Damadamm!

One of the few important and basic principles I have learned in the creative field is that you should never under or pre-estimate anyone for whatsoever reason. And the lesson once again came ALIVE in front of my eyes as I watched DAMADAMM – the latest creation coming out of the house of 'over-famous for the wrong reasons'- Himesh Reshamiya.

In true words, many of you may not like to watch his film, considering it as a waste of time even before seeing it for your various reasons. But the harsh truth is that this time, the singer turned actor-producer and his director Swapna Waghmare actually deliver a product which is much better than many other big budget movies with many saleable stars in it, who literally take everything granted in the name of comedy and cinema.

Admittedly DAMADAMM isn't a great movie or a very brilliantly made project based on any new subject. But its surely isn't a bad movie too if compared to many other recent silly ventures presented before us by some big production houses with huge reputation. In simple words, the film may not be Great, but it at least doesn't try to make a fool of the audience sitting in the theater. Revolving around the plot of an over possessive girlfriend and problems arising due to her over-obsessive nature, DAMADAMM has a simple script talking about the subject in a realistic manner. The characters seem to be straight out of our day to day life with whom we can easily relate to and that is biggest reason why the film cannot be termed as BAD on the whole.

The project instantly reminds you of all those simple yet effective classics made by Basu Chatterjee a few decades back. In fact the script of DAMADAMM seems to be just perfect for another Amol Palekar movie of the seventies when we had gems such as "Rajnigandha", "Chhoti Si Baat", "Chitchor" and more. But considering it from the current trend's point of view, it remains too simple, without any surprising twists in the story and lacks the pace as required. Moreover after a while it all becomes easily predictable as usual which takes the spirit away from its likable plot.

Coming to the major weak points of DAMADAMM which actually bring down the movie to the level of just average, I have to mention its confusing genre which hangs between a comedy and drama. At times it clearly gives you an indication of a deliberate attempt being made to convert a decent plot into a comedy. Plus it also has too many songs forced into the narrative along with Himesh Reshamaiya himself, who in not convincing at all in the lead role. The director could have easily edited out few of its uninteresting songs hampering the pace, but since it was a HR's own film so they had to stay there to bore the viewers like the MANGO track. Also I couldn't understand what was the use of exploiting the most famous song of the soundtrack 'Umrao Jaan' in the end credits, after everything gets over?

Apart from its avoidable songs, if only Himesh could have resisted the passion of acting in the movie himself, there might have been a different story to tell here in the review. Because if truth be told, Himesh is there in the film just like a wrong size tyre, forcibly fitted in a car along with the rest 3 good ones. So, DAMADAMM has Purbi Joshi as the impressive possessive lover (and she is really good in her act), Sonal Sehgal as the understanding loving third angle of the triangle, a simple-realistic plot and some good foot tapping songs to build up the show together. But it also has Himesh in the lead who really struggles throughout the film in order to match the other performances. No doubt the man has been blessed with a great talent of music by the Almighty, but acting is a different game altogether which he urgently needs to understand.

Here I would like to mention that with DAMADAMM, Himesh as a producer undoubtedly proves that he has got some sort of understanding of choice of subject for his movies. So he is in fact quite capable of producing reasonably good films, provided he casts some other suitable or new actors in the lead and confines himself to only an important cameo in the script. And that's what makes me positive in expecting a real good project coming from his home production soon.

Nevertheless, returning to his latest venture DAMADAMM, you may like it or not but this is not bad and much better than many big recent duds with huge stars in it.