In Vaishnava cosmology, Vishnu takes millions of years, compacted into four yugas of creation and destruction, to incarnate ten times. Dasavathaaram, Kamalahaasan’s own Decameron, puts us through this prosthetic torture in less than four hours.
To empathise with this wannabe Vishnu, the viewer will at least need an interpretive device from the opposite camp, the ten heads of Ravana. As an inchoate ode to Vaishnavism, the film is pathologically caste-obsessed. It fairly bristles with allusions to a Vaishnavite world order, which alone can save the world from the perils of natural or man-made disasters like the tsunami or germ warfare. Only, Kamal converts this caste question into a cast question and populates the screen with the surplus of his own narcissism. It’s like a ‘casting couch’ gone berserk. Imagine going to sleep with yourself and waking up to gift yourself one more role.
Yet, Kamal’s modesty is incomprehensible. The opening flash card: "For the first time in the history of world cinema, one legend in ten roles," insults his versatility and the prosthetic make-up skills of Michael Westmore. Anyone can make out that along with a Chaplin-like George Bush, the cameos of Manmohan Singh, Karunanidhi and Jayalalitha were all Kamal in disguise. He also suppresses the fact that several NASA scientists, Indian policemen and hotel receptionists were him in disguise. The expressive monkey being lab-tested for biological warfare was surely Kamal. I suspect even the 12th-century elephant was him. He suffuses each frame—somewhat like the all-pervasive Vaishnav god he upholds in the narrative. Then why be modest and not claim all those roles?
As for myself, I felt cheated that he didn’t play the heroine. If he could have played her 95-year-old grandmother, he could have done the granddaughter too. Considering heroine Asin is only called upon to do an asinine, high-pitched shriek, "Enakkku en perumale kudungo" (give me my Lord Vishnu), he could have shrieked better. Just once, she briefly suspends her hysterics to exclaim, "Ayyo, en thalai suttharde" (Ayyo, my head is spinning). I too ended up with a head spinning so rapidly, the yarn got all tangled up.
High Fives
Bbollywood
1. Sarkar Raj
2. De Taali
3. Mere Baap Pehele Aap
4. Haal-e-Dil
5. Khushboo
Hollywood
1. Get Smart
2. The Incredible Hulk
3. Kung Fu Panda
4. The Love Guru
5. The Happening
Rock Tracks
1. Pork And Beans (Weezer)
2. Hammerhead (The Offspring)
3. Let It Die (Foo Fighters)
4. Given Up (Linkin Park)
5. Rise Above This (Seether)
Courtesy: Film Information
