After much churning and deliberations the Telugu film industry seems to have hit on a success template for its young heroes. It is a tried and tested formula which every young hero with a family is diligently adhering to. What is that formula and what is the secret of that elusive success?
That formula is to hail from a clan (on reel and also in real). Later praising the clan name mouth by every positive character and tune the audience that the actor, who in reality is acting on screen, is their saviour for real. In a nutshell, the audience of today are seen as a rudderless and bereft of proper leadership by the directors who are dishing out movies like these with amazing regularity. Well, we shall now commence the story of "Dammu."
Some 70 years ago, a cluster of villages led by two clans get divided due to some clashes. The village and their heads are dead against each other that they think of blood rather than food. After thousands of deaths, an MP (Ranaganath) proposes to existing village heads Suman and Nasser that they need to put a stop to these killings to exist in peace. But to let the bad blood flow concedes 2 days per year during Sankranti for the clans to go at each other. Whichever clan wins, it shall retain the supremacy over the villages for an year.
Suman emerges victor almost all the time fighting with Nasser but his family suffers most of the losses as almost all of the men become handicapped or die fighting their enemies. Amidst this scenario, Suman's wife, Bhanupriya gives birth to a male child. But to the shock of Suman, he finds that his son is a still born. Still he shows the dead baby to the aspiring villagers and tells them that his son would be sent away for special training and would be brought 25 years later. After that he fights with Nasser and dies. Nasser then announces that he shall wait for the arrival of the successor of Raja Vasireddy family and till then he will not allow any male child to be born to the families which support his rival.
Fast forward to 25 years later, there is a young orphan of 25 years, N Ramachandra (NTR) who has a bank balance of Rs.63 lakhs. He earned this money through his adventurous deeds of saving people and accepting donations from them. Though he saves people from dangerous situations and fights amazingly well, he abhors killings. He just wants to let people know that LIFE IS GIVEN TO LIVE. All he wants now is a girlfriend to marry. He sees Satya (Trisha) who is a heiress for 6000 crore empire. He falls for her but she puts a condition that he should hail from a royal family to claim her hand. In the meanwhile, Ali the side-kick of NTR reveals that there is a Raja (Kota Srinivasa rao) who is secretly trying to adopt someone as successor to his throne. NTR falls for the offer and immediately accepts the proposal.
After the adoption ceremony is done, he is renamed as Vijayadhwaja Sri Simha and taken to the ancestral village where the villagers are waiting for the arrival of the successor to liberate them from the villainy of Nasser. What shall Sri Simha do now? As popularly demanded by all who surround him, just change his mind and take up the sword and kill all the enemies? Or will he abhor the challenge and just run away from the task? Will the violence which has engulfed the village will ever subside? To know all the answers just see "Dammu."
NTR carries the film on his shoulders. He is the sole positive point of the film and it is because of his performance that the film stands on two firm feet. He showed enough meat in his acting and some scenes in which he contemplates about quitting the place really showcase his talent. Though these kind of characters are not new to NTR, he brings in enough thrust to the proceedings. The female leads, Trisha and Karthika disappoint a lot. They share no chemistry with NTR and look taller than him in most of the scenes.
Coming to the direction, Boyapati Srinivas clearly had his target audience in mind. It has to be said that he had catered to the expectations of fans of NTR and of Nandamuri family. The opening episode in which the main story of the village rivalry is established remains the most riveting part of the film as the emotions are effectively portrayed. But the rest of the film does not match up to those expectations though at few points, the director gives a rousing touch like in the scene where NTR takes the reins of the horses and also the scene where NTR takes up the sword reluctantly and starts killing. But had that zest remained throughout and some unnecessary scenes were cut, the overall impact would have been much higher.
The music of MM Keeravani is better to be heard rather than seen as the songs were not effectively shot nor properly placed. The placement of "Ruler" song was a major disappointment. Re-recording is always MM Keeravani's high point and he did not disappoint.
On the whole, Dammu is a film which fits into the mass template and the mass formula. It might make some good collections and be called as a hit, but actually it does not take telugu cinema any forward. Its just as routine as the previous telugu film.
That formula is to hail from a clan (on reel and also in real). Later praising the clan name mouth by every positive character and tune the audience that the actor, who in reality is acting on screen, is their saviour for real. In a nutshell, the audience of today are seen as a rudderless and bereft of proper leadership by the directors who are dishing out movies like these with amazing regularity. Well, we shall now commence the story of "Dammu."
Some 70 years ago, a cluster of villages led by two clans get divided due to some clashes. The village and their heads are dead against each other that they think of blood rather than food. After thousands of deaths, an MP (Ranaganath) proposes to existing village heads Suman and Nasser that they need to put a stop to these killings to exist in peace. But to let the bad blood flow concedes 2 days per year during Sankranti for the clans to go at each other. Whichever clan wins, it shall retain the supremacy over the villages for an year.
Suman emerges victor almost all the time fighting with Nasser but his family suffers most of the losses as almost all of the men become handicapped or die fighting their enemies. Amidst this scenario, Suman's wife, Bhanupriya gives birth to a male child. But to the shock of Suman, he finds that his son is a still born. Still he shows the dead baby to the aspiring villagers and tells them that his son would be sent away for special training and would be brought 25 years later. After that he fights with Nasser and dies. Nasser then announces that he shall wait for the arrival of the successor of Raja Vasireddy family and till then he will not allow any male child to be born to the families which support his rival.
Fast forward to 25 years later, there is a young orphan of 25 years, N Ramachandra (NTR) who has a bank balance of Rs.63 lakhs. He earned this money through his adventurous deeds of saving people and accepting donations from them. Though he saves people from dangerous situations and fights amazingly well, he abhors killings. He just wants to let people know that LIFE IS GIVEN TO LIVE. All he wants now is a girlfriend to marry. He sees Satya (Trisha) who is a heiress for 6000 crore empire. He falls for her but she puts a condition that he should hail from a royal family to claim her hand. In the meanwhile, Ali the side-kick of NTR reveals that there is a Raja (Kota Srinivasa rao) who is secretly trying to adopt someone as successor to his throne. NTR falls for the offer and immediately accepts the proposal.
After the adoption ceremony is done, he is renamed as Vijayadhwaja Sri Simha and taken to the ancestral village where the villagers are waiting for the arrival of the successor to liberate them from the villainy of Nasser. What shall Sri Simha do now? As popularly demanded by all who surround him, just change his mind and take up the sword and kill all the enemies? Or will he abhor the challenge and just run away from the task? Will the violence which has engulfed the village will ever subside? To know all the answers just see "Dammu."
NTR carries the film on his shoulders. He is the sole positive point of the film and it is because of his performance that the film stands on two firm feet. He showed enough meat in his acting and some scenes in which he contemplates about quitting the place really showcase his talent. Though these kind of characters are not new to NTR, he brings in enough thrust to the proceedings. The female leads, Trisha and Karthika disappoint a lot. They share no chemistry with NTR and look taller than him in most of the scenes.
Coming to the direction, Boyapati Srinivas clearly had his target audience in mind. It has to be said that he had catered to the expectations of fans of NTR and of Nandamuri family. The opening episode in which the main story of the village rivalry is established remains the most riveting part of the film as the emotions are effectively portrayed. But the rest of the film does not match up to those expectations though at few points, the director gives a rousing touch like in the scene where NTR takes the reins of the horses and also the scene where NTR takes up the sword reluctantly and starts killing. But had that zest remained throughout and some unnecessary scenes were cut, the overall impact would have been much higher.
The music of MM Keeravani is better to be heard rather than seen as the songs were not effectively shot nor properly placed. The placement of "Ruler" song was a major disappointment. Re-recording is always MM Keeravani's high point and he did not disappoint.
On the whole, Dammu is a film which fits into the mass template and the mass formula. It might make some good collections and be called as a hit, but actually it does not take telugu cinema any forward. Its just as routine as the previous telugu film.
