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.

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.

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.

Item girls are back with a vengeance given the much talked about Sheila Ki Jawani with the midriff baring Katrina Kaif in Farah Khan's Tees Maar Khan, that fast forward till today the buzz baton was ringing very loudly for Deepika Padukone in her item for Dumb Maaro Dumb. But personally I still preferred Sheila for the music, the narrative flow in which it was picturized on, and of course the dance performance. In Mit Jaaye Gum (Dumb Maaro Dumb), Padukone got decked with a shorter dress number sporting a mean looking cobra tattoo, but I don't have a thing for the drugged out look, given this was solely a song and dance number performed at a rave party before Abhishek Bachchan's ACP Vishnu Kamath came gatecrashing with the cops in tow.

Dumb Maaro Dumb provided what I would deem as a lift from the rather lacklustre lineup of Bollywood films released so far in this year, with the story keeping it fairly simple, yet intriguing with a mystery, with a great ensemble of actors fleshing out their carefully crafted characters. It's a basic cops and robbers tale on the war on drugs in Goa where the stakes are high on either side of the law with matters and issues hovering around the grey, never outright black or white. Cops are on the take, gangsters can turn informers, and you're never too sure just who you can trust, and who will switch allegiance.

Which makes the film thoroughly engaging to follow, paced fairly quickly and clocking just over two hours. The first half of the film before the interval allowed director Rohan Sippy to dabble with a non linear narrative structure to introduce the lead characters, starting with Lorry (Prateik, last seen in Mumbai Diaries), a student at the crossroads of his educational path, being stopped short at clinching a scholarship, and therefore unable to follow his girlfriend to the USA for further studies. Money woes meant subjecting himself to influences from a friend who had persuaded him fast cash from being a drug mule. Then there's the story of ACP Kamath, a once corrupt cop on the take who had now turned his life around given the death of his family, and going all out to take the war on drugs by the horns. The romantic story arc of DJ Joki (Rana Daggubati) and Zoe (Bipasha Basu) has the lovebirds being impacted through the drug trade, with the former being a easy-going, laid back bystander to his girlfriend's woes, with the latter being really hard up to be an air-stewardess, and got sucked into a road of no turning back when short term gains were traded for longer term loyalties.

In some ways this is like Brian De Palma's The Untouchables, where Elliot Ness gathers a few good, uncorrupted man to form a core team to challenge the biggest gangster in town, and here, ACP Kamath does just that when he goes up against Lorsa Biscuta (Aditya Pancholi), a well connected and well oiled businessman who dabbles in the drug trade and is one of the biggest in Goa, carved out into various territories as controlled by various foreign enclaves operating the drug business. With ACP Kamath turning the heat on their operations, Biscuita becomes the guarantor of every drug baron's illegitimate business with the involvement of an enigmatic Michael Babbossa, who becomes the primary mystery man that ACP Kamath and team are trying to unravel.

So begins a cat and mouse game after the interval, where all story arcs merge into a single thread but between the two halves, the first was more of Sippy's playground with tremendous use of seamless and slick editing techniques and transitions. And something that I've always enjoyed watching is the extended single take of an action scene, which Dumb Maaro Dumb now has bragging rights to, involving a very fluid camera following ACP Kamath and team as they go on a drug bust in a building, continuously weaving into and out of corridors and doors, windows and down a drain pipe even in one long extended take. I'm always in awe given the sheer amount of planning that goes behind the scene to have this achieved, and it is nothing short of fascinating always.

The violence is strong as well with ACP Kamath and the villains all dishing out punishment in no holds barred style, whether using a weapon or through their bare fists. And again there will be the usual police tricks and unorthodox techniques used by the no nonsense ACP that may raise some questions, even though he's given the mandate by the chief minister to eradicate the drug problem. It's been some time since Abhishek Bachchan had headlined a box office success, and I'm backing this film to be that shot in the arm for him as he reunites with director Rohan Sippy (since Bluffmaster). Rana Daggubati also shone especially in the second half of the film where his role got expanded and turned meatier, but unfortunately for Prateik he had opened the film, but because of the narrative had to disappear for the most parts in the second half.

Still, this is one of the more satisfying Hindi films that I've seen in recent weeks, with a strong story by Shridhar Raghavan (dialogues by Purva Naresh) coupled with strong performances from the ensemble cast that makes you feel for the characters and their predicaments. Music by Pritam stand out excellently, and if you're in need of a good old fashioned cops and robbers thriller with a mix of interesting cinematography techniques employed, then Dumb Maaro Dumb will be your film of choice this week. Highly recommended as it goes into my shortlist as some of the best of this year!

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.