I'd take Maa over Maal

DUM MAARO DUM (2011)

Dum Maaro Dum is more like the scribbles of a Tarantino fanboy, than a stylish original, provocative film. 7 Khoon Maaf was another recent film that stumbled into this dark pit.

Why are filmmakers recently trying to emulate his style? Yes, he is an influential film director; it is easy to feel the need to be him. But hold your horses you, young film director you. It’s getting kind of boring now. Especially when it's done for the wrong (read simplistic) reasons. Tarantino is the superhero of moviemakers not because of chapter names (I’m looking at you too Anurag Kashyap) or random texts appearing in between the film or non-linear narratives or even funny dialogue. Tarantino is Tarantino because of “his dialogue”. “His characters”. That exists only in his films and in his mind. You can’t copy that. His ability to hold the audience for 20-25 minutes in one scene. That’s what makes him a genius. Yes, his films are cool. They are like a shiny Aston Martin. It’s cool on the outside for sure but it’s also one heck of a drive. You want to keep driving. That drive is what’s important. For how long can you sit in a film theater and say that was cool? It’s got to be the characters we bring back, what the movie has to say above anything else. You can name your character Vincent Vega all you want but till he doesn’t dance, he ain’t cool enough.

Getting down to Dum Maaro Dum. The first half of the film is good. It’s definitely entertaining. Even some clever dialogue. Sridhar Raghavan and Purva Naresh, take credit. The Goa we see here is unlike Dil Chahta Hai or any other Bollywood Goa we’ve seen before. It has a different story to tell and that’s the buzzword among Indian audiences since a few years. It should be “different”, they announce. This buzzword is derogatory to filmmakers and film audience both, in my humble opinion. Different is good and bad. This one is bad different. Rohan Sippy’s unimaginative, unoriginal style is stale.

Abhishek Bachchan plays Vishnu Kamath, a cool cop who raps while he is given the task of cleaning out the drug mafia from Goa. I am an Abhishek fan but he has given better performances before. He seems he is on autopilot here. The film starts with Lorry (Prateik Babbar) before it sidetracks to Kamath. Lorry gets ‘innocently’ involved in this drug shrug business since he needs money to pay for his college fee. Innocent indeed. Another person who uses the shoulder of drugs to get on top is Zoe (Bipasha Basu). The shoulder is provided by Lorsa Biscuta (what a terrible name!) shoddily played by Aditya Pancholi. Govind Namdeo plays Rane, one of the three-cool-cop team led by Kamth. This character is probably the most one-dimensional when it competes with the rest.

The two characters who I had any sort of connect with were Mercy (Muzammil) and Joki (Rana Daggubati who impresses). Even though Joki’s blind faith in Lorry’s ‘innocence’ left me wondering if I missed some crucial scene before. Turned out I didn’t. I did miss good songs though; the songs attributed to Joki by Pritam were more annoying than catchy.

There is this whole “Who is Keyser Soze?” thing going on. Nobody knows who Micheal Barbossa is? The omnipresent drug lord. (How many people are called Barbossa in Goa? Really?! Taking the love for Pirates of the Caribbean a bit too seriously, are we?) Instead of it being a shocker like in The Usual Suspects (1995), it falls flat on its face. Add two-three characters dying and you are sure that the film is in trouble. The screenplay that showed promise in the first half becomes an obvious mess in the second. The ending was my biggest gripe with the film. The very last scenes are so corny and cringe-worthy that even a good Barbossa revelation wouldn’t have saved it. It suddenly goes supernatural, which does not work at all.

I could say, Dum Maaro Dum is not bad. It's worth a watch etc. Maybe it is. But to be honest, I'll be saying that only in comparison with usual crap that comes out these days. I don't want to pity-like it.

Before I close this review, a brief letter to the director about the remix of Dum Maaro Dum. I hope I’m justly speaking for the concerned demographic.

Dear Rohan Sippy,

If you are filming Deepika Padukone dancing to a song, please don’t add lyrics which insinuate visuals of a person taking a dump in between. It’s not very nice.

Sincerely,
Male audience. 

YES

NO

Rating ** out of *****