'Dum Maaro Dum': not quite a trip - Movie Review
April 27, 2011
Starring Abhishek Bachchan, Bipasha Basu, Rana Daggubati, Prateik Babbar, Aditya Pancholi
Goa is India's Rio, its Miami Beach, its Cancun. Its beautiful beaches and hippie party scene attract tourists from around the world. This former Portuguese colony on the Arabian Sea—the idyll and underbelly—is the star of Dum Maaro Dum, which means "take a puff." But the city doesn't hog the show—the characters are prominently defined, with one big exception, and well-acted.
The film is dark and intense, filled with sex, drugs, and violence (including some shocking police brutality). But the conflicts lack pull. Part of the problem is the herky-jerky narrative structure. The separate storylines come together awkwardly, exacerbated by big dollops of backstory. The most important link between the characters is also the most tenuous. Joki (Rana Daggubati), a laidback musician, is a contrived common denominator. His character never pops—and not because of shortcomings on the actor's part.
Joki decides to help his friend Lorry (Prateik Babbar), a 17-year-old who's in a heap of trouble—but it's never clear how they're friends, to what extent, or why, especially since Joki is obviously older and not on the same college-prep track as Lorry. Lorry has the grades to follow his girlfriend to university in the U.S., but not the money, and feeling demoralized, he starts partying hard, waking up in places he wishes he hadn't and mixing with people he normally wouldn't. He foolishly accepts an offer to smuggle drugs to the U.S. to come up with the tuition money he needs and he gets pinched at the airport. The 24-year-old actor who plays Lorry is impeccable as a scared, stupid teenager—this newcomer, in only his third film, is a star in the making.
Joki becomes Lorry's champion because he lost his girlfriend Zoe (Bipasha Basu), a half-British, half-Indian flower child, to the same fate. Zoe dreamed of becoming a flight attendant and instead ended up a drug mule for a local crime boss, Lorsa (Aditya Pancholi). After she was arrested and Lorsa got her out of jail, she was forced to become his girlfriend, and she traded in her love beads to give her new, loose-cannon lover some much-needed help with his business.
Enter Vishnu Kamath (Abhishek Bachchan), a corrupt police detective who's charged with taking down Lorsa. Bachchan dominates in the role; the actor is more assured than he's ever been.
Joki appeals to both Kamath and Zoe to help Lorry, and he becomes a vigilante on a mission to get Lorsa, which is quite a stretch for a guy who plays raves for a living.
The ending is grim and anti-climactic. It's surprising, but there's no foreshadowing of the surprise, and what's meant to be a clever revelation elicits a feeling of that's it?.
Dum Maaro Dum is rated Worth Watching.
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