well, well and well.
first day last show happened.
just after i had finished writing about it here, i landed up at the swankiest theater in mumbai and easily got 2 tickets.
felt wonderful at the start to be surrounded by fellow tams.
ok, here are some other reviews.
1. rediff raves repetitively.
2. a disappointed fan writes.
3. the hindu is congratulatory.
i had a above average experience with the film and more later on some details.
i think overall, the film will perform badly as it is certainly nowhere close to the hype created.
the things i liked:
1. the premise of the script and the story: very well written story and concepts and linkages between the different characters and events.
2. kamal is certainly outstanding as each of the 10 avtaars. especially his voice modulation is brilliant. that some of them were really unnecessary comes later.
3. casting - it was good to see a lot of earlier generation actors and actresses in action. the surprise packet is certainly mallika sherawat. short and spunky role she does. kamal does little justice when he says - "she is there for the same reason she is there in other movies"
4. one of the beauties of kamal's writing, is the subtle gems he places in scenes and dialogues. lots of that here, especially in the role of an dalit activist, who takes on the sand mafia (those who illegally dredge river-beds and are creating a environmental disaster). the climax has his japanese character screaming tsunami!!
5. the last climax special effects of the tsunami was spectacular.
some sore points:
1. the heroine, as in, asin, is asinine. screechy and high pitched and cringe-worthy.
2. too long. at least 30 mins of chases and fights and violence could have been deleted. the editor seems to have gone to sleep doing his job.
3. the direction was really not there. the super-hit maker k s ravikumar should have done a much better job. kamal-worship reeks right through his efforts.
4. make up quality was sub-par. the overdone-noses (i should know!!) really gave it away. i think the earlier efforts in indian (hindustani)/avvai shanmugi (chachi 420) were far superior.
5. 1 role too many. the afghan (khalif ullah) was certainly completely unnecessary.
overall i would end by saying that i could watch it one more time. to understand some of the subtle messages better. hoping that enough viewer feedback will flow by that time for the editor to do some snipping.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
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5 comments:
and the toi was derogatory as usual - these toi reviewers cant get anything abt any movie esp considering the rag that they write for..
Good review. Would agree with you - the film could have been better but is still very watchable and he has done an awesome job.
Feel Hindu review is also fairly objective.
Mr. Sethu Shankar's review is sad (your disappointed fan link)
Think the reviewer has to be of certain caliber to understand and comment on films by Kamal Hasan. He cannot even count to 10 to list the avtars (stops at 9 as he has double counted 5) and with 6 out of his 8 hyperlinks going to nonsensical pages, you cannot expect this person to understand 'connections' and good cinema.
The film is definitely watchable. Over all one needs to hand it out to Kamal to conceptualise and make this happen.
anon - glad you agree. one thing that dasa will do is to polarise the reviewers and the public. i was hoping kamal will be able to bring together all movie lovers, but more than the movie, the preceding hype did it in.
one other impressive aspect of the characters which i realised recently was their body shapes. the most marked were boovarangam, samurai and naidu.
good to have your review! the household is having an argument since some inane animated dasavatharam has released at the same time and, a kamal movie 'will be scary i suppose' according to the child.
Not qualified to comment. still, Something i stumbled upon-http://passionforcinema.com/the-rise-and-fall-and-fall-of-kamal-hassan/
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