Dammu Review

Behind the Movie Dammu: Combo of Junior NTR and Boyapati Srinu raised expectations quite high. With positive buzz in cine circles, movie released today amongst huge fanfare. Let us see, whether Boyapati succeeded in repeating the ‘Simha’ magic or not?

In the Movie Dammu: Story begins with flashback of cold blooded rivalry between two groups in Vira Durgam Samsthanam. Coming to present, orphan Rama Raju (Junior NTR) living in Hyderabad exhibits his good humanly nature to win the love of multi millionaire’s (Subhalekha Sidhakar) daughter Satya (Trisha). She keeps a clause to marry Rama Raju, only if he belongs to a big dynasty. Around the same time Rudra Bhupathi (Kota) lands in city in search of a legal heir for adoption into their Vasi Reddy dynasty ruling Vira Durgam Samsthanam. 

Rival group in same Samsthanam is leaded by Naazar and he does not allow the birth of a male heir in Vasi Reddy clan. So, Rudra Bhupathi adopts Rama Raju to rename him as Vijaya Dhwaja Sri Simha called as Chinna Raja. As soon as he enters into the clan of Vasi Reddy, he gets emotional with love and affection of mother (Bhanu Priya), three sisters (Abhinaya & two more) and brother-in-law (Thottempudi Venu). Story proceeds on with attacking action episodes between two opponent teams thus revealing a flashback where in the real link of Chinna Raja with Samsthanam is revealed. How did Chinna Raja change the war like atmosphere in Samsthanam by changing the cruel attitude of rivals form the rest of climax…!

Values of the Movie Dammu: Exact strength of movie is just the presence of Junior NTR. He dealt the move single handedly lifting the falling graphs in both first and second halves. Content wise Boyapati Srinu for the first time stumbled in selection of a good story and powerful script. Even his execution was confused with imbalance seen in projection of NTR as a strong hero and on the other side preaching a message to society. Definitely Boyapati’s trademark was inconsistent. Coming to music, Keeravani’s back ground score was more noisy where as placement of songs went wrong and even the picturization was also not up to the mark. Arthur Wilsons’s cinematography has become monotonous for Boyapati films where as camera placements were interesting in few scenes. Editing by Kotagiri could have been better in second half. Dialogues by Ratnam are show stealers again. Some how, few of them have gone as bouncers without receiving. Production values of Vallabha and Creative Commercials are high.

Performance wise, NTR has got a character with purpose. Not just going on merciless massacres, Boyapati gave an intention filled role. In action scenes, he was as usual scathing while dances were just regular with no special movements. NTR’s dialogues will invite huge whistles in theatres. In contrast, Trisha and Karthika were restricted just for songs. Karthika’s double meaning dialogues were over dosed. Trisha has got very little to talk on screen. Naazar has got a chance to exhibit a different villainy. Comedy by Brahmanandam and Ali was just patchy with no content. Kota was regular. Suman, Bhanu Priya, Abhinaya Sri and Venu did up to their mark.           

Out of the Movie Dammu: Director Boyapati Srinu hasn’t cooked just a simple mass entertainer. He had few special attractions in the form of high on family emotion and a message oriented concept. This is where, NTR tried to be different and Boyapati seems to have got confused. A regular formula movie has gone wrong in implementation. Exactly speaking, climax went on testing the patience without excitement. Other than NTR on the screen, many could have walked out of the theatre. A weak story, weak script and in-sustained narration resulted in a mixed output. There are equally good and bad sides of ‘Dammu.’

Scripting wise, Boyapati did not miss a chance to show his touch either in building an energetic interval block or few scenes post interval. Once the blood bath begins, it’s the entry of Suman and preceding scenes along with tiny flashback did not work in favor. A change over in NTR’s characterization is justified but not in case of Naazar. Too many cinematic liberties further troubled the general audience. 

First half is entertaining with story getting on an enthusiastic note by interval. Second half is the rest of rivalry with an unexpected weak climax. Commercially, NTR’s image might pull tremendous openings. Long run will depend more on how second half and climax will be received by audience. Overall, ‘Dammu’ stands just as an average film.

Cinejosh Verdict of the Movie Dammu: Just NTR’s show all the way.             

                                                                          Reviewed by Srivaas