Dum Maro Dum

Rohan Sippy’s Dum Maro Dum was surprisingly palatable. What I initially thought would be an endless wait for Deepika Padukone, turned out quite the opposite. It is also a good strategy to not give up your ace in the first 20 mins (I hope Farah Tees Maarkhan has noted)

The film is set in Goa, a paradise where alcohol comes cheap, women come cheaper and life, it’s almost free. Today the city is synonymous to ‘relax’. As per oxford - Relax: make or become looser/ make or become less intense or concentrated. People inhabit Goa from all over the world to achieve this state. A state also descended into if under the influence of alcohol or substance abuse.

A hippy haven for drugs, rave and sex, if you’d like, they say Goa runs deep. Gaining speed for its notorious reputation, ACP Vishnu Kamath (Abhishek Bachchan) has been given the responsibility to clean up Goa. Get rid of its unwanted debris and make the sea shores safe again. However, the drug lords are not willing to let go of their play ground just as yet or as easily. The film highlights a common known fact that Goa does house the biggest and richest international drug fests. But many say drugs run deeper than blood in Goa’s veins, and that most police, political guardians, locals, all have a share in this one big pie.

On ACP Kamath’s journey to resuscitate, his first arrest is a juvenile called Lorry. Lorry dreamt of attending university with his girlfriend in America. But due to insufficient funds he’s unable to do so and feels life has sold him out. This makes him an easy bait to the so called recruiters of drug trafficking. They promise him a one way ticket to his university and college fees in return for him being the carrier for their consignment. Lorry falls prey to his dreams but only reaches as far as the screening counter at the Goa airport.
He doesn’t make it to America but his arrest sets off a loop of leads. The first of which is the introduction of Loki, Rana Daggubati a local musician, whose life is narrated through quick flashbacks. Loki and his ambitious girlfriend Zoey (Bipasha Basu) were all too happy before her dreams too, took her high and far away from life as they once knew it. Her dreams of flying beyond the blue skies, for a simple trade off – smuggling hidden consignments across borders all came crashing down, the day she made headlines – “Airhostess caught with 80 lakh cocaine at airport”.
Sentenced to jail for 14 yrs, she was out just in 14 days. Loki’s boss, Biscuit (Aditya Pancholi) an influential businessman used his contacts to change her life imprisonment from the four walls of the jail to the four walls of his room. That was the end of her freedom, dreams and their love. Loki could do nothing but stand aside and watch. Five years later when the same happened to Lori, Loki decided to do something. This was all too harsh a punishment for dreaming big. He wasn’t about to sit back and let Loki become another Zoey.

He approaches ACP Kamath who by now has handpicked his squad to fight this nightmare. Kamath sees some truth in Lori’s innocence but Loki needs more evidence in order to prove it. However adding to their frustration is the existence (or the lack of it) of a mysterious drug lord, Michael Barbosa, who promises to make the chase no less difficult. Kamath and Loki are now at the brink of frustration on how an invisible man or his shadow can be the mastermind behind Goa’s darkest secrets. Loki seeks out Zoey, hoping that being involved in the drug circle for over 5 yrs she may be able to provide some leads, begs her to help save his brother from suffering the same fate. Knowing very well that treachery equals your body being mysteriously washed across some deserted shore, Zoey still decides to help (this strange thing called love I tell you, it only kills!). Unfortunately help doesn’t find Zoey in time.

Just as ACP kamath is close on the heels of unraveling the ghost called Barbosa, he too is mysteriously engulfed by unknown shadows. Loki now left flabbergasted decides to not let Zoey and Kamath’s death be only newspaper fodder. With substantial clues left behind, he finally puts the lights on, on Goa’s biggest rave party.
The movie is pacy and the non linear narrative sets the tempo steady. However, the use of one voiceover, while warning Lori of consequences if he belted was a big give away a little more than required at that junction of the story. Hate to say this but the biggest damper was Deepika’s sizzler. A 32 inch screen or You Tube did more justice to the song Dum Maro Dum visually, than the big screen. Up there, it just looked like an imitation of a bad RGV set trying very hard to be a ra(v)ge.

But that I‘d say was the last of the disappointments. AB baby has lot oodles of weight and has not done too bad a job. Bipasha Basu has either got a new stylist and makeup person or she sent them on a crash course 101 right before the film. Whoever, or whatever, she should hold onto them for dear life, cause with the lighting in this film she’s looked so Roman, so flowy, so feminine. Rana Daggubati should keep the stubble and stay away from intense roles and dialogues. He’s too yummy and it would be unfair for a hunk like him to not be accepted in Bollywood. Pratiek Babbar, nice as usual, loved the extra touch of going all croaky, added to his character of ‘puberty, just about getting there’

Pritam deserves a hug for his music score. Dum Maro Dum, revamped, is doing well, inspite of its constipated lyrics. But other songs like Jiyein Kyun and Te Amo are beautifully melodious and they just stick. While one is a very happy carnival, fallen so crazy in love kind of song, Jiyein kyun has the feel of sitting by the sea, reminiscing on some ‘what the f*%$ happened here’ kind of moments or maybe it’s just me.

Dum Maro Dum a good one time watch this one.