Dum Maaro Dum

Under its tranquil sands, warm waters, vivacious party scene and the susegaad attitude, Goa hides its atrocious face that is smeared with rave parties, drugs, sex and scandals. In desperate times, some ambitious Goans fall victim to the malicious schemes that bring easy money but at life's irreplaceable cost. While the innocent fall prey to the Goan mafia, one man seeks to overturn this nexus and clean up the state of its misplaced virtues. Aided by some 'Untouchable' men from the Police force, ACP Vishnu Kamath heads the relentless hunt for the narcotics kingpins of Goa.

Lorry (Prateik Babbar) aspires to join his girlfriend in pursuit of further studies abroad but the denial of his financial aid, leads him to a local narcotics dealer who promises a career as long as he can be their carrier (of drugs). Greed, desperation and the lure of easy money are enough to convince Lorry and soon, he falls prey to the inescapable circle of crime. He is soon sent to juvenile prison, courtesy of Kamath's astute raid at the airport where DJ Joki (Rana Daggubati) assures Kamath of Lorry's innocence but to no avail. Joki's girlfriend from yesteryears, Zoe (Bipasha Basu) had a similar fate when her ambition to become an air-hostess turned fowl and her ticket to freedom from a lengthy jail term was to switch loyalties to Lorsa Biscuta (Aditya Pancholi), the evil kingpin in this entire game.

Kamath performs raid after raid in the background of a random rap song and gets ever closer to Biscuta's operations. But beyond this Kingpin is a secretive Lord to whom the mafia turns to in critical times. Who is this Michael Barbossa and what key does he hold to Goa's narcotics crime? Can Joki prove Lorry's innocence to Kamath? Will Zoe break her bonds from Biscuta? Will Vishnu Kamath rid Goa off its poison? On the faces of the multi-dimensional characters who have a marked presence of drugs in their lives, there is a glimmer of hope that life will change for the better. Vishnu Kamath and the drug lords will decide what its price will be.....

The engaging narrative is the effect of Sridhar Raghavan's ('Family', 'Bluffmaster', 'Apharan' & 'Khakee') scrupulous writing and Rohan Sippy's slick and crafty film making. A simple Cop v/s Drug peddler story is treated with stylish cinematography, seamless editing techniques, brutal action, convoluted screenplay and adroit direction. Rohan Sippy does not shy away from portraying sex, drug abuse, violence and awkward relationships with liberal profanity. Bandarkar meets RGV meets Sanjay Gupta. The combined effect of it all makes Goa look real and sizzling.

Bipasha Basu looks sensational in almost every scene. Somehow, even in a prison cell. We shouldn't mind getting used to seeing her play serious characters after 'Lamhaa' and DMD. Prateik Babbar looks and sounds innocent throughout and instantly commands sympathy while Aditya Pancholi's presence would inspire indifferent reactions. Perhaps such a shrewd character would better suit the likes of Mahesh Manjrekar, Boman Irani, Irfan Khan or even a negative Sanjay Dutt? Rana Daggubati is the film's highlight reel of performances with his susegaad lifestyle causing the bane of his loved ones. Yet, he portrays a reserved determination to make things right by aiding Vishnu Kamath's operation. Abhishek Bachchan has his best film since 'Sarkar Raaj' and clearly, playing the no nonsense cop is better suited to him than being at the other end sometimes as Beera. Playing Vishnu, whose past screams of the horrors of drug use, his unsettled state can only find solace in the eradication of the poison that is absorbed in Goa. The junior Bachchan does not let go of such meaty roles that come his way where his prowess being an angry young man comes naturally on screen.

Pritam's music has melodious shades with Te Amo and Kyun Jiye which are brought to life by Rana's on screen romance with the gorgeous Bipasha. The super-hit Mit Jaaye Gum rocks with a scantily clad Deepika and is well suited to the situation.

For its witty dialogues, fluid camera work, slick editing, intriguing mystery and stylized direction, Dumb Maaro Dumb does have Dumb in it to provide some different kind of entertainment. Its flaws however, include mildly resonating characters, a Cop-Crime story that is almost overdone and some overly experimental touches such as the rap song in a shoot-out. Yet, it is definitely a worthy watch in the theater for its stylized narration of an 80's theme if not for any moralistic value. The thrill in its succinct length will, at the very least, take you out of your Susegaad of recent films.

7.999 on a scale of 1-10.

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.

There was so much of antagonistic vibes about the movie prior to the release.People were more sort of afraid rather than reluctant to see Junior AB in the action after his utter fail "Game". Personally speaking, my mates even bullied me as a goose like die hard fan of Abhishek (Some even felt that I watched premier due to Dipeeka's number, perverts!).

Let me clarify in the beginning only that a film cant work on sheer style (eg. Tashan) or sheer story (eg. Salaam - E - Ishq / Dus Kahaniyaan). A film should be okay in all the fields of cinema and brilliant in some of them. Here the movie is brilliant in direction,script and star cast.

Jr AB as cop, Rana as DJ, Pratiek-Anaitha as teen lover all are perfect.Bipasha lacks edge.Aditya Pancholi is good.Rest are okay.

Screenplay is good. Dialogues are crisp and witty at the same time entertaining.

Cinematography by Amit Roy is brilliant. Camera angles have never been more slick.

Music by Prittam is a mixed bag.BGM by MIDIval Punditz is mind blowing. Almost Rahmanic! (They are Telefon Tel Aviv for Indians!)

A very well directed movie by Rohan Sippy. Full of style and sensibility. This is the third consecutive film of his with Jr AB (Kuch Naa Kaho and Bluffmaster) and the co ordination is clearly visible.

So take a puff darling and enjoy this stylish flick!

Goa was never so splendorous! Looked as if I was watching Rio De Janeiro. By the time when movie ends, you are smiling.

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.

by saying this i am referring to the critics or the so called TV anchors who receive money for giving the so called stars to the movie... I think they need to change their outlook and take movie or look at it from more public point of view.. Even when i entered the hall i had little expectations, but came out with a smiling face.. the movie is so well crated and so stylishly made that it just takes the breath away.. each and every shot of the film is made with so much to look into it so that u have to look 10 times to get the whole beauty.. abhishek as usual is flawless,rana is impressive so is prateek,while bipasha making her own statement.. the thriller,action,suspense and just everything keeps u jammed to your seat till last.. Sound track is just brilliant and the movie touches you at many instances.. its a must watch.. and surely the movie is not for the duds,who don't like stylish and like family movies.. And uncles...please grow up to the generation