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| Chaos
& Randomness |
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| June
17, 2008 |
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Before watching Dasavatharam, one has
to understand what is meant by chaos theory
and randomness. Now in simple terms, chaos
in mathematical sense means a small change
in the initial condition which will cause
a major difference in the outcome after
a particular period of time. A very good
example is when a butterfly flaps its
wings, the flapping of the wings represents
a small change in the initial conditions
of the system which can cause a chain
of events, leading to large scale phenomena
like tornado, etc (thanks, wikipedia). |
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Now,
how Kamal has used this in his movie explains why he shows
a small story in the 12th century. Kamal as Rangarajan Nambi
is drowned into the sea along with the Lord Vishnu idol, this
explains the small change to the natural system as in chaos
theory. After a long period of time, this initial change causes
a big tsunami at the end of the movie. This may sound very
crazy but scientifically this is totally acceptable. |
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Lets
look at the second part called randomness. Randomness
is part of chaos theory. Now this is where Kamal falters
big time. His screenplay, in order to explain the whole
random interaction of his 10 characters lacks imagination.
Kamal's idea is innovative and his aim is to bring all
the random characters he portrayed into a linear script
is a very challenging task and that's exactly where
Kamal and his crew forgot about the script and concentrated
totally on technical stuff and his makeup. Let's say
this is a simple movie with just one Kamal. Even then
it is a challenging task to script and with 10 Kamal
characters involved, technical difficulties, make up,
the crew restricted themselves to a mediocre script
which in the end does not explain clearly the main intent
of the movie which is about chaos and randomness. Now
when the movie starts, Kamal explains this briefly but
for a regular movie buff, that is not enough. He should
have explained his intent more clearly. |
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The
plot is very complicated, simply because 10 roles are done
by Kamal. Now lot of people are asking why is it necessary
to do 10 roles, since some of them have very little screen
time. Also, there were unnecessary interactions between different
characters. Unless you understand the whole movie is based
on randomness, many are going to think this illogical.
The way these interactions were carried out are pretty amateurish.
The script is weak here. None of the 10 get a chance to develop
their character. Take the movie Babel for example and you
will understand what I mean by randomness and how it connects
different people living in different parts of the world with
a brilliant script which won multiple awards. Again the only
thing that needs to be appreciated is the boldness to carry
out the challenging task of 10 roles and their interactions.
Even if the end result is not satisfactory the effort needs
be appreciated. But most of the times, even with great effort
we have seen movies biting the dust. As far as acting is concerned,
Kamal carries the whole movie and if there is any reason to
watch the movie, it’s KAMAL.
Out of his ten characters, Balram Naidu is the best with fantastic
dialogue delivery and next comes Fletcher as an ruthless ex-CIA
officer who will do anything to get the virus (Surprisingly
this character was never mentioned in any of the reviews,
though Kamal as Fletcher with an American accent did a fine
job). The above two characters along with Govind get most
of the screen time. He has also done an excellent job with
other characters but with a weak script it may go unnoticed.
Other than Kamal, Asin takes most of the screen time. She
starts good but later gets irritating and annoying.
Coming to the technical part of the movie, it is above average.
You can see there is a lot of patch up work done in some places
and graphics are adequate considering Indian standards. The
final tsunami scene is not without flaws, but good enough
for an Indian movie. Technically this movie is a milestone
as the whole movie needs computer graphics with various character
interacting. Dialogues are okay with most of the stupid ones
going to George Bush. K.S. Ravikumar is not the right person
for this movie. The opportunity was there but was not executed
perfectly. Make up for couple of roles look odd, but with
so many Kamals, its not going to be easy to come up with flawless
makeup. Music is a big disappointment. Himesh is not a good
fit for a Tamil movie and Devi Sri Prasad's background score
was good.
Now here is the question, is this a good movie? No, its not
a good movie but its not a bad one either. One can definitely
watch it once for Kamal's fantastic effort. The way he has
carried out his ten roles with ease will amaze you. It's not
the first time we have seen Kamal disappoint us with his over
hyped movies. I really do not blame the hype as it is purely
generated by these news hungry media. What I find problematic
is that Kamal has all the time in the world to give a movie
fans what they would like but somehow finds a way to do exactly
the opposite. Frankly, everyone want to like Kamal movies
but he just does not get it right. I think it high time he
gives up selling his atheist ideas in most of his movies.
He takes a complicated subject in Dasavatharam but in the
end argues about the existence of God.
In the end Asin asks Kamal 'Are you saying there is no God',
for which Kamal says " I am not saying there is no god,
what I am saying is if there was one, it would be good".
This has been the microcosm (arguing God's existence) of most
his recent movies and with his fans losing their patience,
it’s high time he starts to give them something different.
In Dasa, Kamal fails himself, his bad screen writing almost
negates his brilliant acting.
Cheers
Sumanth
Chicago, IL
suman78@yahoo.com |
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