Dashavtar is a Tamil film which is dubbed in Hindi and released all over India. Its basic premise is Lord Vishnu’s 10 different avatars (10 appearances of the lord in different roles). The film is set on a grand scale, and it traverses from 1000 years back till today.
It is due to tremendous efforts of the versatile Kamala Haasan who transforms into 10 utterly different characters much to our amazement.
Dashavtar begins from the 12th century Chola kingdom when there is a serious conflict between the Shiva devotees and those of Vishnu. The King a non believer of Lord Vishnu orders to dispose a large idol of Vishnu from a temple in ocean. However, Rangaraja Nambi (Kamal Haasan), a Lord Vishnu follower, opposes the royal order, despite pleas from his wife, Kothai Radha, (Asin Thottumkal) and their son. Rangaraja is subsequently chained to the huge idol and both are thrown in the ocean.
Remains of the immersed idol surfaces on the shores after a 2004 Tsunami, when the uncontrollable torrents of sea waves take the lives of thousands, yet millions have been saved by the villainous ex-CIA officer Fletcher (Kamal in another appearance) who has swallowes a virus that could wipe out the human race.
Primarily, the story revolves around a research scientist in the USA Govindarajan Ramaswamy (Kamala Hassan) who works in an organization which has invented a deadly virus which has the potential to be the greatest bio-weapon which can wipe off the mankind. Realizing this grave danger, Govind wants to destroy it.
But his boss, has a different idea to sell it to terrorist organizations for a huge sum. So Govind makes off with the vial containing the virus with the only possible remedy being the mixing of the weapon with sodium chloride.
This weapon is also sought by an ex-CIA officer who wants to exploit this weapon for his own use. Then ensues a cat and mouse chase throughout several countries, as the scientist and the ex-CIA officer fight for the possession of the weapon. Rest of the film is all about what happens in next 4 days before horrible accident of Tsunami had grudged thousands of lives
Kamala Hassan, who is also the screenwriter of this glitzy tale of rebellious warriors, international gangs and parochial accents, becomes several sizes larger than life and many of it so convincing, that it is hard to recognize that even this character or that person is our lead actor.
Much to our astonishment, he transforms into characters ranging from the scientist, a Bengali cop, a fearless TV reporter, the South Indian lady, Mr Fletcher, the Japanese Samurai out to avenge his student’s death, an old village woman, the giant Muslim, George Bush and the Punjabi pop singer! Many of them cross path with each other.
Even impressive is Jaya Prada playing the wife of a cancer-stricken Punjabi Bhangra-pop singer. So is the Las Vegas pole dancer, Mallika Sherawat as Jasmine who performs aesthetically to Himesh Reshammiya’s tunes and then there is the upcoming star Asin who comes in twice; the first time during the 12th Century Chola rule and then she appears again eight hundred years later in a different part.
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Credit is also due to the director Ravi Kumar who creates some breathtaking action sequences and presents the hero even as the Japanese samurai warrior to other awesome characters.
The film Dashavtar lacks prominence on narrative aspects too, and it has a confusing story telling pattern. There are some comedy tracks too, in this otherwise a nice action thriller.
CAST of Dashavtar:
Kamal Hassan
Jasmine – Mallika Sherawat
Kothai Radha – Asin Thottumkal
Ranjitha Singh – Jaya Prada
King Kulothunga II – Napolean
Sheik Mukhtaar (Kalifulla’s Father) – Nagesh
Robin Roy – Raghuraman
Jaa. Raghavandra (Jaa. Raa) – P Vasu
Meenakshi – Rekha
Jaa. Raa’s Brother-in-law – Santhana Bharathi
Inspector Bharath – Akash
Suresh – Sanjay
M.S. Baskar
K.R. Vijaya
CREDITS & CREW of Dashavtar:
Banner – Oscar Films
Producer – Oscar Ravichandran
Director: K S Ravikumar
Executive Producer / Co-Producer – G. Ramesh Babu
Music: Himesh Reshammiya
Lyricist – Sameer
Screenplay, Story / Writer – Kamal Hassan
Cinematography – Ravi K. Chandran
Choreography – Brinda, Prasanna
Art – Samir Chanda, M. Prabhakaran, Thotta Tharani
Editors – Ashmith Kunder, K. Thanigachalam
Sound – H Sridhar
Dialogues – Atul Tiwari, Kamal Hassan
Costumes Design – S. Murthy
Dashavtar, movie review