dasavathaaram

The much awaited magnum opus of Kamal and Ravikumar is finally here. Starring in 10 different roles with varying depths and backgrounds, Kamal has truly shown his versatility in acting and portrayal. Although some of the roles could have been avoided to lower the number of avatars, the movie didn’t seem disjointed or in bits – which is commendable.
The movie starts off with the old feud between the two prominent lines of worship in Hinduism – Shaivism and Vaishnavism. Here, a devout Vaishnavite, Rangarajan Nambi, is cruelly killed, by a Shaivaite king, as Vishnu is ousted from the temple, and his wife loses her life on the same shores that her husband loses his.
Moving into the new millennium, Dr. Govind is a leading scientist in synthetic biotechnology, who is against his boss to sell a harmful microbial for money to immoral people. Meanwhile, the entire research unit witnesses the harmful effects of the microbial as an accident happens to one of the lab monkeys. Knowing that his boss has been bought, Govind tries to remove the vial himself and succeeds to escape to his friend’s house, whose wife is Japanese.
He is pursued by an ex-CIA trained killer, Christian Fletcher, from who he escapes, but his friends die in a bomb blast. While escaping, he meets his friend, who is about to mail his packages to India, and in a mix up, the vial (which was also in a packet similar to the mailings) is switched with one of the packets. As he tries to convince the company to stop the mail from going out, he spots Fletcher and in his escape gets packed into one of the mail delivery containers and is transported to India. Meanwhile, Fletcher ‘marries’ a club girl fluent in Tamil and follows Govind to India.
The brother of the Japanese girl who dies is informed of her death and he pursues Govind after knowing he is responsible for her death.
George Bush gets updated on this loss of biotechnology and after much ‘discussions’ decides on going to India to fix this issue.
In India, Govind is met by Balram Naidu, a local official, who is put in charge of his case. As Naidu is trying to interrogate Govind, he is forced by his superior to welcome the agents from America, who have followed Fletcher to India. As Naidu leaves, the Fletchers enter the room posing as agents. After a couple casualties, Govind leaves with the Fletchers at gunpoint with a local policeman.
As they are trying to leave, the arrival of a pop singer, Avtar Singh, catches the attention of the local crowd. He ends up coughing out blood and in heed of his safety, the gate to Fletcher and his hostages is left unguarded. The group leaves in the mayhem.
Along the way to discovering the vial, the group meets with an accident where the policeman gets badly injured. As a deal, Govind sends the policeman to get help and escapes from Fletcher.
Meanwhile, Naidu is collaborating with the real agents from the U.S. He finds out that Fletcher has been to the local despatch office and destroyed all records, save one. Using the despatch list, he starts to send his officials to watch each delivery.
Govind heads to the location where his package was being sent to – Azhagiya Singar madam – which is a devotional group practising Vaishnavism. The package is sent to an old woman, Krishnaveni, who is slightly deranged, since her son died in U.S. She is very stubborn and refuses and give up her package. Here is where Govind meets a beautiful devotee called Andal, who also lives in the same house.
Naidu’s agents inform him about Govind and the package, and Naidu starts to hurry to the location. Fletcher also finds the location and keeps an eye on Govind. Meanwhile, a religious procession of Vishnu passes by in the street and Krishaveni insists on ‘asking’ her God before giving up the vial. Instead of bringing it back, she drops it off in the idol. Panicking, Govind tries to get it back but his efforts are thwarted by the rest in the procession. Getting the idea, the Fletchers try to get it as well, when the sirens stop them. To distract, Fletcher distracts one of the temple elephants in the procession and mayhem ensues. Govind escapes with the idol, but Andal persists in following him and go along with him.
For the rest of the movie, they keep trying to shake off Fletcher. Along the way, a tall muslim man is introduced as part of a family in an accident. A Dalit protesting against soil erosion are also introduced. Although these two characters weren’t entirely a part of the chase, they provided the distractions that Govind needed to escape Fletcher. The Japanese brother also understands that Govind is innocent and helps him out.
The antidote if the vial breaks out would be loads of NaCl – which is salt and using this concept, the movie tried to create a situation for one of the most horrific, unexpected tsunamis that hit South East Asia.
An interesting movie – definitely covered all the ground and without many bloopers. Considering the number of characters and expanse of the plot, the feat was amazing and kudos to Kamal for coming up with a great storyline. But certainly, some of the characters could have been better woven with the story to keep it together, though one can’t expect everything to be perfect. Definitely worth the watch.
So the 10 avatars were: Rangarajan Nambi, Dr. Govind, Christian Fletcher, Balram Naidu, Krishnaveni, Avtar Singh, the Japanese brother, the tall Muslim boy, the Dalit and George Bush.