Dasanna Review

Dasanna is your typical B-grade movie. The laws of good movie-making don't apply here, the laws of Newton don't apply here, the laws of common sense don't apply here, the laws of time don't apply here, and the laws of censorship don't apply here. One of the ways of avoiding such a movie is to use the "exit" sign, but a better way is to never use the "enter" sign.

Moving on to the story, the mighty Dasanna (Srihari) is a loyal servant of the aged zamindar (the late Raghuvaran) of a village, and doesn't know that he is in fact a villain. One day, the zamindar sees the shapely Malli (Meena) in a village fair, and tells his attendants that he wants to sleep with her. Unfortunately, no one tells him he's not "Sexagenarian" in that sense. They say that since she's from a reputed family, he must marry her first.

Next up is a plan hatched - by the zamindar as well as her own folks - to get her to marry the zamindar, while making her think all the while that she's being hitched to Dasanna. Dasanna knows none of this, of course - he simply thinks his master is getting married, and makes sure that everything goes on smoothly. Malli comes to know the truth after the wedding, and is thoroughly shocked. She writes to her brother (Suman) who is in Dubai, and who comes back to fight the injustice but is clobbered to death.

The movie ends with Dasanna ultimately carrying the heroine out to safety, kicking 50 goons (while he's carrying her), jumping off a waterfall (while he's still carrying her), and finally, telling his master that he will marry her (while the theatre owners are carrying us).

The story has plenty of family sentiment. By family of course, we mean the family that'll sentimentally disown you after you tell them you watched this flick. The story also has plenty of comedy. By comedy, of course, we mean the stunts, the dialogues, the twists and the climax.

Dasanna is hardly relevant for this time and age. Heck, it is hardly relevant for any time, age and species. The film seems to have been in the cans for around a decade now, and has been let loose on us now for an inexplicable reason.

Meena is a brilliant actress and is the only one who puts in a sincere performance, but this film was clearly a bad idea for her career. Srihari isn't around for a lot of the time in this flick, but does a decent job. The others could have done a decent job, too - by staying out of the movie. Posani pitches in for some intellectually stimulating satire, but ends up with a pile of sludge.

M M Sreelekha's music is quite good in parts, but won't make a difference to the fortunes of the film. And though the film seems to have been quite professionally made, the dated look doesn't manage to open any eyelids.

In sum, here's a movie that you should avoid till it hurts.