Dum Maaro Dum

First things first; this movie is not your average bollywood 'boy meets girl and then they lived happily ever after' kind of films. This flick takes a look at the dark side of Goa, a side which most movies prefer not to acknowledge. The performances are amazing, be it the determined police officer played by Abhishek Bachchan, Prateik who plays a naive kid who gets seduced into playing a dangerous game, or the altruistic Rana. Bipasha looks gorgeous but proves once again that she is more than just a pretty face. The songs are also very nice. The plot is full of twists and will keep you at the edge of your seat till the very end. That being said, you may find that there are more sad moments than you bargained for. But that just makes it look more realistic. I'll dock one star for screwing up the 'dumb maaro dumb' song which is a classic and another star for stretching out the ending a little bit. A must see for thrill seekers.

Most of the movies that we see will either be captivating from the very beginning or will be a complete let down, with little or no fluctuation in the interest factor of the viewer throughout the show, Dumb Maaro Dumb does not fall in any of these categories, it is a movie that starts off with a lot of promise only not to keep most of it. As I said the movie starts of well with nicely narrated introductions, gripping screenplay and building of suspense which keep the movie graph rising on an upward trend, but then comes the interval after which the graph starts fluctuating like an after recession stock market, it falls then rises and then falls again but never reaches to the post interval high, unnecessary melodrama and songs slow down the speed of the movie and the tight script starts to loosen its grip. DMD being a suspense movie could have still scored had that part been handled well but that was not to happen , a good concept fails to deliver because of the poor way it was revealed, the scriptwriter and director should have come up with a better way of revealing the suspense.

What I liked: 1) Abhishek's performance. 2) Direction and Screenplay in the first half. 3) Some nice dialogues.

What I didn't: 1) Direction and Screenplay in the second half with infusion of unnecessary songs and melodrama. 2) The way revelation of suspense was handled.

Verdict: A one timer, that could have been an excellent movie.

What's comes to your mind when you think of Goa? Beaches, parties, hangovers.. Dumb Maaro Dumb starts with a hint of of all that and more – raves, drugs, sex and all that is associated with the mafia in the Goan region. The movie turns into a tale of bad-cop-turned-good; who is stubborn over uprooting the drugs-industry from the whole of Goa.

ACP Vishnu Kamath played by Abhishek Bachchan, lost his family in an accident; a car accident which was a result of a driver's drug abuse. This transforms his life and he sets out to transform Goa – his road to redemption. His biggest target is Lorsa Biscuta (Aditya Pancholi), who is the main connect to the foreign mafias, suppliers and the rave parties.

Meanwhile Lorry (Prateik) is a minor who is lured into carrying drugs to the US as his fees to a certain university is paid in return, gets caught by the police. This is when Joki (Rana Daggubati) takes centrestage, in order to save the innocent lad, and in turn deliver, what he couldn't to save hi ex-girlfriend Zoey (Bipasha Basu) from entering the illegal world. Thus the two men in redemption work together for the clean-up. And need I mention, truism in a suspense-thriller is not a great news!

Rohan Sippy does a fine job as a director, and sticks to his style as in Bluffmaster. But clearly the story of Dumb Maaro Dumb has nothing new to offer – owing to the mega 80s and 90s where a single cop was enough to ask for a super-hero. The difference lies in the theme, where drugs, raves and trance surface up. A bit more research in this field and proper exploitation of trance could have been something fresh; and also justified the use of the song(and title!) Dumb Maaro Dumb. Where Hare Rama Hare Krishna was a depiction of the Hippie culture of the 1970s, this movie tries to relate to the modern Trance era, but in the end is another cop story. Even Deepika Padukone's sensuous attempt falls flat in the Munni-Sheila-era. But the good direction, as it stays, was beautifully covered by the camera personnel. The colors used are perfect keeping in my mind the story and.. well, Goa! The movie does not rely on powerful duologue's alone, as has been the trend recently. Instead, intense scenes and heavy action are the dominant part.

The idea of "universal approach" given by Rohan Sippy is not totally baseless, but his claims – "Drug consumption is shown in films only when it is crucial for a script" should be hint of pure Indian-cinema-ness of the script, and the lack of naturality and adventure as much as the original is evident. But I'll accept, the movie is more about Dumb(power & action) than Dumb(drug injection)

The music used in this movie is highly ordinary not at all pertaining to the genre and theme(the expected one of course!) of this film. Having a musician(Joki) in the movie is an advantage though, and the song Ti Amo catches on a few lips as people exit the theaters. Sunidhi Chauhan's experiments and the 'potty' lyrics fail to pull off, being the worst expected in a Rave party!

This movie is an informal lesson for the aspirants to become a film director in future. Cinema is said to be the art of storytelling. But I assert that it is 'the art to make believe', i.e., the art of making the viewers believe whatever is shown on the screen and letting it go down their throats even when it is not real. Dumb Maaro Dumb may be quoted as a classic example of it in the times to come.

During the seventies, Salim-Jaaved used to write the scripts of crime-thrillers which were actually the stories of cat and mouse game between the police and the criminals. They were skilled in drafting such spellbinding screenplays (according to the standards of that period) full of blows and retaliations between the two rival sides, thrillng action, witty dialogues and some doz of emotions and romance just equal to the quantum of salt in the recipe of the pulse being cooked and they were paced so fast that the viewer hardly got any time to think anything about the characters or the story, who was made to watch the movie without a blink and holding his breath. Salim-Jaaved wrote the stories of the movies of Ramesh Sippy too during that period whose son, Rohan Sippy has come up with this movie and this movie falls under the same genre of movies, a mesmerizing thriller with an element of suspense too. And it is the screenplay of this movie which makes it a winner all the way through the duration of around 130 minutes. Such type of movies made Amitabh Bachchan a superstar during the seventies and perhaps, it's the turn of his son, Abhishek.

Dumb Maaro Dumb, as the name suggests, deals with the illegal business of narcotic drugs with the backdrop of Goa. In between the investigating adventures of the supercop, Abhishek Bachchan; a name is tossed as the main criminal behind all this illegal trade but who is this person, remains a suspense till the climax and myself (being proud of my success in guessing the real culprit most of the times whenever I watch or read a mystery) could not identify him till the storyteller himself revealed the suspense. And that's a great achievement of the narrator, I must admit.

The screenplay itself is the hero which rules over all the characters including the investigating cop, Abishek Bachchan. The pace of the narrative is fast enough to keep the viewers glued to the screen and not missing a single moment of the movie. For thriller-fans it's a very big treat indeed.

Technically the movie is good and the cinematographer has done a praiseworthy job in not only capturing the beauty of Goa but also moving his camera quite skillfully amidst light, semi-dark and dark sequences. The action scenes are well-picturized and the dialogues are also quite impressive. The production value aspect is also up to the mark. Length of the movie could be trimmed by a few minutes in the second half but still the overall length of the movie is quite OK. The first half is more engrossing than the second one though the suspense factor deepens in the second half only.

Music is quite in line with the mood of the movie and according to the scenes running on the screen alongwith the background score. However had Rohan Sippy managed a fresh song instead of the remix of the old hit - Dumb Maaro Dumb from the movie Hare Rama Hare Krishna (1971), it would have been better on his part because neither the remix version nor Deepika Padukone is any match for the original track in Asha's voice or Zeenat Aman for the on-screen performance. Despite being the title track, it is the most unimpressive one (both the song as well as the scene) in the movie.

Rohan Sippy has extracted highly satisfactory performances from most of the performers. I count Abhishek Bachchan's performance as one among his five best performances till date. All others also fit the bill and almost every principle characters is able to maintain his / her identity in the movie for which the writers and the director deserve a pat. Rana Duggupati and Prateek Babbar stand out among others. The movie stars two of my most favourite actresses - Bipasha Basu and Vidya Balan (she impresses in a cameo too), however the movie mainly belongs to the male cast.

I am writing this review after returning from the theatre with my wife who watches a movie with me in theatre once in a blue moon only. Despite not very fond of thrillers or mysteries, she liked the movie very well. The movie proved so engrossing for her that she did not talk much to me during the watch which is unusual for her.

It's not a classic movie but a very very entertaining thriller. I don't know whether such type of activities and such type of scenario prevail in Goa or not (where I visited on the Christmas of 2009) but Rohan Sippy has been able to make me believe whatever he has portrayed in Dumb Maaro Dumb.

Rohan Sippy, son of the well-known Sholay director Ramesh Sippy, has given us a crime thriller here. I must say the film doesn't disappoint. Very good script.

The film starts of well with Prateik Babbar. The pace is fair as the film introduces the characters in the movie and lets you develop opinions of them. Things continue at a fast pace, with plenty of unexpected events along the way, keeping you interested throughout.

The music of the film is average. The remix of the famous song 'Dumb Maaro Dumb' doesn't live up to the original from the Zeenat Aman starrer. It is an average item song, after the season of chart-buster item songs last winter. Deepika tries her best to save it, and is helped by the music, which is very good.

The performances are good. Abhishek finally impresses after Guru, this time as a cop after the second in the Dhoom series. Prateik impresses again after Dhobi Ghaat. The performance of Rana Daggubati is very good too. Bipasha Basu is OK. Aditya Pancholi does very well indeed.

Verdict: go and watch it. It is worth a trip to the cinema (theatre). If you don't, you might just regret it.