Dum Maro Dum Review Rating 3/5

                                                                                                                                                           

Director: Rohan Sippy
Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Bipasha Basu, Pratik Babbar and Rana Daggubatti
Release Date: 2011-04-22 00:00:00
Quick Take: Movie mein hai dum

The opening montage of Dum Maro Dum shows you a Goa that you wouldn’t recognise. It’s sharp and edgy and sets the tone for the film. If you say a film doesn’t fall far from the title then you wouldn’t be wrong in guessing that Dum Maaro Dum definitely has a lot to do with drugs. Drugs mean power. Drugs also mean the wrong use of power. And it’s crucial in whose hands that power lies. Goa meri jaan, jannat ki shaan says the opening voice over. Only, this heaven’s infested with the scums of the earth who peddle drugs and traffic them.

Inspector Kamath wants to clean up this sewer. Only it’s not so easy. There are wolves in sheep’s clothing and the system is so deeply infected that only unorthodox methods will help. 

So Lori (Pratik Babbar) is arrested for being a carrier. The poor boy was only trying to fund his scholarship abroad so he could untie with the love of his life but a mix of sex, alcohol and bad judgment leads him to a bad decision. Joki (Rana Daggubatti), a singer, vouches for his innocence but has no way of proving it. Inspector Kamath won’t believe him either. And then there is the menacing drug lord Lorsa Biscuta who loves to play good Samaritan in public. And troubled damsel always in distress Zoe (Bipasha Basu) has to grapple with too many inner demons not to mention an outer one in the form of Lorsa.

DMD has a taut narrative that doesn’t flail till post interval. It keeps you engrossed through an imaginative blend of some stupendous background music, animated cinematography and simple effective storytelling. The characters are introduced with clarity and soon you get a very clear picture of what’s going with whom. DMD also has strong relationship threads running through it and each character does what he does because he has an intensely personal motive. Plus there is enough suspense and action to keep you hooked.

Rohan Sippy has given sunny Goa a sepia toned grainy texture and you seriously begin to wonder if this is the same place you go to, to leave the world beyond.

As for the performances Abhishek does an earnest and impressive job. Rana Dagubatti sure has an impressive screen presence but we must wait to find out if that dead pan expression is restricted only to this film. Here it works completely in his favour. Pratik looks dazed and confused and again this is totally what the role demands of him. Yet the boy has such an endearing quality about him and you don’t want to take your eyes off him when he is on screen. Bipasha looks suitably traumatised.

As far as gritty thrillers go DMD scores high. Give it a shot. If you can manage to not wince through that horrible remix where the only saving grace is a hot Deepika Padukone. There’s enough dum here to give you a movie high.