Synopsis for
Dasavatharam (2008) More at IMDbPro »

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The story has the underlying themes of Chaos theory and chain of events. It begins with the 12th century with a conflict between the worshipers of two Gods namely Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu. The king being a Lord Shiva devotee decides to sink the Vishnu idol which is opposed by Rangarajan(kamal), a vishnu devotee. So the king ties rangarajan with the idol and drowns them in the sea.

The story propels forward to the current century, where a very harmful bio-chemical weapon is invented in the United States for defense purposes. However, following a hazardous leak, Govindarajan (the protagonist, played again by Kamal), decides to prevent it from being used. There are people who are not happy with this decision, and decide to stop him by hiring an Ex-CIA assassin Christian Fletcher (Again, Kamal). The Virus somehow lands in a cargo shipment that is on its way to Chennai, India. Govindrajan and Fletcher race to the other end of the world, in a bid to conquer this vial. The rest of the movie is a cat and mouse game, into which many other characters (most played by Kamal himself, in keeping with the theme of the movie), are drawn.

The movie reaches a dramatic conclusion when the protagonist Govindarajan fails to stop the leakage of the virus (Fletcher consumes it and hence causes it to decay his body and spread onto the beach shore). This act would have destroyed a million lives, except that it is already established that the virus can be neutralized by pouring down tons and tons of NaCl.

The chaos theory takes control again, with Tsunami rocking the seashores of Chennai, one that brings with it tons of NaCl, courtesy the salty sea water. This miracle is linked to the incidents that occurred back in the 12th century (the god sunk in the sea centuries ago,although killing thousands saves the lives of millions in the form of Tsunami) conferring that everything happens for a reason and god exists.The ten roles Kamala Hasan plays in the movie are The hero/Scientist, Villan Ex-CIA assassin ,an old lady, the vishnu devotee,intellegence officer(indian), a muslim, a scheduled caste leader,a japanese martial arts guy, a punjabi pop singer and George Bush.