Damarukam (2012) Telugu Movie Review

Damurukam Movie Review

Rating: 3/5
Director: Srinivasa Reddy
Banner: R R Movie Makers
Cast: Nagarjuna, Anushka, Ravi Shankar, Prakash Raj, Ganesh Venkatraman, Brahmanandam and others
Music: Devi Sri Prasad
Cinematographer: Chota K Naidu
Editing: Gautham Raju
Story, screenplay, direction: Srinivas Reddy
Producer: Dr Venkat
Release date: 23/11/2012

After a long fight with the graphics during the making and then with the financiers during the release, Nagarjuna’s costliest film of his career has finally arrived. Whether it was worth the wait let us see.

Story
Mallikarjun (Nagarjuna) is a staunch devotee of Lord Shiva (Prakash Raj) but an incident during his childhood resulting in the death of his family takes away all his faith. What Malli is not aware is, the death is caused by Andhakasura (Ravi Shankar) who has waited thousands of years to control the ‘Panchabhootha’. He can achieve that only by marrying Maheswari (Anushka), a gifted child born in special planetary time. But destiny has that Mallikarjun should marry Maheswari. Will that really work? Will Mallikarjun’s faith in Lord Shiva be restored?  Will Andhakasura achieve his dream? All this forms the rest of the story.

Performances
Nagarjuna has given a decent performance and as usual he gives complex to all youngsters with his charming looks and well maintained physique. He could have been more assertive in his dialogue delivery, they were a bit quivery.

It is good to see Anushka back in Tollywood screens. She is graceful, seductive and beautiful. Though her character didn’t have depth, she carried it with good appeal.

Ravi Shankar did full justice to his role. His dialogue delivery is exceptional and there were many traits of the great actor S V Ranga Rao in his diction and body language.

Prakash Raj was serene and delivered a subdued performance which was required for his role. His style and appearance is rather interesting.

Ganesh Venkatraman made his presence felt. The comedy group comprising of Brahmanandam, M S Narayana, Raghu Babu, Krishna Bhagawan didn’t deliver the full humor quota. Devan, Avinash, Pragathi, Sathya Krishna and others filled the screen with their presence. Charmee came and went with her item song but could not grab attention.

Highlights

• Background Score
• Graphics
• Ravi Shankar

Drawbacks

• Screenplay
• Direction

Analysis
What happens when someone who is driving a Maruti car on city roads is given a Volvo bus and asked to drive on a highway? That is exactly the case with the director in this film.

Given his credentials, he was given a project which was way beyond his proven capabilities. But still, he could drive the Volvo to its destination managing not to have any accidents or dents.

The challenge here is, when there is a predictable storyline everything depends on the screenplay and what kind of momentum is generated in terms of dramatics.

Secondly, there should be enough focus on creating a comedy track which is entertaining and gives some light moments for the audience. Most of the film passes off in a ‘touch and go’ manner without going deep into things. Due to this, the first half passes off very lightly. But it is the second half which actually gets into the groove and shows some adrenalin.

On the music front, the background score was very good and three songs- Nestama Nestama, Reppala Pai showed good melodious flavor. As for the much talked about Sakkubai’s Chai it arrived, got finished like a cup of tea and was forgotten. Since DSP is item song champion, the makers must have assigned him for this track and he didn’t seem to give it his full. The RR was done well.

The content and scene composition department is weak but here is the bright side. As Nag mentioned during the audio release, the graphics during the climax have taken the film to a new level and thereby the Tollywood standard of filmmaking.

That way, though there was not enough substance, the packaging was done neatly and the director also ensured that he landed the film without much trouble.

Overall, the film is worth a watch once but in business terms, looking at the investment made and the figures needed to break even, it would require some blessings of Lord Shiva to push the film to a hit zone.

Bottom line: Good enough to watch once