~~~11~~~. Review on Dum Maaro Dum

When we permit an outsider to enter our house we permit him/her to enter with all their habits. Some guests never leave the house like some habits. It is the ignorant administration which permits a system to grow and only at death bed they look back and attempt it to correct. Is it too late to begin the cleaning up and yes, it is a white collar Sh*t job!

The chief minister of the drug hit state is about to undergo a life threatening operation. Before that he calls back ACP Vishnu Kamath (Abhishek Bachchan) and assigns the responsibility of cleaning up the city from drugs. Vishnu Kamath was the right hand of the drug mafia earlier but turned a saint from the moment an accident killed his family. The spirit of his wife is now guiding him. With autocratic power ACP Kamath start his hunt for the drug mafia which begin with an aspirant student, Lorry (Prateik Babbar) who is ready to be a drug carrier for an admission in US University.

The writing is for fast hearts which don't dig deep or for the front benchers who go with the frills. Suspense is well created by the final half an hour and well maintained in the final part of the movie whereas the first half was just like a casual police story. Sridhar Raghavan, the writer was moving the focus point from one to another to yet another so that the viewers were spared of attaching their mind to anybody in the film. We may first felt some sympathy to Lorry, then we are told to feel some sorry for the protagonist and his ghost wife. We are bound to feel some sympathy to the chief minister as well. Then comes the Joki and Zoe sad story. Another problem is that many important turning points of the story remained undisclosed. Who hit the car of Kamath? Ok, it was accidental. Why the Ghost of wife want to advice the police officer whom she could not change when she was living? The wife become an angel after her death. Why Rocky, the recruiter should know about the ultimate secret about Michael Barbossa if his duty was only to recruit? What Lorry knows about Michael Barbossa? Why the villain didn't change the stock of drugs from Michael BarboSSA, knowing the police is tracing? What was that SuSAGOD doing there? Why ACP Kamat didn't attempt the brutal hobbies on Biscuta (Aditya Pancholi) even after knowing. The story didn't connect many links there. However, in a first look the story will feel well knitted and by the time the climax arrives all are a bit hypnotised by the onscreen happenings. That is the plus of the writers. The forward and backward game kind writing helps a lot.

Rohan Sippy, the director did best when it come to extracting performance from the male cast. (The other best thing he did was making the film stylish) One and all did their roles brilliantly. Abhishek Bacchanexcels in yet another film. Powerful performance there! Abhishekh can forget the game now. Prateik Babbar rocks yet again. (In another note, all films of Prateik I watched yet, 3 by now, in all there is a rat connection. In JTJNM he cares white rat, in Dhobi Ghat he kills black rats, here too there is a caged black rat!) Rana Daggubati is impressive. Aditya Pancholi is impressive in his looks and ok in a role suites him well. Bipasha Basu however failed to make any impression. The make up was patchy and the expressions were lifeless. Promising Anaitha Nair is been wasted in a small role.

Cinematography is very good. The feel of a gone era (or is it the real Goan vision?) is created well. Anyway, I felt it is very good but not excellent.

Music of the film is quite impressive. Choreography however was not live to standards. The famous Dum Maaro Dum number was like a rehersal shot, pretty amateurish. Deepika fails to give life to the scenes in expressions. A great opportunity misutilised!

Editing is good. A lot of effort is been implemented, still speed at places needed better control. Also the film could have been trimmed further by 5 to 10 minutes. Action scenes are good. Sound effects ok.

The movie is crude in approach. So anybody who is sensitive at that ground may keep their peace at home. On an alternative thought, is it a film sponsered by the North to accelerate the corrupt campaign to trim the leaders to the size they want? I think THAT IS IT.

It is the North which corrupted our great nation through the corrupt politicians. Now they tries to cash the evidences which they kept for auditing purposes. There is a caged black rat and some P/T cats eating the waste. It is time to say Go Waste Go Waste. Our politicians, media, Corporate Business houses and judiciary are welcoming the Waste in abundance. It was the same some 500 years back. Our business people hosted the invaders. Political powers celebrated their company. Judiciary followed their rule and media advertised their glory. We managed to clean our house some 65 years back, but for last 15 years or so big rats are digging our house walls. Let the rat be black or white, it is time to grow some hungry cats. If not, let us fumigate our house, inside out. It is time for an Emergency! Otherwise there will be many more 11s in our country, like it hit many countries of the world, natural or otherwise.

Good suspense thriller the film entertains at times, especially in the beginning half and hour and the final half an hour. It is not fool proof writing but good enough one to generate suspense and to maintain it.