Never Judge a Movie by its Pre-release. Review on Dam999

Call it a concept movie that showing a dam burst. an earthquake cause a dam disaster and flooding. The setting is Mulla-periyar, a 100 year old dam that awaiting its death in southern Kerala. The movie is based on a documentary ‘Dams – The lethal water bombs’ directed by Roy Sohan himself. The Number 9 has a lot of significance with this dam, and hence the movie name 999. It refers to the 999-year lease agreement that the Maharaja of Travancore entered with the Government of Madras(English) for using the waters of this particular dam. The Roy Sohan tries to bring in the significance of the number 9 to his nine characters as well, with each portraying a different ‘nava-rasa’.

==Background of the Movie ==

Built by the British in 1895, across the river Periyar, it was supposed to last a 50 years, according to its engineer, it has today, far lived its life span. Man's greed has made the dam to last beyond 100 years. After India's Independence, all those pre-independence pacts have been made defunct, this one, somehow still continues to hold forth causing dispute between two states.(As a matter of fact, the pact was renewed in 1970, between Tamilnadu and Kerala whereby operation of the dam was bestowed on Tamilnadu). As of now, Kerala wants a cancellation of the instant pact.

The agreement was entered into with the sole objective of catering for the irrigation needs of Tamilnadu. But overtime, Tamilnadu uses its water for agriculture, and now its electricity needs as well. Kerala believes that, any form of earthquake or a simple Dam disaster would sweep away four thickly populated districts under it and would cause a collateral damage of 5 million people.

As for Tamilnadu, it is reluctant to let go the financial benefits that it accrues from the dam by way of Agriculture, Irrigation as also power generation. Tamilnadu generates a whooping 30, 000 crore per year by way of Power generation alone. Interestingly, Kerala is one of the state which buys power from Tamilnadu. Now that the dam has started to leak, and after a 1500(started in 2006) day protest on by the local, it's time, the people of kerala are heard.

The Movie

The film follows Captain Fredrick Browne(Fredrick Smith), Captain of an oil tanker that gets anchored in Kochi. He is married to a Pakistani Muslim girl, played by Megha Burman. His trusted friend Vinay(Vinay Rai), had a love interest but had to forgo her because of the incompatibility of his stars with hers' and left Kochi to marry a foreigner(Linda Arsenio), but she leaves him and his child to become a successful TV Jounalist. Rajat Kapoor plays Shankaran, father of Vinay and is an astrologist-ayurvedic vaid, martial arts teacher and ask what not. Vimla Raman is Meera and is the Vinay's childhood love interest and represents the unconsummated love.

Vinay and Meera's incompatibility is so much so that, as per Shankaran, if they ever unite, then it would cause great mis-happenings and with the trust that Meera has in Shankaran's predictions, she decides to leave Vinay and live a lonely life. Infact, this the point where the film fails as in the end, when Meera and Vinay, did unite, leading us to the climax of the movie. This simply makes the horoscope-astrology-position of stars as the villian of the piece and is the single character which determines the destiny of all the other characters in the movie.

Quite opposite to the director's claim of representing a grand story of human emotions with the nine characters portraying the nine'rasas' or the nava-rasa's, I as a viewer, could never understand who portrayed what. The director attempts at including too many things onto the movie, right from the pristine landscapes of Kerala, the ayurveda, Vedic Mathematics, Astrology, Science and even Love(both requited and unrequited) and makes a mess of everything.

The only worthy performances to note was that of Vimla Raman, who exudes her compassionate character(perhaps the Karuna Rasa) and to an extent, Linda Arsenio who tries to match Vimla Raman, scene after scene. Ashish Vidyarthi as the negative character tries his best and does justice to his role, but is sent to oblivion in the end. We are never told as to what happened to him after the dam burst and the floods. Since all the other main characters are alive, we may presume that he, too, would be alive.

The Director's idea of creating an analogy between the dam holding back its waters and people holding back their emotions, only to create destruction, when it is released is commendable. But he fails completely when it came to translating that idea on to the screen effectively.

The movie is an average fare, with the 3D effects ineffective and is best Avoidable. But if you still insist, you must see, then, go there, enjoy the scenic beauty of Kerala. The lady in the lead(Vimla Raman) oozes a winsome charm, but unfortunately, the movie doesn't. The movie doesn't even give out the main message effectively, that Dams are those real'Water Bombs', instead, blaming everything on stars and horoscopes. And thats where the failure of the movie lies.

P.S Having, said that, this make should have be a wake-up call for us all, for we have almost 4000 colonial dams that have outlived their life-time. We indeed need to have a contingency plan and build newer structures and smaller ones around them before they break. We call them the temples of modern india.and we lambasted the lady who called them the disasters of modern india. At least, now, let us hear what she wants to tell.

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