Dasavatharam: An Alternate-Screenplay
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Confession:
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I'm a huge fan of Kamal Hassan for his dedication to the wonder world of film making. This article no attempt to criticize his well acclaimed movie Dasavatharam. Rather I have used this article to capture my alternate views of the Dasavatharam Screenplay which in my little knowledge I believe could have given a different look for the movie.
Which I really don't know if it is any better!
I tend to learn the technical details involved in movie making and have gained very little knowledge on this with my years of movie viewing experience. With that knowledge I can understand the struggle the team took and the effort the team had to put to come out with the version of the film that we have currently.
The two sides:
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I believe for any movie there are two sides to it.
One is at the creation side, which involves all the script, screenplay, direction, editing, people involved and the other technicalities used to make the film itself.
When the team who made this project real are claiming the movie success and lauding about the movie it is understood as they are aware of the difficulties that they had come across to give shape to the movie itself.
The other side is the experience of watching the movie itself. When common man comments on a movie, he comments on what he sees in a 3hr movie, with little or no knowledge on the making of the movie itself. For him it is as gud as any other movie that runs for 3 hrs. he would look for the script/screenplay/story to comment on.
It would not be appropriate for the team involved in making a movie to not agree negative comments from common men or it would definitely be UN-fair for a common man to just go on commenting negative about a movie with no knowledge on the effort involved in the movie itself!
Narrating Style:
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After I watched the movie I did leave the theatre with mixed feelings. And when I started to digest the movie for a while after I realised its a master piece. The realisation of the movie as a major hit was not instant because of the reasons like the repeated style of dialogues. The conversational style resembled the narration involved in many of Kamal Hassan films like micheal madana kamarajan, pammal k sambandham, avai shanmugi, kadhala kadhala.
And most of the main Kamal [Govind] with Andal happens like this which doesn't give a different look to the movie than those specified.
Also the krishnaveni Patti role resembled that of the urvasi's Patti in Micheal madana kamarajan.
But the movie manages to stand apart with the lauding performances of various roles such as balram Naidu, poovaragan and rangarajan nambi.
Alternate Screenplay:
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Intro of Characters:
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I believe in these quotes. "Don't say it. Jst show it!" I would alter the start of the movie. Instead starting the movie with a bird's eye view with the aftermath of tsunami hit chennai which then proceeds with the stadium scene where Govind[kamal] is narrating the story with the backdrop of three leaders.
I would directly start with the 12th century scene from top down angle of the gopuram with poem uttered by the saint and go ahead with the complete Rangarajan Nambi plot. Then with the display of 21st century on the corner of the screen would do the intro of Govind in USA in the lab with his experiments on-going scene with his friend, who receives a call from his Japanese wife inviting Govind for dinner and then Govind and his friend both go ahead to the TV-caption of Bush!
With the Bush character approving of his budget for the research the intro of Fletcher shall occur. Fletcher shall be shown to kill another person point-blank and receive money for his
Assassination and shall be shown as an assassin. Thus by introducing all roles based at USA now the movie goes to India
Now it shall be the intro of magnificent Poovaragan. Let the scene where sundararajan conversing with Poovaragan be altered a bit so that sundararajan is requesting for poovaragan to visit his leader in chennai. And poovaragan is blaming him and his party members for stealing sand and other attrocities in his style.
With that the movie moves to chennai where Balram Naidu character is introduced as if he is promoted from his senior police post to a special RAW officer and he takes oath to act against
terrorist and other criminals and bring crime under control in chennai region in his style.
Now it shall be the introduction of kallibullah khan and his family and as if they are planning for a nikhah trip to Chennai. Now it shall be the intro of Avatar singh in punjab with his family preparing for his concert in chennai. Now it would be the intro of krishnaveni patti with andal and the song mukuntha... then it would be the intro of japanese kamal the shingen narahashi doin his karate classes for his students and making a phone call to visit his sister and her husband in newyork.
With all characters introduced now in various location of global map a bigger dot can be shown to locate the different characters and joinin all dots would display as the outline of lord Vishnu over the globe indicating his comeback!
Continuity of Story:
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With all roles introduced the story shall come back to Govind's lab project in USA depicting the accident that occurs and his boss trying to sell the research and Govind escaping from Fletcher with the killing of his friend and his japanese wife and reach india.
Mean time shigen narahashi visits USA jst to learn that his sister and her husband are killed by Govind. And to avenge his anger he decides to travel to India in search of Govind.
Then we can continue with the hilarious Balram Naidu interogating Govind scene to be followed by Fletcher and Avatar singh scenes.
Then Govind manage to escape from Fletcher again and goes to Chidambaram meeting Andal. As the song scene is already shown in earlier part here it would be jst Govind trying to get the parcel from
Krishnaveni patti and other scenes where patti leaves the vial in Govindarajan idol. I would cut down on most of the dialogue conversation for Andal. It becomes too much of her around the idol.
With the sandana barathi trying to attack andal scene i do believe poovaragan's entry is must in the movie. This scene shall occur as in the movie and the accident of kallibullah with Govind and Andal shall occur too, with the hospital scene. I really appreciate the effort Kamal Hassan has put in trying different voice for all the roles. But the kalibullah's role the dialogues are not easy to understand. If the voice was audible with the base then it would have been different.
With the major chase for the vial on and Balram Naidu trying to hunt Fletcher and Govind and Narahashi hunting for Fletcher we can show all that chase...
With the Narahashi stunt with Fletcher happens in beach and that is the place I would show the tsunami occurs to destroy the bio disaster which kills Poovaragan and then Patti crying out for him. Now the camera view in the movie starting can be used to show the disaster tsunami had left behind.
And then showing the idol from 12th centuary coming up on the shores as an indication of god coming back to save the world. Which would then, be followed by the meeting in the stadium to appreciate Govind's effort to save the people by all major leaders with a concluding song of ulaga nayagane....
Dear filmaholic,
ReplyDeleteMy wishes for the newly egressing movie-maker, for a prominently unique try on this critically acclaimed banner other than the "so-called" version.
The major boon for this filmography could be descried when you did cut-short the crappy crass bullshit out of Andaal's dialogues.
The idea of fade-in fade-out and shared frames in the opening shot appears to be new to imagine but questionable in the wide-screen.
Introducing all the characters within the first 30 minutes of the art is good as for the Indian non-commercial goodies because the rest of the movie can focus on establishing the relationship of the characters as in the hollywood entres, CRASH and LOVE ACTUALLY. But for a film like DASAVATHARAM, one of the major accentuations in the success of the film lies on the title ITSELF! So for an audience like us (here, SOuth Indians), the movie would lack its thrilling component, and Kamal Hassan's work would be fully accomplished within the first half, after which, it would be like any award winning PERIOD movie. And one final thing, audience give up on counting.....
Though I couldnt consort the whole picture of the new version, I could definitely say its worth imagining. Carry on with the good start......
Wishes,
First follower
Good Prabhu,
ReplyDeleteThis screenplay is much more appealing and seems more the kind i will enjoy, but, i am not sure, with the already existing complexity of the film, if the story line to will be able to hold a suspense, but, i think that will help the course, yes, this is a better screenplay model.
I agree
Hi,
ReplyDeleteThanks on your comments...
If I would have more time and resources.. would like to edit the movie to fit my version of the screenplay and watch it to really see if it is making any difference...
Anyhow.. thanks on your comments.. and I would write more often on various topics.. do visit to comment on it.. The next time will attempt to be even more creative...
Regards,
Prabhu
rengaprabhu
ReplyDeleteDasavatharam: An Alternate-Screenplay
Hi All,
Jst gave an attempt on an alternate screenplay of Dasavatharam..
Here is the complete work..
http://art-of-story-telling.blogspot.com/
Comments welcome....
Regards,
Prabhu
12/26/08
randramble
Good attempt.
But introducing all the characters without moving the story forward will lead to slowing down of the pace and interest. Kamal's way of jet-speed screenplay and introducing characters pretty much as Govind meets them was good.
12/26/08 delete
rengaprabhu
I did admire the way characters were introduced in the film... But came out with my version.. as the characters would have got more presence in the movie... anyhow.. thanks on your comment... i really appreciate it..
- Prabhu
12/26/08
World Champion
Everything was good in the movie except for the ending. The climax could have ended after Asin and Kamal go hand in hand discussing about the aftermath of the Tsunami and arguing about the spiritual/religious/philosophical stuff. Even them showing the statue was perfect. But I truly believe the Ullaga Nayagane song must have come as a music video done separately. Till that point the movie had a fantastic pace and artistic and commercial angles all in one place. The Ullaga Nayagane song took it totally in commercial angle.
Also the tumor being taken away by bullet scene's screenplay should have been different.
12/26/08
Vijay
good attempt. dots shown for 10 characters and showin vishnu above the world map is really good thinkin. but showin 10 characters separately is shown in most of the movies.
12/27/08
MARMA
@ rengaprabhu
We Appreciate Ur Attempt .... I read It .... In the Begining of Ur Screenply would make Audions Terribly Confused ... As This Mistake will Spoil the Whole Movie ......
Even I Agree there's Lot Mistake In DASAVATHARAM were this Said By Our Proud
KAMAL ji in A weekly Magazine said '' Yes I Agree Theres Mistake In DASAVATHARAM , which wont Be Done In MARMA YOGI , theres A mistake Even In Legendry Movie Like
Ben-Hur Movie which Released In 1959 Directed by William Wyler ...
So SAGA even I altered DASA a lot ... as I found Mistakes with Out sleepless Nights ....
12/27/08
Syed
good man!!! cheers
12/27/08
sriram
totally agree with world champion here.. jus felt that the bullet scene should not hv been there.. but then ulaganayagan song deserves a place in the movie.. it was like a celebration of the movie...
12/27/08 delete
rengaprabhu
Thanks on your comments... I really appreciate it.. Mostly I get the comments that introducing all characters at once would reduce the suspense...
Will it not increase the suspense on how are they going to be related? How the story is going to unfold itself?
The turning point or the highest point of tension and drama in the story, the solution should be given. climax buildup
ReplyDelete