Dasavatharam- My thoughts

Last week, we decided that enough was enough and that it was time we moved our lazy selves to a movie hall to catch up with at least one of the many movies that were getting released. There was a time, before we were married, when every Saturday meant movie time and we would make it to PVR by hook or by crook and watch whatever movie was on screen at that time. It was perhaps the only time we spent more than a couple of hours together in a day, and it was one of our best ways to recover from the week’s hectic pace. Watching movies is also something I am passionate about, and is a big source of entertainment for P, so it all worked well for us.

But then, things changed, we got married and probably didn’t feel the need to go out for movies so much. Plus, we got ourselves a DVD player, a big screen TV and we were all set to catch up with all the movies at home. PVR at Forum, the movie theatre closest to home also started getting very crowded and suffocating, which put us off movie going altogether. Now, we vowed that we would go for movies at the theatre only during the week and never step into Forum over the weekend.  That wasn’t possible all the time due to weekly work schedules and other tasks that piled up. Anyways, sorry for the major digression.

So, this weekend we made up our minds and booked tickets for Dasavatharam despite having read all the reviews- both positive and negative. When I mentioned it to a couple of colleagues at work, they said that I was a brave one to actually go and watch it after all that I had read about it. Nevertheless, the tickets were booked and there was no turning back.

So we trooped off to the 10pm show on Friday last.  Though we both are Tamilians, we aren’t well versed with the pure form of Tamil given the fact that we were brought up in Goa and didn’t really learn Tamil at school. So the initial few minutes into the movie saw us gaping at the screen and at each other blankly since we didn’t understand a word of the monologue that Kamalahasan was carrying out in the background.

We eventually got a grasp of the storyline by watching the scene unfold and catching a few words here and there that we could understand. Shameful, I know, but what to do? Ofcourse, after the intial storyline the language reverted to “Chennai” Tamil and we happily settled into our seats, glad that we were able to understand what was going on.

Anyways, I thought that the film moved at a very slow pace and a lot of the scenes could have been done away with. When the film took a break at intermission, we were literally shocked that there was still so much of the movie left, we thought it was almost time to get up and go. The movie then stretched on for another hour and a half after interval, and I was ready to jump up and run away from the theatre. Everything about the movie seemed made up and artificial, I couldn’t gauge any real emotions and it didn’t move me a bit. And believe me when i say that, because I cry easy when it comes to emotional scenes. Even a Kuch kuch hota hain moved me, so you can guess how much I cry when I watch a movie… sometimes I watch movies only so I can cry… well… ahem ahem… lets move on. 

Except for Kamalahasan, the other actors did a pretty bad job in terms of playing their roles. It all seemed very over the top and superficial. Asin was okay, but overacted in the second half.  I just couldn’t understand why the japanese girl had to speak in Tamil with that horrible accent!

The make up was good for certain roles- like Fletcher, Naidu, Poovaraagan. The role of the old lady was badly played, and she(he) was badly made up as well. The make up for the other roles was quite bad as well. 

Although I understood that the movie revolved around the chaos theory and butterfly effect, and I truly admire Kamalahasan for creating such a plot, I was not able to appreciate it very much. Was it because of the long winding plot and the choas that resulted subsequently? Was it the innumerable number of characters, some of whom weren’t very relevant according to me? I really don’t know. 

I haven’t been able to appreciate Tamil cinema and Tamil humour all that much over the years, but I do know that Kamal was an exception and that most of his movies were realistic, moving and very enjoyable. I loved his Mahanadi, Nayagan, Apporva Sahodarangal, Michael Madan Kamarajan, and even Chachi420 (cant recall what the Tamil version was called).  However, I was disappointed this time. Very disappointed!

Made me wish, I had waited for another day and booked Jaane Tu… Jaane Na instead. Will definitely go for it though, I am looking forward to it!