Dhammu my Review

Dhammu my Review

Managed to catch NTR’s much anticipated film in the theaters last night. Dhammu carries a lot of hype and Boyapati’s interviews on TV managed to catch my attention. I try to review Dhammu from my perspective.

The story is quite simple, actually. NTR, a good smartian falls in love with Trisha at first sight. This leads to a turn of events and he ends up as the head of a Raja family in a remote village. The village is in crisis and the story progresses with NTR coming to their rescue and finally becoming the true heir. The screenplay has similar patterns from many older films. A regular movie goer can easily expect the turn of events with a little involvement. 

NTR is back to his elements in his role as Ramachandra / Raja Basi Reddy. He plays to the gallery from the first scene. He does his role with panache. The character is a progressed version of Venkatesh’s from Tulasi. There are also parts of Balakrishna’s characterization taken from Simha. He is subtle when required and brings out the anger and tears at the right time. I loved his expression of mad rage in the scene where he beats up Nazar’s son before the interval. The barrage of dialogues to Nazar in the temple were superb and controlled. There are few actors of the young generation in TFI who can carry a role with so much weight as well as NTR does. Trisha and Kartika do what they have to do. Trisha seems to have a decent role in the movie, but any attention she manages to catch is hogged up mercilessly by Tarak. Nazar is good (though I thought his meesam was funny ;)) and the battalion of family members on both sides were decent. Venu is good in his role and adds the drop of fun and emotion to the story.

I thought this movie as a progression of mass film genre through the years. There was a concerted effort to generate heroism rather than elevate it from nowhere. There are a few meesam / vamsham dialogues in the movie, but Boyapati manages to keep it from getting serious. He always places a comic scene mocking the “over the top” dialogue that has just been said. Boyapati sparkles in parts. The pre-interval and climax blocks were plain superb, but there are quite a few passing scenes where it gets too violent without much reason. He got the crucial parts right but the feeling of completeness is missing. I only wish someone taught him (& Ram-Laxman) a little physics and the producer told him that he cannot go on breaking huge chunks of sets in every fight. I was surprised with the climax but am happy that the screenwriter maintained consistency. The ‘Ruler’ song was grand. The scene where Tarak kills for the first time is superbly conceived and orchestrated. It really kicked up my senses. The effort put in the movie is evident and that is comforting enough for me that I put my money in the right place. Camerawork is very good and Wilson manages to capture rich shots throughout. Keeravani’s music is great in a majority of the scenes but weird in a few (A few shots in the climax had some pretty weird music which made no sense to me). Anand Sai is great with his sets and the editing was good too. Dialogue by Rathnam is good, especially when it comes out through NTR. There are a lot of double-meaning conversations which I enjoyed (Thudavala kadagala, Thadisipoyindi etc). Choreography is good in all the songs and I’m so glad they did away with the ‘choodu ippudu chesi choopista’ kinda steps. ‘Vaastu bagunde’ & ‘Raja Basi Reddy’ were the best shot ones. The production is rich and neat.  

This is a film which has to be seen on the big-screen. Be warned that there is quite a lot of violence in the film. Tarak is a revelation with his dialogues and dances. I would rate the movie 6/10 if I had to. The movie succeeds in giving you your fix of Tollywood for the week.  

P.S. Any suggestions are welcome. I am hoping adults behave like adults. Do let me know what you thought.