Some people like challenges so much that they go out of their way to constantly seek new challenges! Kamal Haasan is one such person who never grows tired of taking up tremendously challenging themes in his projects. Dasavathaaram , the two-year old brain child of Kamal and director K.S. Ravikumar has emerged as an exceptionally great film that will take entertainment to the next higher level. This film, in its acme of excellence and novel ideas, has also taken care to see that the target audience enjoys the movie and even comes back for repeat viewings. In short, Dasavathaaram is not 'pure cinema' for the film festival circuit; it also has all commercial ingredients to enthrall the general public. How? Watch and experience the movie to know!

Dasavathaaram's story begins in a bio-tech weapons laboratory in the U.S. What initially appears to be a simple accounting error turns out to be a major scam involving the disappearance of sensitive and hazardous material. What is missing and what could be the repercussions? Eventually, the US authorities are forced to take the assistance of a simple priest, an orthodox Brahmin, employed in the Chidambaram temple (now, we get to see the first Kamal - physically fit, clad in a veshti and with the typical tuft of hair. He performs the daily rituals for Lord Shiva in this temple and is in close communion with the Lord. Can this semi-rural individual possess the wisdom to help the US authorities? Can he explain the pattern of Karma which is responsible for this snafu? Can he reason out the super-powers of destruction of Lord Siva (who is responsible for destruction in the Trinity of Indian Gods) which led to the scam? Will the priest unravel the meanings of the prescribed traditions and practices followed? Dasavathaaram alone can explain!

Apart from the usual entertainment involving hero, heroine, villain and duets and fights, Dasavathaaram reveals a valuable truth - the focal point of the birth-and-death-cycle of human beings. How many times have we grumbled about the uncontrollable progress of events in our lives? Have we not put the blame on the unseen element of fate? What is fate? Who devises and fashions the order and occurrence of things? Dasavathaaram attempts to explore the meaning and significance of all these occurrences which are outside our control. The plot tries to establish an indisputable relationship between fate and a practical theory of chaos through which activities of all beings in the whole world are connected.

The indisputable relationship is almost an example of practical physics and goes like this: Each individual's activity, either good or bad, never fades away. It fuels another individual's rise or doom, like the result of a collision - the two bodies could be diverted from their original paths or a new product could be formed. Here, the collision is not looked upon as an act of destruction and its effect need not be negative. It could very well be a fresh beginning. A formidable explanation for 'Karma' and the cycle of birth is given through Dasavathaaram's story. Kamal's ten different roles are the instruments deployed to convey the substance of the story.

One may frown at the intense philosophy conveyed in the movie's theme and subsequently brood about its ambiguities. But within this serious discussion, Kamal has provided a 'kamaal' of entertainment, making an instrument of mass destruction - of boredom. Kamal is the author who had conceived the characters and the plot to accommodate them. He and Ravikumar have further fine-tuned the theme and characters during many brain-storming sessions. Asin and Mallika Sherawat are the heroines. There is a whole galaxy of actors who have significant roles.

Technical excellence!