Dhamaka Review: Filmmaker Ram Madhvani could not make a big bang in ‘Dhamaka’

Review: Ad filmmaker Ram Madhvani made a film about Boman Irani in the year 2002 – Let’s Talk. Fusion Thumri was used as the music in this film made on a very unexpected subject. Ram Sampat, who gave music in most of India’s ad films, gave birth to this wonderful music genre. The film became an international hit, Ram got many awards and Ram again returned to the world of advertising. About 14 years later, Ram made his second film ‘Neerja’, which was based on the story of the hijack of Pan Am Airlines plane and the life of the brave airhostess Neerja Bhanot. From Filmfare Award to National Film Awards, a list was made for this film as well. Ram then directed a web series for Disney Plus Hotstar. ‘Arya’ starring Sushmita Sen was well received. Its second season is also coming soon. Meanwhile, Ram got an opportunity to make it in Hindi by buying the rights of the 2013 Korean film ‘The Terror Live’ with Ronnie Screwvala. The film has been released on Netflix and considering the works done by Ram, this can be considered as his weakest film.

An attempt has been made to run the story of the film on the weak shoulders of Karthik Aryan. Karthik has been typecast and that too from only one film (Pyaar Ka Punchnama). Cute boy, obedient to his girlfriend, fun but in limits, a little mischievous but with no ill intention or deed. Some of his images are like this. In Dhamaka, he has become a television anchor who is hosting a show on his own company’s radio station because of the allegation of taking bribe. They are trying their best to somehow get their prime time show and television job back. For some reason, he has also got divorced from his wife and reporter of his own channel, Saumya (Mrinal Thakur). While doing a radio show, he suddenly receives a phone call threatening to blow up Mumbai’s Worli Sea Link. Karthik considers it a prank, due to which he angrily blows up the collar, a part of the bridge. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Karthik strikes a deal with his boss, channel head Ankita (Amrita Subhash), that he will be allowed to talk to this caller and his show will be shown on TV, and then he will also be given back the job of prime time anchor. In the TRP crazy world, his boss likes this angle and Karthik comes live on TV. After this, the explosions begin in which Karthik loses everything and the TV channel for which he has put everything at stake, finally leaves him. This attempt of the media to show a dirty truth is the original story of the blast.

The Korean film ‘The Terror Live’ was a successful film and also received many awards. In its Indianisation, nothing has been changed except the names. This happens in remakes but it has become the misfortune of this film. Many scenes in the film were thrilling but due to the weakness of the actors, their expected effect was not seen. Karthik Aryan has looked very strange as an actor. The fear and indignation on his face is not visible to the audience, and he also does not look like a lazy news anchor who wants to take advantage of the opportunity. Amrita Subhash has a better acting than her who has become ruthless boss. Sometimes she teaches Karthik the basic mantra of ‘show must go on’ and sometimes she is ready to eat his job after getting upset with his weakness. Mrunal Thakur has wasted herself in this entire film. There is only one important scene in her part, in which she is unable to do anything special. The back story of Karthik and Mrinal also looks half-baked, so the audience cannot sympathize with the characters. Within half an hour of the start of the film, the audience understands who could be behind the terrorist incidents of blasts, but the way Karthik solves this mystery, it seems that the prime time anchor of a brilliant news channel does not know anything. .

This film will not do anything for Karthik’s career. There was nothing like this in the film for the rest of the cast. If anyone will suffer the most from this film, then it is director Ram Madhvani. Korean film director Kim Byung-woo wrote the screenplay, which has been adapted by writer Puneet Sharma. Seeing Neerja and Arya, the hopes raised by Ram to direct a thriller have been dashed by this film. Ram had earlier envisioned making this film a female lead. Preparations were being made for this film first with Taapsee Pannu and later with Kriti Sanon, but both did not become a part of this film. Ram then rewrote it as a male lead film like the Korean film and signed Karthik. As producers, Ram and Ronnie did a good job in this film that the entire film was shot in 10 days instead of 45 days. By using multiple cameras and multiple mikes, every shot of the entire film was shot quickly. The experience from the advertising days came in handy and since Ram had prepared the storyboard for the entire film, the shooting became very easy for the team. The entire unit of the film was in a hotel and the film was also shot there. Despite all this, the film did not show the ability to keep the audience engaged. The disgusting face of media where they are ready to do everything for TRP, that too did not emerge properly. It is possible that after seeing the filth of the media in these days, the audience has also become ready for every form of media.

The film has a song ‘Khoya Paya’, whose lyrics are good and penned by budding Puneet Sharma. The music is by Neerja’s music director Vishal Khurana. The strongest aspect of this film is this song. This song is also being liked a lot. There was also a promotional song of Kasoor (singer-composer Prateek Kuhad). Khoya Paya is made on the theme of the film and hence fits the story. Due to the success of Ram’s web series “Arya”, Netflix bought this film by spending about 100 crores, but this deal will be loss-making. In this film only an attempt has been made to show what happens in the newsroom of the TV channel. How the story of news flourishes in the newsroom, how angles are discovered in it, how it is exploited and exploited, all this has been shown in a very superficial way. Cinematographer Manu Anand has done a good job and handled the multi camera set up very well. Editor Monisha Baldua has also done good editing, so the duration of the film is perfect.

There were a lot of expectations from the explosion, but this water has become less like tea. There is neither taste nor color of tea. This film is like a defeat for director Ram Madhvani. More so because his film Neerja and web series Arya had completely engrossed the audience in the thriller itself. The blast has not proved to be even such a big blast. If you have seen Korean original then there is no fun in watching Hindi.

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Tags: Dhamaka, movie review, Karthik Aryan