Genre: Thriller/Drama/Action

Release Date: 22 April 2011

Director: Rohan Sippy

Writer: Shridhar Raghavan, Purva Naresh

Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Bipasha Basu, Rana Daggubati, Prateik, Aditya Pancholi, Govind Namdev, Gulshan Devaiah

Language: Hindi

 

Rating: 3/5

 

 

A corrupt cop turns honest after losing his wife and son in an accident, is called to clean Goa off the drug mafia. A business tycoon cotrols all the dirty going ons in the state. An innocent guy gets trapped and its onto the cop to save his life and turn the real culprit in. 

 

Have you heard this one before? Well, the story might seem old but Rohan Sippy has given it a completely new treatment. He takes inspiration from the films like Crash in terms of storytelling. Different tracks meet at one point forming a multi layered story.

 

Lorri (Prateik), a college kid in a desparate need of money to go abroad for studies, agrees to transport drug with him. ACP Kamath (Abhishek Bachchan) is a cop undergone a change of heart after the death of his family and DJ Joki (Rana Daggubati) is a local musician who has lost his ambitious girlfriend Zoe (Bipasha Basu) to the business tycoon cum drug dealer Lorsa Biscuta (Aditya Pancholi). Their stories coincide with each other on the airport, Lorri gets arrested and knowing of his innocence Joki offers to help Kamath in his search for the biggest drug lord, Michael Barbosa, a stranger whom noone has seen but everyone fears. You can see a hint of Keyser Soze (The Usual Suspects) there.

 

The film keeps it grip from beginning to end. Screenplay by Shridhar Raghavan is tight and Purva Naresh's dialogues give it that much needed punch. There aren't too many loose ends except for the romantic part between Bipasha and Rana or Vidya Balan's cameo. But then you can always concentrate on the pop corns in those scenes.

 

Deepika Padukone's hyped number Dum Maro Dum is passable but it doesn't make you yawn. Pritam's music is hummable but Midival Punditz overpower it by their background score. The cinematography goes to the places in Goa no film had gone till now. It goes beyond the sandy beaches focusing on the darker side of the city; the rave parties.

 

After his disastrous debut with Abhishek the junior Sippy knows how to take out the best from him and that is by giving him a performance oriented role. Prateik is growing with every film but he has yet to find the milestone of his career. Rana Daggubati is unarguably drop dead gorgeous but there's a reason why he's known as John Abraham of South; the single expression look. Gulshan Devaiah who plays a drug peddler Ricky is the find of this film. With the kind of talent and confidence he exuberates, he'll go a long way.

 

Dum Maro Dum is definitely packed with a lot of Dum.