go to see a man perform 10 roles in a movie, don’t you need to appreciate his effort in that aspect first? I agree that some of the make-up was overdone and prevented facial expressions. But what about body language and voice-acting? Wasn’t it terrific? Even as the protagonist Govind, did we notice Kamal drop his usual mannerisms?

Special effects were suprisingly tacky in some key scenes. As Brian Jennings admitted, they probably ran out of time and money. Nevertheless, the many scenes involving multiple Kamal characters were wonderfully done.

Rangaraja Nambi showed some difference, Vincent Poovaragan was amazing, Fletcher was uber-cool, Avtaar was goody-goody, Kalifullah was amusing and endearing, Balaram Naidu had us in splits, Krishnaveni Paatti was amusing, George Bush was caricaturish fun and Narahashi quietly made a mark. The supporting cast was adequate, with Asin topping effortlessly as Andaal.

The comedy was mostly refreshing, but fell flat in a couple of places where Kamal attempted slapstick and wordplay like his long-time associate Crazy Mohan.

Songs were quite average, maybe even below that — something we knew several weeks ago. But the screenplay hardly halted for them. The background score was strictly okay; atleast, it wasn’t jarring.

Finally, I am really disappointed with people who claim to be real Kamal fans and compare Dasavathaaram to Nayagan or Mahanadhi or Anbe Sivam. What were they expecting with Aascar Ravichandran as producer and KS Ravikumar as director? Let me clarify that I’m not shifting the blame to these two individuals even one bit. As Kamal fans, we should have understood what we were in for. We should be happy that Kamal was able to put forth great ideas in a commercial format, something which has potential to become a big success, instead of making a movie like Hey Ram (which I worship, by the way) that made its way out of theatres and into university curriculum in no time.

I will write more after watching the movie more times and in other languages. I would love to hear from you in the Comments section.

Kamal seemed to have gone underground after the April 25 Dasavathaaram audio release function and now finally emerged out of it. The reason was another such function, that of Jayamkondaan, starring Vinay and Bhavan, and directed by Kannan. The event featured many other industry personalities including Mani Ratnam.

Kamal welcomed corporate entities into the industry, in response to concerns raised by one of the speakers. As usual, he displayed his foresight and adaptability. An interesting tidbit that surfaced in the event was that Jeyam Ravi had worked as assistant director to Suresh Krissna in Aalavandhaan.

Read reports from Sify.com, Yahoo, Behindwoods, IndiaGlitz and News Today.

Kamal’s get-up seemed intact, except for a thicker beard than earlier.

Check out more photos at Behindwoods, KollywoodToday.com and IndiaGlitz.

[With extensive inputs from Ananth]

[Picture courtesy: BehindWoods]

Click for larger image

Okay, this is a bit late. But Dasavathaaram hasn’t yet released; so, it isn’t too late. Clever and patient folks have managed to ‘decode’ the 10 roles of Kamal from the trailer. The trailer did seem like a puzzle. Now it has been solved by fellow fans Directhit and Madhan.

Click for larger image

In this age of Internet and associated tools, it’s a surprise that the makers decided to embed all the 10 roles in the trailer and not leave it for the audience to discover it on the big screen.

With Dasavathaaram pretty much set to release on June 6, publicity is everywhere. Above we have a ‘making’ video designed for the Hindi version, Dashavtar.

Vodafone (formerly Hutch) has got exclusive rights for delivering content over mobile phones.

As mentioned earlier, national Web-sites have stepped up on news related to the movie. The latest is an interview of Ravivarman, the cinematographer, on Rediff.com. Let’s look at the highlights:

I will summarise the two years of working on Dasavathaaram as going to study in the world’s best university.

Kamal Sir in ten characters! How was I going to match his talent? That was my worry. Then I started planning. I planned every minute detail about each character. I prepared a story board for the entire film.

…there were many foreigners working for the film. And when they started appreciating our work, I realised that what we are doing was as good as Hollywood.

For that one shot we spent Rs 1,50,000! And for that one song we spent Rs 20 lakhs. Throughout all this, the producer never once questioned me about the expenses.

The first day of shooting was inside a cave at the MGM amusement park in Chennai. Except for a small lamp, there was no other source of light inside the cave.

Kamal Sir would get up at 3.30 in the morning for make-up and by the time he was ready, it would be 7.30. We generally started shooting by 8.30am. By then I’d have the set ready with the correct lighting needed for that day’s make-up.

[With inputs from Ananth]

Just as we were rejoicing the audio / trailer launch and waiting eagerly for Dasavathaaram comes the dampener. Minor and insignificant political organizations continue the dangerous and irritating trend in India of gaining publicity at the sake of big movies. Of course, Kamal has been a favourite target due to his non-conformist / controversial ideas. One is worried about the negative publicity affecting the movie, similar to the ‘anti-Gandhi’ charges preceding Hey Ram

The matter has already reached the court! Here is the extensive media mileage derived by VHP, Hindu Munnani and other outfits that have sprung out of the blue: Behindwoods 1 | Thatstamil 1 | ChennaiOnline | MSN | Thatstamil 2 | IndiaGlitz | Buzz18 | Dinamalar | Dinathanthi | Behindwoods 2 | News Today | Webdunia.

As if politico-religious folks aren’t doing enough, we have undue criticism even in the blogosphere, without even the movie being released!

[With extensive inputs from Ananth]

[Picture courtesy: BehindWoods]

With the Dasavatharam trailer out on Kalaignar TV yesterday and making way to YouTube within a day, the barrage is here! With the audio release function just a few days away, the fever has caught on for sure.

The trailer provides enough fodder to analyse for several days to come. It is done Hollywood style, with extremely short glimpses of various characters portrayed by Kamal and other actors.

The music for the movie has raised doubts through the two years or so. Now, the background music score (by Devi Shri Prasad) is satisfactory, suiting the tone of the trailer.

Almost all that we have heard till now seem to be true. Yet, the story is not really clear. Also, we await watching nuances of each of the ten characters.

Overall, the trailer is fantasically done, increasing expectations while not giving out too much.

Editor’s Note:
Please welcome a new author, who calls himself Vadakkupatti Ramasaamy! He starts off with a fresh idea.

Kamal always features in Vivek’s comedy scripts!!! (I am not sure if they ever shared screen space together.)

Vivek’s comedy skills are very well known and so are his mimicry skills. This is entirely my observation. In every movie Vivek refers to Kamal either by dialogues or in some other form .There could be many reasons, they both had the same mentor when they started (K.B.), it could also mean Vivek’s admiration for Ulaga Naayagan. No matter what it means, his hit comedies always had something to do with Kamal. I have tried to list instances supporting my view.

1. Vivek refers to Kamal in Anniyan (in the train, where he advices Ambi “Kiss panradhukku enna Kamal sir-aya koottindu vara mudiyum?” )
2. In 12B, his auto garage is called “Aalavandhaan Auto Works”.
3. In Thiruttu Payale, in Australia, the minute he meets Jeevan’s gang Vivek inquires “Dasavathaaram eppo varum?”.
4. In Kireedam, he answers the phone by mimicking Kamal from VV as “Illa idhu SP Raghavan veedu”.
5. In the movie Viswanathan Ramamoorthy, he uses the Thenaali ‘bayam‘ sequence.
6. In Dhool, he uses the Aalavandhaan dialogue “Vilanga mudiyaa kavidhai naan” twice.
7. In the movie “Ullam Kollai Poguthey“, he enacts the Guna hospital sequence.
8. Even in a Vijay TV special programme where he dressed up as Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar, he has someone saying “Idhu Dasavathaaram getup-aa, kiss scene undaa?“.
9. In the movie Parthiban Kanavu, he makes references to the movie Ek Duuje Ki Liye and also mimics a dialogue.
10. Everytime he is made to talk about Kovai Sarala, he definitely remarks “She was the heroine to Kamal Haasan” in many functions and interviews, including Vijay TV awards where he shared an award with Kovai Sarala.
11. Even in the recently released movie Singakutty, he enacts Punnagai Mannan suicide scene (featuring Kamal and Rekha), with Malavika. Kissing Malavika like Kamal did evoked chuckles in the theatres.

Though the instances may be just my view, yet they are the hit comedies by actor Vivek. Many of the instances may be rubbing Kalaignani in a wrong way (referring to kiss!!); yet he is always a part of Vivek’s comedy script, but in my personal opinion it shows Vivek’s keen observation of whatever Haasan depicts on screen. Maybe, someday they may share screen space together in a comedy and make it rib-tickling fun.

Kamal seems to have a done a whole set of interviews in Mumbai, as part of promotion for Dasavatharam. None of the interviews mention Dashaavtar though. Here are two more of them, one each for Hindustan Times and Times of India. The North Indian press seems to be obsessed with his personal life more than anything else, but Kamal is unfazed. Here are some highlights from the enjoyable interviews. As usual, Kamal proves to be a “quote factory”!

Both the times when you separated from your wives, there was another woman involved. Sarika led to your split with Vani and Simran caused a rift between Sarika and you.
Unless it’s a gay marriage, there’s always another woman involved.

All I can say is that marriage is a folly that is slowly becoming redundant. I have four vaccination marks. In our time, they were a necessary ordeal. It’s different today. I’m hopeful that one day like the vaccinations, the institution of marriage too will go away.

A broken marriage isn’t an offence or crime. Today I am happy, yes, but my idea of being settled is only inside the coffin. Till then everything is mobile.

Planning a comeback to Hindi films?
Oh definitely. There’s plenty of money. But I’m a sucker for applause. I want to reach out to a bigger market.

So where do you think you went wrong?
I didn’t try hard enough. To succeed here, I needed to live in Mumbai, make films consistently, not have a release every four-five years. Still, the audience was kind, they didn’t forget me.

But I make occasional appearances here when I want to reach out to larger audience. It’s a different story in Tamil Nadu. There a film sells on my name alone.

Ten roles, isn’t he increasingly becoming self-indulgent in his films? “Who isn’t,” asked Kamal defensively. “Aren’t great actors like Yusuf saab and Amitabh self-indulgent? Who else should I love more than me? Brad Pitt?”

My politics is private like sex. I don’t want to spoil the fun by talking about it.

There have been several conjectures about my 10 get-ups complete with graphics. I could use them for some other movie.

I liked Om Shanti Om and might have liked it even more had I been less informed about cinema and wasn’t looking into unnecessary details like focus and colour. I’m like a cook who cannot savour a good dish without checking on the salt and sugar.

We believe in two different kinds of cinema. It’s unfair to pit one against the other. Would you ask Marlon Brando what he thought about John Wayne’s films? Or compare (Arnold) Schwarzenegger’s biceps to Woody Allen’s brains? Come on! Mr Rajnikant has made some good films. I’ve done some commercially successful films too.

…Unless Rajnikanth and I agree to work for free and later take the trade collection, I don’t see it happening. But, yes, it will be interesting to work together.

It’s being said that your next film will be with Walt Disney studio.
We’re in talks.

Apparently, Mallika Sherawat threw a lot of tantrums.
I wouldn’t know. I was the writer and star of the film. ( Smiles ) Everyone treated me well.