It was strange to see an official remake of the Korean film The Terror Live (2013), when we already had our original A Wednesday released in 2008 and Madaari in 2016, exploring the same subject in a much more impressive manner, strongly making a point.
Perhaps the makers intentionally wanted to stress on the role of media in such incidents and how they sell these inhuman attacks just to gain their TRPs. But even if that was the intent, Dhamaka still fails to raise the point as it never establishes any emotional connection with the viewers, which essentially has to be the key feature of such supposedly socially relevant films. The writer, director, and the entire cast largely remain trapped in the state of overdoing things, adversely affecting the motive, that was not frankly expected from such a talented team.
Following an all-familiar story progression of a news anchor receiving a call from a terrorist in control of some planted bombs, Dhamaka begins with a soothing love song and ends with a meaningful track talking about life, that can surely be included in its merits. However, despite Kartik Aaryan sincerely attempting to break his set-image, it never reaches out to the viewers as any shocker and the overacting keeps annoying at intervals.
Besides, some silly writing makes you look at the screen in amazement when a TV producer carelessly interferes in the work of a specially appointed officer from the Counter-Terrorism Unit. The officer is carefully instructing the anchor on how to buy time from the terrorist and the TV producer (Amruta Subhash) says that no, you cannot do it as she needs the TRP ratings to go above 70%. An utterly poor and absurd exaggeration defying all the logic. But then logic also goes for a toss at several other points in the film, providing no explanations of any kind, blindly imitating the source.
As an official remake, Dhamaka strictly follows the original Korean film, except for the start and the end. Fulfilling the typical requirement of a Bollywood film, it begins with a forcibly inserted love angle making way for a female lead decently played by Mrunal Thakur. In fact, only Mrunal and Vikas Kumar (as the officer) appear to be the two natural actors surrounded by all loud ones. Also, the film never tries to be inventive and the same can be said about its background score giving a deja-vu kind of feeling.
Overall, Dhamaka tries to convey the eye-opener facts, unmasking the ugly face behind the news business, entirely surviving on the tactics of sensationalism and fake creations. Sadly, the makers themselves do the same in order to expose the truth, becoming a part of the game. As a result, Dhamaka doesn't turn out to be any truthful film, falling way short of even Madaari, forget A Wednesday. Coming from Ram Madhvani - the director of Neerja and web-series Aarya, it stands nowhere close to the two, as a pretty weak product.
On a concluding note, it’s indeed commendable to make a film in just a few days within the restrictions of lockdown and other constraints. But the process doesn’t serve any purpose if it all appears to be hurriedly done, leaving no significant impact on the viewers. Thankfully, Dhamaka ends in about 100 minutes without any unnecessary stretching, that certainly deserves to be mentioned as its positive feature.
Rating: 2 / 5
Bobby Sing
bobbytalkscinema.com
