Dum Maaro Dum 2011 Movie Review

Movie: Dum Maaro Dum 2011

Come to think of it, Rohan Sippy has evolved into a stylish storyteller with the passage of time. And DUM MAARO DUM bears testimony to this fact. Right from the shot compositions to the edit pattern, the distinct stamp of Sippy Jr. just cannot be overlooked. But a collage of brilliantly executed sequences cannot compensate for a riveting screenplay. That's precisely why DUM MAARO DUM lacks dum.

At heart, DUM MAARO DUM is a chor-police game, with the cop [Abhishek Bachchan] going all out to nail the drug lord [Aditya Pancholi], the messiah of narcotics trade, but the content fails to hold your attention after a point [towards the second hour specifically]. The writing gets muddled in the post-interval portions, after one has savored some tremendous moments in the first hour. There are portions that put you off [Abhishek injects drugs in the thugs in order to extract information], that remain unexplained [what is it that Prateik knows and reveals in the letter?], that come as a complete shocker [why is Rana hell bent on saving Prateik, so much so that he puts Bipasha's life at stake?]... Besides, the pre-climax as well as the penultimate moments are a major letdown. The drama in the concluding reels, in fact, is prolonged for no reason.

What goes against the film is the fact that the writer sidetracks the protagonist in the pre-climax itself, while the actor in the supporting role walks away as the savior. Frankly, sidetracking the protagonist leaves a sour taste in the mouth. Even the protagonist's loyal fans, I am sure, will find this difficult to absorb and will be shocked and sorely disappointed by this grave mistake. That's not all, even the elimination of the all-powerful drug kingpin by an inconsequential character seems ridiculous. Also, the suspense just doesn't work and nor does it create the desired impact [the twist in the end is quite an anti-climax].

Multiple lives collide at Goa Airport one day... [Lorry] Prateik is a student on the verge of following his girlfriend [Anaitha Nair] to a U.S. University. But when his scholarship gets rejected, his life threatens to spiral out of control, until he meets a smooth-talking hustler who promises to get it back on track.