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| Edited By: Blessy Chettiar |Source: DNA |Updated: Nov 21, 2013, 01:44 PM IST
Cast: Ashish Vidyarthi, Linda Arsenio, Rajit Kapur, Joshua Fredric Smith, Vinay Rai, Vimala Raman, Megha Burman
Director: Sohan Roy
Rating: **
DAM999 is an intriguing name for a film, laden with significance. A dam has been for long a metaphor for pent up emotions.
In this Warner Bros production, director Sohan Roy, a marine engineer seeks to present a story of nine characters representing the Navarasas (nine emotions) mentioned in an ancient Indian treatise. Though this depiction is unclear, Roy uses the opportunity to build a dam of a movie using 3D technology, packing in a lot in 110 minutes.
The film opens at the book launch of Captain Fredric (Joshua Fredric Smith), a mariner who has only 18 months ago witnessed a dam disaster. Accompanied by his wife Razia (Megha Burman), another mariner Vinay (Vinay Rai) and his wife Sandra (Linda Arsenio) the viewer is led from one flashback into another and another until we’re lost in a sea of mishaps (quite literally).
At the heart of the story is a local politician and his abysmal regard for people, his foreigner wife’s illustrious family name and safety in general. The director set out to highlight the catastrophes that ageing dams can cause, but stumbled somewhere by including too many characters and back stories that dilute the real issue.
Even though the attempt seems genuinely out of concern to educate and inform, the resultant mishmash is hardly defensible. The 3D doesn’t add to the spectacle DAM999 aims to be.
Shankaran, the astrologer and Ayurveda doctor, his painfully obedient daughter Meera, her love interest Vinay, Vinay’s firang wife Sandra, their diabetic son Sam, mariner Captain Fredric, his invalid sister Maria, his wife Razia and mayor Durai represent the nine emotions.
Tedious as it sounds, DAM999 comfortably slips into preachy mode with Shankaran’s (Rajit Kapur) advocacy of the powers of Ayurveda, astrology and the powers of nature. The romance angle too fails to provide relief as cheesy dialogues take centrestage. The CGI, though unimpressive, is definitely overwhelming merely because of the scale of happenings in DAM999.
Ironically, there’s enough real drama for the unsatisfied reel film-goers as Tamil Nadu has sought a ban on the film, which they think sides with Kerala on the dam issue. For the uninitiated, the two states have been locked in a legal battle over the Mullaiperiyar Dam for years. Interestingly, not once does director Roy mention Mullaiperiyar.
A confused effort that strays into a sea of destruction just like a hapless, old dam, DAM999 can be easily skipped.
