Rating: 2.75/5
Banner: Creative Commercials
Cast: NTR, Trisha, Karthika, Nasser, Bhanupriya, Suman, Kota, Venu Thottempudi and others
Music: Keeravani
Cinematographer: Arthur Wilson
Editor: Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao
Screenplay, Direction: Boyapati Srinu
Producer: Alexander Vallabha
Release date: 27/04/2012
Junior NTR who came up with a barely average result with his last movie ‘Oosaravelli’ has come up with a proper commercial masala treat ‘Dhammu’ jing with Boyapati who excelled with ‘Simha’ in 2010. Whether it was up to the mark or not, let us see
Story
Ramachandra (NTR) is an orphan who grows in the city and given his upbringing, he values the importance of life and hates to kill anyone. He falls in love with Sathya (Trisha) who is the daughter of a rich man. In order to convince that he is from a good family, he responds to an ad placed by one Zamindar (Kota) who is on the lookout for a proper heir to their family. Ramachandra agrees for that and becomes Raja Vasireddy.
But the place he goes to has a history of a bloody feud from the past seventy years and the villain (Nasser) has been waiting eagerly with his men for the arrival of Ramachandra. Why do they wait for him? Who is Ramachandra? All this form the rest of the story.
Performances
It is NTR all over the movie and a lot has been thrust upon him to carry the film to a safe zone. He has given his complete efforts once again and his dance moves were simply amazing.
Trisha looks sweet as usual and though there were few initial scenes where she looked old, the rest of the times she was fine. But role wise there was absolutely nothing for her to contribute.
Karthika is not much of a looker and her overdose of makeup also hampered her charm. But she is very expressive and has a body which has very high sex appeal. Her dialogue ‘use cheskondi’ catches attention.
Nasser did his bit perfectly and his unusual facial expression with a closed eye must be appreciated. He made his presence felt whenever he was onscreen and justified his bit. He was neat.
Venu’s role was brief, Ali’s comedy was okay, Brahmanandam was not at all required, Kota was good. Sampath Raj, Kishore, Rahul Dev were totally wasted. Bhanupriya was okay. Suman maintained his standard. Abhinaya was apt. The others were there to fill the screen.
Highlights:
- Action episodes
- 'Ruler..', 'Vasthu Baagunde..' Songs
- NTR Performance
Drawbacks:
- Outdated flavor
- No peaks
- Weak direction
Analysis:
The combination of Boyapati-NTR reflects that this has to be a high voltage treat. The pre-release talk and other promos also indicated the same. However, there is quite a bit of mismatch between what was projected and what was conceived onscreen. Though it was meant to be an action entertainer, since the protagonist is young, the romance track had to be solid and an equally engaging comedy track was required atleast during one half. But both the departments failed.
As Boyapati is the captain of the ship and NTR is the lead, it is needless to say that everyone understands it is intended to entice fans. It is also sure that audience tends to compare with Simha, which became a surprise hit in 2010 in Boyapati's direction. 'Dhammu' fails to maintain consistency throughout. The graph suffers severe ups and downs while finally the downs are more than ups. NTR lacks get up that is required to maintain the necessary seriousness. Humor part is almost negligible and romance part is zero.
It is not known if Boyapati had undergone pressure to make something better than ‘Simha’, but this is certainly not a better one than Simha. Some dialogues written by Rathnam are ok but the political dialogues have no relevance in the film.
The problem has come with the characterization of hero who behaves like ‘think before showing anger’. Hence the required ‘Dhammu’ was missed.
First half of the film runs in routine fashion while interval bang happens with a lengthy dialogue from NTR. Second half is crucial for this film but that didn't carry expected and required punch. No twists worked to raise the mood of audience. Heavy drop in second half occurred with the re-entry of Suman.
There is an imitation of Simhadri in some scenes but the director failed to elevate emotions to a right degree. Content wise it's a pretty average one but the fans may connect to some extent. But certainly, this is not a full meal for fans as well.
There are few traits of Nandamurisms which was natural but thankfully it was not an overdose. Due credit must be given to the technicians who made the film an engaging visual treat. But though the film has style it lacks the substance. However, though the odds are high, the coast is clear for the film to run for at least two weeks since no other releases are nearby. But it all depends on how far family audience patronize. Only summer holidays should save this film.
Bottomline: Inconsistent breathing…
(Venkat can be reached at [email protected])
