My take on Dasavatharam

Saw Dasavatharam yesterday. So how was the movie?

Pluses:
Kamal's acting
Grandeur in some scenes

Minuses:
Makeup
Direction

First of all, we should recognize the gift that Kamal is to the world of cinema. It is rare to find an artist who has so much talent and has the drive and the willingness to work hard in pursuit of perfection. That said, it is indeed sad that certain aspects (makeup, choice of shots/lighting) have taken away from the hard work that he put in.

Kamal's body language, dialog delivery and emoting (of whatever was visible in his face) was impeccable. Except for the George Bush character, I was impressed by his handling of all other roles. It was sad that the makeup did not let Kamal's facial expressions get through - this was most visible in Poovaraghan's case. Fletcher's face had a permanent sneer, which did not feel too much out o the ordinary, considering his character.

As far as the screenplay goes, his inspirations (Enemy of the State, Tempus Fugit, Babel etc) are visible in their impact; but alas, in his zeal to tie a lot of unrelated subjects like the sand mafia, he does let the screenplay sag a little. In my opinion, the 3 songs (Mukundha, Oh Sanam and the Las Vegas one) could have been handled better or chopped off entirely. Some of the 'Crazy Mohan' dialogues feel out of place too.

For some one used to just Indian/Tamil movies, the CG effects must have been impressive, but to some one exposed to the latest in the state of the art, some of the effects seemed rushed.
Why have I singled out direction for a 'minus'? Because KSR should have caught on to the perfect body language of the various characters and used the camera to better showcase THAT instead of so many close-up shots which only served to distract from the movie due to the grotesqueness of some masks.

I should admit that I still miss the connection between the 12th century episode and the rest of the story - only because Govind mentions it in his speech. What connection does a bio-scientist see between that episode and his efforts to neutralize the virus. The 'screen-play writer' Kamal could very well portray a connection implying rebirth and he does too; but why does the rationalist scientist Govind narrate this incident?

On the whole, this movie deserved kudos for its efforts and is certainly worth a watch.