Rohit’s Weblog

Staying on my so called ‘Review’ of the movie Dasavatharam as there were widely varied reactions to it. So I thought there can be some research that can go into what was ‘Lost in Translation on to the screen’. I found this really interesting forward which has some postives- some false and some true. But I still stand by my verdict on the movie. Just because there was a message which was never conveyed it doesnt become a good movie. But I would reiterate on the fact that it was a real good story and a horrible movie.

Coming back to the mail, the content in it was as follows

> Too many doubts about correlation of the movie, Chaos
> theory and Butterfly Effect have come into Picture….!!!
>
> The movie clearly states about Chaos Theory and Butterfly
> Effect [Kamal says it in his Speech in the Movie ]
>
> The concept of”CHAOS THEORY” and “BUTTERFLY
> EFFECT”, by itself is a complex concept, which mainly
> highlights the happening of huge unimaginable things
> because of least probable things…!!!!
>
> Dasa although deals with these concept, but does not
> necessarily confuse anyone with it,,,, As i said earlier,
> its mainly “YOU”… that plays a factor in how
> the movie gets along with “YOU”.
>
> You have got to be Case 1 or Case 2 as i have said earlier
> in this entry,,, No use being Half Baked…..!!!!
>
> To just brief about these Concepts,
>
> Q: What is Chaotic System ?
> A: Basically a chaotic system is one wherein long term
> predictions are impossible.Like for example,if I push a
> car, I know that it is going to move and it will continue
> to do so if I go on pushing it on and on.However,in a
> chaotic system,this situation cannot be predicted over a
> long period of time.
> Weather for example is a chaotic system.No matter how good
> your instruments are,you simply cannot predict the weather
> with 100% accuracy over a long term basis and forecast it.
>
> Q: What is the Butterfly Effect ?
> A: It is the most important component of a chaotic
> system.Basically,small perturbations results in
> amplifications which completely destroys the original
> nature of the system and makes prediction impossible.
> If a butterfly flaps its wings in Africa,it could result in
> a cyclone in USA.(Mark the word COULD).A highly dumbed down
> explanation of the butterfly effect is in the film
> Anniyan,where Vikram’s sister dies because a liquor
> shop owner sells liquor on a dry day.
>
>
> Q: OK, how does Dasa incorporate it ?
> A: In essence,Dasa talks about 8 characters who are
> inconsequential as such,but are integrated in a larger
> picture.Without Bush,the plane would have been called
> back.Without Shinghen, Govind would be dead.Without the
> tsunami,the world would have been destroyed.Even
> Krishnaveni Patti plays a very important role.If she had
> not put the vial in the idol,maybe Govind would have
> recovered it then and there and a powerful weapon would
> have been unleashed.The very fact that it went into the
> idol meant that it was being accelerated to its
> destiny.Without Kaifulla Khan, Govind would have never
> escaped;the list simply goes on.
>
> Q:OK,so does the film talk about theism or atheism?
> A:Neither.It talks about how humans drive the destiny of
> the world.
> ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
> The movie does Show ” A Butterfly ” flying
> accross the screen after the Tsunami Attack, clearly
> indicating that the Tsunami is an Outcome of ” The
> Butterfly effect “.
>
> ALSOOOOOOO……..
>
> I said that the butterfly COULD cause a
> hurricane.That’s a huge probability. Would be a
> negligible probability. NOT a huge one. if that were true,
> we would have cyclones on an hourly basis as butterflies
> keep flitting all over Africa and u don’t have so many
> cyclones to account for a HUGE probability.
> Chaos,relativity and quantum mechanics are so damn weird
> that you will think I am talking metaphysics and
> pseudoscience.
>
> Like for example,according to quantum mechanics,there is a
> finite probability that you will fall right through a solid
> chair.And it is a PROBABILITY.
> Even 10 to the power -26 is finite .
>
> But yes, Quantum Mechanics does allow for weird situations.
>
> THE CONNECTION !!!!!

> So in dasavatharam that idol thrown into sea in 12th
> century is the cause for tsunami…. so everything is
> interlinked .The wiki entry also says that chaos could play
> an important role in plate techtonics. Which means even the
> 12th century incident is connected.
>
> The 1st scene is perfectly connected to the climax,
> remember what Kamal says in the 1st scene, that he will not
> say “Om Nama Shivaya” , but Asin tells him to
> chant it , but still Kamal refuses , ( in this kamal in his
> story tries to tell that ) Nambi believes in his god more
> than anything, but Asin feels “Its ok if we change the
> god or chant other god’s name, its life thats most
> important.” Now if u see the climax its JUST
> OPPOSITE…. Kamal doesn’t believe in god much and
> values lives of people the most…. but Asin deeply
> believes in god and that too this dialogue comes when both
> Asin and Kamal’s hand is on the god which came from the
> sea , and it also means that they are getting united from
> the place they departed hundreds of years back ( Kamal and
> Asin).The connection between the 1st scene and the climax
> in the movie shows the generation circle combined with
> supernatural powers of GOD and destiny….!!!
>
> If you watch it closely u can also find another actor who
> has done double action other than Asin and Kamal.
> Asin’s father Sahasranamam [12th Century], in the
> beginning he says to Nambi “Panchatchira manthirathai
> sollitu vaango mappillai” ( Say the mantra) and at the End [After
> tsunami] he says “Avar enna jathiyo inga vaanga paati’”(God knows what caste he is)

There is something in the above explanation that everyone missed out on. But still makes sense. So read on the rest of the mail:

> Okay, this is slightly outside the chaotic system driving
> the film as a whole.From what I could gather he says that
> this story is about ideologies like God,the madness
> surrounding such ideologies and decides to tell the story
> of the Shaivite-Vaishnavite conflict to show how people go
> crazy in the name of God as an example.
>
> As a loose end,it gets tied up in the end,when the
> Ranganathar idol is thrown out of the sea due to the
> tsunami which highlights the cyclic nature of life.Actually
> the Nambi character highlights both Chaos and Karma which I
> explained.That is the brilliance of this film,there is so
> much to see and understand.
>
> Another explanation(and this is slightly far fetched— as
> explained earlier) is that Govind is in fact the
> reincaranation of Nambi. As Nambi he couldn’t protect
> God and died in the name of God.In order to fulfill his
> Karma,he is reincarnated as Govind Ramasamy who ultimately
> saves the world from destruction.The idol in the end
> somewhat hints to this theory; his story began with the
> idol and it ends with the idol.
> As far as the connection with Nambi character and events in
> 12th Century goes…
> The connection is based on the “Butterfly effect
> “.
>
> When Govind and Andal goes to the bury the idol in the
> sands, Andal will stumble on a particular stone couple of
> times…This is the same stone as the one from 12th Century
> hen Kothai rips her Thaali and flings it at Kulothunga
> Chozan…it will end up hanging on the stone. So, the
> implied message here is Andal is Kothai reborn in the 21s
> century.
> During the encounter with Santhana Bharathi in the sand
> quarry, it is repeat of the incident from 12th century.
> Instead of Kulothunga Chozhan, it is the Sand Mafia which
> tries to inflict damage on the land.
> This movie is a brilliant juxtaposition of independent
> characters whose paths cross, if only briefly, which is
> stunning example of Chaos Theory.

I guess this part doesnt make sense and is just a very wierd explanation of the same chaos theory. There is another interestin thing to note which was almost obscure in the movie:

> The idol that is drowned in the sea along with Rangarajan
> in 12th century by Chozha king results in a fault being
> developed at the bottom of the ocean and creates tremors
> more than 800 years later. These tremors result in the
> Tsunami. This again is a classic case of Butterfly Effect
> wherein a seemingly inconcsequential event (the drowing of
> the idol) saves Tamil Nadu from being wiped out off the
> face of the earth.
>
> But actually kamal has not left anything for our
> imagination… Explanation struck the right chord, Kamal
> does tell to Asin in a dialogue that idol which gets sunken
> back then gets struck between the tectonic plates under the
> sea and causes tsunami…
> Many people missed this dialogue i guess. Kamal’s
> accent was so very perfect Tamil, that many people missed
> it…. Being perfect Is a Problem by Itself !!!
>
> Although the explanation is a least possible theory, that
> is what “Chaos Theory” And “Butterfly
> Effect” are all about.
> Its not just the statue that caused the tsunami, but it
> just started a large chain of effects which kept
> multiplying exponentially and finally lead to it after 800
> years….!!
> Why just say this concept is perfectly illogical… it is
> possible… thats what i have been explaining all the while
> !!!
>
> The story line is that things going wrong are made to be
> right which involves many people and countries knowingly or
> unknowingly.
>
> Knowingly:
>
> -Bush, Manmohan Singh, Govindh, Fletcher, Balaram Naidu,
> Mallika Sherawath.
>
> Unknowingly:
>
> -Nambi’s drowning to death with the heavy statue causes
> simple changes to the seabed that causes a devastating
> tsunami 800 years later [Acc. to Chaos theor it is
> possible.... although it is least probable... It is
> possible.. so nothing TOTALLY WRONG About it ]
> -Poovaragan(actually saved kamal unknowingly—when
> poovaragan enters kamal and asin were caught by those manal
> kollayargal.There poovaragan distracts the gang helping
> kamal to escape),
> – Avatar Singh(gave way to Fletcher to escape in the
> airport unknowingly),
> – Japanese(saved govind from fletcher,he knows he is saving
> but he doesnt know about the play and was there only for
> revenge),
> – Kallifulla and family(saved govind unknowingly)…….
> -Vincent is a dalit leader of a lower caste( the so called
> ) but saved an Iyengar Girl ……and at the end becomes
> the con of the Iyengar Paati !!
> – If Shingen Narahashi’s sister was not killed,
> Fletcher could have killed govind and used the virus for
> wrong purpose..
>
> This is based on Chaos Theory..!!!!!
>
> It is marvellous that THALAIVAR Kamal has used such a
> device in Abhoorva Saghodhararghal, way back in 1989. To
> kill Delhi Ganesh, for those of you who do not remember…
> yet another Eg. of Chaos Theory And butterfly Effect !
>
> The plot concept of Dasavadhaaram is logically explained by
> a machine used by Him in His own screenplay back then too,
> before 20 Years!! Be it a coincidence, or He possibly had
> that in mind as an inspiration, it amazes me!!

The person who has written this mail is a die-hard Kamal fan which you would have made out by now. And some effort has really gone into understanding something from nothing. This reminds me of something on the lines of Nostradamus predictions which can be interpreted any which way for our convenience. The guy who has written this mail really pushes the same logic to the max in the last part of the mail.Read On:

> One thing we had noticed is why people didn’t get the
> real subtext and reason for the various roles and hence the
> title.
> If you knew the real dasavatharams 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 draupadi when she was being violated
> and he was the actual diplomat in mahabharatham. Lord
> krishna dies of an arrow striking his lower leg. Now look
> at how vincent was introduced.. he appears when asin is
> about to be molested and he saves her like draupadi.
> 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.. sounds familiar???
>
> 2. Balarama avatar – Balarama naidu
> This is an easy given. as the name suggests and the role
> personifies you can easily get it.
>
> 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. 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
> vishvaroopa, 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.
>
> 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 kaliyug 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 amruth. 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…

This by far is my longest post and please be sure that I don’t subscribe to any of these ideas written in the mail. This is just an attempt to look at what could have been the good behind such a disaster( I am not talking about Tsunami here ) I am talking about the movie now.

What would be the necessary ingredients for a blockbuster??? A whopping budget of 125 crores, India’s best actor donning ten rules to satisfy his creative ego, a director who has delivered many a commercial success, a story on the lines of the Oscar winning Crash and all the HYPE. All this and more. When I say ‘more’ I am referring to just one aspect of it-The story. Dasavatharam has got all that and the more factor so where did it all go wrong???

A great movie is surely an accident. A conscious effort towards the same more often than not wont yield the same result. Dasavatharam is one such movie. Made with an Oscar fixation, the director loses the track in between when he tries to commercialise the film. How can you commercialise a film??? In this context there can be many ways- Have music composed by the utterly talented Himmesh Reshammiya , get the masala moviemaker K.S.Ravikumar to direct the film and ask Kamal Hasan to chose the roles he wants to play even if there is no necessity. Strangely a movie with a brilliant story which had a hidden message in it( which I guess was never conveyed) was named Dasavatharam( 10 Avatars) just because the protagonist plays 10 different roles just to prove his acting prowess. The story is based on the chaos theory( Some scenes actually have the butterfly on screen just to signify the butterfly effect) ends in utter chaos. Kamal was playing 10 roles!!!! Obviously they have to give each of his 10 avatars enough bandwidth or screen presence. So the director ends up showing some irrelevant characters for a lot of unneccesary time. It comes to a point where every character looked like it was being played by Kamal. And between all this something important is lost-The Plot.

I am sure many people wouldnt agree with me when I say the story actually had some sense. It surely did have some sense but sadly didnt make any. It was a story on the lines of the movie CRASH where many stories converge at the end with some underlying message. this movie too had messages. A lot of them in fact. It spoke about religious divisions, biochemical warfare, divisions inside a religion,caste-ism and many more social topics but never conveyed the message. It just left the audience trying to tie up the plot and make sense of it. It portrays the importance of the message’Everything happens for a reason’ and asks a lot of questions about the existence of God. But I guess a lot changed from when the story was on paper to when it came on print. I guess the producer’s money was something that could alter the way the director looked at a written script.

Kamal Hasan excelled in most of the roles he portrayed. Be it the Iyengar of 12th century or Indian intelligence officer, he looked at utmost ease when doing most of his roles. But overdoing the things which are not necessary can surely spell doom and with respect to this movie it is completely true. Asin did a good job of her part. Mallika Sherawat was as usual useless. There was not much for any other actor as Kamal was too greedy and shared 90% of the screen space. Overall the movie was a disappointment more so because  it could have been a really good movie had the team stuck to the basics and concentrated on the story rather than the characters.Having admired most of Kamal’s work in the past, this surely comes as a major disappointment as it was an utter waste of a promising script.

P.s. Worth a mention- Kamal did a really good job of playing the dumb George Bush

The recently concluded Khairathabad By-Elections was the first time I ‘exercised’ my ‘Right to Vote‘. The so called educated( read literate) population must have taken the word ‘exercised’ too literally as they preferred to stay lazy on the election day or just considered it a waste of time. This is quite evident from the fact that the constituency which happens to be the most literate registered a voter turnout of less than 40%. Wish the subject Civics had practicals to pass which lasted a life time. Atleast that would dampen the rate of unlearning that happens in our society.
Coming back to the election, it was a no-contest on paper. On one side was the Lok Satta (a party on the ambitious lines of Lok Paritran) candidate who was a professor in CBIT and rallied to cleanse the system of its inconsistencies and on the other hand was the Congress (our hereditary democratic monarchy) party candidate who just managed to pass his tenth standard (His father, the standing MLA passed away recently). Truly a David Vs Goliath on paper if qualification was considered. But welcome back to reality as it turned out to be a no-contest in the converse way. The congress candidate won with a thumping majority.
Political commentators attribute it to the ’sympathy wave’. It was nothing but resistance to change. No number of Lead India campaigns or SMS citizen activism could help a Good candidate win. The worst part is that it came as no surprise. Is this ‘resistance to change’, ’sympathy factor’, ‘dynasty politics’ or just ‘indifference’? I guess for this time the sympathy wave worked and it is the citizens who are to be sympathised with as always. Politics of Change or literally ‘Chillar politics’. Let the faith in Democracy Prevail!!!