For the past few days, its been Dasavathaaram talk whenever you meet a southie (well south indian for the uninitiated). The movie is definitely better that what some people say as OK. Don’t give your view about the movie immediately after watching it, sleep over it and you will realize its actually a neat effort.
The following is what I received as a forward from one of my buddies.. with his permission,here it goes….
One thing we had noticed is why people didn’t get the real subtext and reason for the various roles and the title. If you knew the real Dasavathaarams of Lord Vishnu and their characters you can appreciate the script more.
Let me explain, starting with the best adapted role:
1. Krishna Avatar – Vincent Poovaraghavan
Lord Krishna is actually a dalit, he is dark-skinned [shyamalam]. He saved Draupathi when she was being humiliated and he was the actual diplomat in Mahabharatham.
Later, Lord Krishna dies off an arrow striking his lower leg when an archer aims at a parrot.
Now look at how Vincent was introduced.. he appears when Asin is about to be molested and he saves her like Draupathi. Vincent is the Dalit diplomat, fights for land issue [soil issue to be exact] and dies from the metal rod striking his leg. Oh even five of Vincent’s men are drugged at P. Vasu’s house. Sounds familiar ??
2. Balarama Avatar – Balaram Naidu
This is an easy given. as the name suggests and the role personifies you can easily get it. Well the real Balrama was helping Lord Krishna in the real Mahabaratham, while here he adds to the comedy and infact helps Govind.
3. Mathsya Avatar – Ranagaraja Nambi
Nambi is thrown into water in an act of trying to save Lord from being thrown into sea, though vainly. Mathsya is a form of fish that Lord VIshnu takes to retrieve the vedas that Brahma loses into the ocean. What more clue do you want?
4. Varaha Avatar – Krishnaveni Paatti
During the Mukunda song, Krishnaveni paatti does Varaha Avatar in the shadow puppetry. The frame freezes on it for a second, there is the clue. Moreover, in Varaha Avatar Lord actually hides earth so as to protect life forms. Here too Krishnaveni hides the germs – life form inside the statue so as to protect.
5. Vamana Avatar – Kalifulla Khan
Remember in Vamana Avatar, Lord Vishnu takes the Vishva Roopa, that is the giant form! Hence the giant Kalifulla here symbolises Vamana Avatar.
6. Parasurama Avatar – Christian Fletcher
Parasurama is actually on an angry killing spree and killed 21 generations of the particular kshatriya vamsa. Hence the real KILLER… Guess what thats what our Fletcher is! He comes around with the gun [modern upgrade for axe] and kills everyone around. I have to check if he kills 21 people though. :-D
7. Narasimha Avatar – Shingen Narahashi
First of all the name itself is a play on the words Singam [means lion in tamil] and Narasimha [the avatar being symbolised]. Lord Narasimha manifests himelf to kill the bad guy and he also teaches Prahaladha. In the movie, he shows up to kill the killer Fletcher ! and is also a teacher.. Lord Narasimha had to kill the Asura with bare hands and hence the martial arts exponent here.. get it?
8. Rama Avatar – Avatar Singh
Lord Rama stands for the one man one woman maxim, kind of symbolising true love.. Here Avatar portrays that spirit by saying that he loves his woman more than anything and wants to live for her.
9. Kalki Avatar – Govindaraj Ramasamy
As you know, the hero in Kali Yug can be none other than the Kalki avatar!!!
10. Koorma Avatar – Bush
This is the most loose adaptation I couldn’t clearly comprehend. But if you look at the real Koorma Avatar, the Lord is the turtle/tortoise that helps in stirring the Ksheera Sagara and bringing out the Amirtham. This essentially creates war among the devas and asuras. Similarly today Bush facilitates war between you know whom… May be Kamal also indicates that this Avatar is a bit dumb like the tortoise…
And here is a link that talks about the real Dasavathaaram.
Overall, Kamal deserves a few awards for his performance in the movie. This is a never before and a never again kinda movie for the Tamil Film industry aka Kollywood.
First responses to the movie from other stars of Kollywood as posted by Behindwoods..
Surya: “Stunning. I’m not going to be able to sleep for a month, Dasavatharam will haunt my dreams. “Kamal’s Annachi character is his funniest performance ever.”
Jyothika: “Marvellous. I’ve never seen anything like it”.
Karthi: “Dasavatharam is tremendous – it has shaken me up.
Monorama: “I cried.”
Director K.Balachandar didn’t speak – he ran to Kamal and tried lifting him up physically to show his applause. Kamal quickly stopped him and they hugged.
K.S Ravikumar was overjoyed, and said: “No movie of mine has met with such an overwhelming reaction. I’m ecstatic.” All these stars voiced their reactions after a special screening this morning for important people in the film industry. There were several others who emerged from screening, stunned and congratulating Kamal for pulling of what could prove the movie of the year.
That’s it for now folks….
