Dammunnodu Review

To watch Dammunnodu assuming it is a movie would require industrial amounts of courage. And to actually call Dammunnodu a movie would require industrial amounts of Valium. This we discovered after the theatres called it a movie and we watched it - here's what unfolded on screen.

If you're a person with feelings, you can't describe the intelligent, honest, strong and brave Bose (Rishi) without a sharp twinge of pain... because of your snoring neighbour's elbow. The first 15 minutes of the film are dedicated to putting any sane human to sleep, and the rest is a conspiracy to never see him awake.

Now despite several good qualities, Bose is unemployed by choice and always crabby, thanks to a grim past dating back to his IPS selection days. Some years back, his love for honesty, coupled with a local politician's morals from the Mesozoic era, led to several events; the net result being a rape attempt on Bose's sister and a complete loss of her speech. Since then, Bose has been worshipping his uniform and photos of freedom fighters, but has refused to get into the murky politics of the police services.

One day he happens to help out a traveler (Nasseer) and his family, who get stranded in his (Bose's) village, and bashes up some goons who'd have killed him. The traveler turns out to be none other than a highly-ranked police officer. Impressed with Bose, he makes him a police constable in Vizag. Impressed with this turn of events, Bose joins the police force. Impressed with the audience still hanging around, the director spools the rest of the spectacle.

The dreaded don Chintakaya Durga (Rahul Dev) and his set of comrades including politicians and police officers keep creating havoc in Vizag. Some of their deeds are gruesome enough to cause goosebumps in Hitler. But Bose fights them and cleans up society of all evil, thereby making his entire village proud. You have to give it to him - he cleaned up the theatre, too.

Dammunnodu's potential to keep even the front-benchers away must be lauded. The film has a mind-numbingly clichéd story, and is badly made. Further it has plenty of messy gore. A few funny scenes with Venumadhav brighten up things, however.

Rishi, Nasseer and Rahul Dev are the key characters in the movie and perform well. The villainous police officer, Bose's boss, also seems quite talented. The female lead, playing a girl in love with Bose, may have done well, but is a little too unglamourous for the part. In any case, she's cast away in a nothing role. Almost everyone else has the acting skills of a broken pencil.

The music seems like a pre-historic experiment, and the makers have fitted in a raunchy item song as well. The cinematography mainly consists of the camera giddily sweeping back and forth and up and down, and the camerapersons must be rewarded with a free one-way ticket to Pluto.

When are you watching this flick?