Dasavatharam - Avatars unnecessary

First things first. This is one of the best well thought stories in Tamil film industry. And it is comparable to the best movies of the Hollywood and better than many of them. Hats off to Kamal Hassan for that.

But why??? Why does he have to go to KS Ravi Kumar to direct that movie????? And why? I mean why he has to do the 10 roles in this otherwise turning point of the Tamil film industry. For one, a Hollywood action packed scientific movie is turned down to pointless hero-centric masala movie. And another, any character that wears a plastic mask sold in Mariamman kovil festivals can be identified as Kamal. I am sorry. There are three roles of Kamal in which he looks normal. And he does NOT put any makeup for those characters. Short and simple way of saying it is "It would have been a great movie if Kamal had went to Shankar or Maniratnam instead of KS Ravi Kumar and had done only 3 or 4 roles instead of the needless 10 roles.

Let’s talk about in detail. *Spoilers ahead*
The movie starts at 12th century with the first avatar of Kamal as a Lord Vishnu Devotee. But why? I mean why would they have Asin the girl who melted hearts with "Sutrum Vizhi Sudarae" as his wife crying in literature Tamil? All my friends would have definitely cried at that scene. After that, the movie takes us to Chennai, US and Japan and there is Kamal everywhere. Is he proving to be the "Universal" hero.

Coming back, the main story revolves around the cat and mouse chase for a biological weapon in a vial by Good Kamal who made it and Bad Kamal who wants it. Isn’t that the essence of every evil corporation sponsored project movie in English? That was the first step in taking the movie to the Hollywood level (Sarcasm intended). But did I say Good and Bad Kamal? Yes. How do we differentiate? Is it moustache? Is it beard? Is it shaven head? Or is it the dwarf trick? No. Bad Kamal is an ex-CIA officer and he is an American. And how does he get the face of a American? Simple. Take a packing brown tape and stick all over his face and don’t forget to pull holes for eyes and mouth. The same applies for almost all other avatars that include Singing Singh, Police Naidu, Funny Bush (The American President:D:D:D), tall Bhai and a special brown tape over the hair for his role as a 95 year old lady.

I am sure many people would agree with me here. If he had chosen few roles like Vishnu devotee, Scientist, ex-CIA officer and the Police leaving the rest of the characters to other actors, the movie would have not got deviated from the story. Instead, you are forced to see the imperfect makeup most of the time distracting from the fast paced action movie. Though it is very much appreciated of using Andy Dixon (Transporter 2) as the action choreographer, we cannot say that we liked Michael Westmore work as the Make-up artist. Some one might have told him that they liked his work on the movie Mask and he decided to do the same make-up on Kamal for none of the make-up appears natural. But as said before, the action sequences are worth watching and definitely speak well in front of the international crowd though it is not perfect due to the cheap graphics and special effects employed in the movie.

Verdict:
Story: 10/10
Actor: 7/10 (3 points for Govind, Balaram Naidu and Krishna characters; 4 points for efforts put on the rest)
Actress: 3/10 (1 point for each character again. 2 Asin(s) and 1 Mallika Sherawat). And I almost forgot. Mallika Sherawat does not make any impression in the movie.
Dialogue: 8/10. (The "literature" Tamil could have been toned down a bit for everyone to understand.)
Graphics: 3/10 (3 is for the Tsunami scene at the climax)
Direction: 1/10 (Is it too late to change the director for this movie?)

Overall: 5/10 (Good attempt spoiled)