The fact that a movie's success in two other languages does not automatically guarantee that its remake is a good movie was
proved recently by Sundara Travels and Dhum reinforces the theory. It is a remake
of a movie that was hugely successful in both its Telugu and Kannada versions and comes to us with the same producer,
director and heroine as those versions. But I'm still not sure what put me off more in this movie - its uninspired treatment of a cliched
story or Simbhu's appearance and over-stylized actions.
Satya(Simbhu), whose father Chockalingam('Delhi' Ganesh) is a police constable, is the apple of his mother's eye. When
beaten up by his rivals from college, he is saved by Suchitra(Rakshita), who takes him to the hospital and also donates blood.
Satya falls for her and begins wooing her persistently. Coming to know that her dad is the strict police commissioner
Tilak(Ashish Vidyarthi) does not deter him.
Dhum is a mixture of two cliches. One, the rich girl-poor boy love story, is an old and oft-seen one while the other,
a young man standing up to someone in power, has gained popularity in recent times with the success of
Dhill and Dhool . The movie doesn't offer anything new in the first
and presents us with familiar elements like the poor boy's father working for the rich girl's father. Simbhu's persistent wooing
irritates us and Rakshita's change of heart happens without any clear reason. The confrontations between Simbhu and Ashish
Vidyarthi lack fire too. They emphasis brawn over brain and mostly consist of Simbhu tackling rowdies sent by Ashish.
In any love story opposed by those close to the lead pair, we need to sympathise with the couple and dislike the people opposing
the pair's union, for the movie to have any kind of an impact. But the opposite happens here. Simbhu boasts of a rowdy look with
a pierced eyebrow, unbuttoned shirt and a blade around his neck. He has no respect for elders or the police, breaks the glass of
cinema theatres when they don't give him tickets and constantly addresses the girl he loves in a rude manner. So we end up on the
side of Ashish Vidyarthi, fully understanding why he doesn't want his daughter marrying Simbhu!
Dhum makes a mockery of the police both in its portrayal of the policemen and Simbhu's behavior with them. In movies where
the chief bad guy is a cop, we usually get some honest, sincere policemen to balance things out. But that is not the case here.
Barring 'Delhi' Ganesh, none of the other policemen make the department proud. Ashish Vidyarthi, the commissioner, hires rowdies
and has Simbhu beaten up while Livingston, another senior police officer, makes up the comedy track with his chase of the men
who beat him up wearing monkey caps (on the bright side, the track does contain some laughs). We also have policemen who
disregard orders from their superior and let the couple escape from their jeep!
Simbhu looks the part of the rowdy. He makes us take notice of his dance and stunt skills but his styles and the swish
accompanying them get tiring pretty soon. Rakshita makes us wonder how she managed to play the heroine in all three versions
of the movie. Ashish plays the typical villain while 'Delhi' Ganesh and Sumitra play the stereotyped roles of the affectionate mother
and stern father. Livingston reveals his comic side nicely and raises some laughs with his dialog delivery. Manase is a
nice, melodious song among Deva's tunes while Chanakya is pretty catchy.
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