Dasavatharam Review

On Saturday night I went out to see Dasavatharam, a new Tamil movie starring Kamal Hasan. The movie, originally slated for Deepavali 2007 release, has been in the works for a long time and it certainly shows. Despite the critiques many have put forth, it is a quality work, especially given the budget it had in comparison to many American films. Pentafour did a lot of the CGI, and having been to their studios I have seen that they are quite well equipped to handle a job as this and they did quite well. While its certainly not LucasArts, for the majority of the movie there weren't blatant differences between the real and CGI aspects. Kamal takes on 10 roles in the movie, the most ever, and interaction between the characters is significant. While some roles are somewhat superfluous (in the sense that they aren't needed for the story but to reach 10 they are), most play a good role in the plot development. For example there's a Japanese character whose role seems very peripheral, but I must concede that they did a great job making Kamal's eyes look oriental. Other roles are: a tall, amicable Muslim man, a Telugu detective, President Bush, a Sikh singer, a CIA agent, an old lady, a bioscientist, a staunch Iyengar in the 12th century, and a Christian looking to end cultural depravity. The plot is a bit of a stretch, since it seems that salt would kill such a powerful virus, but it gives "reason" for the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami (which I didn't know they were calling that...). Overall, it has a good effect and is entertaining at the same time as an action movie. 4.5/5