Dhamaka Movie Review: Kartik Aaryan's Strong Act Carries This Not-Enough Explosive Remake of a Korean Thriller (LatestLY Exclusive)

Dhamaka Movie Review: Ram Madhvani loves to craft movies in confined spaces, doesn't he? His debut movie, Let's Talk, was set within a flat. Most of the action of his second directorial, Neerja - the last Hindi movie I am not ashamed to say made me cry - was on a plane. Now his latest - Dhamaka - is set within a makeshift newsroom, with only a couple of scenes, including an introductory song, pictured outside. Contained and focused? Yes. Effective, not so much! Dhamaka: Kartik Aaryan Reveals He Worked Under Extremely Challenging Environment for His Upcoming Netflix Movie.

Dhamaka, for the unaware, is an official remake of the 2013 Korean thriller Terror Live!, a very faithful adaptation at that. I understand why Madhvani was fascinated with the premise that he would be sure would click with the Indian viewers. It has the theme of terrorism, as well as shows the ugly face of media circus. A face that we are very much familiar by now. Funny part is that I recently saw a promotional gimmick for Dhamaka where the lead star Kartik Aaryan turning up in a newsroom of a channel as his character, Arjun Pathak. The very same facility his movie takes plenty of digs at.

Anyway, since the irony is lost both on the PR and the News channel, let's get on to the plot. Arjun Pathak, once a hotshot anchor for a new channel, is going through both personal and professional crises. He had been now demoted to being an RJ for the  same channel's radio show, while his wife Saumya (Mrunal Thakur in an extended cameo) is seeking a divorce. Why Arjun never sought to go to another channel is never explained.

Then out of the blue, Arjun gets a call on his show from a Raghubeer Mhata, who claims to be a labourer and threatens to blow up Bandra sealink if he doesn't listen to his problems. Thinking it as a prank call, Arjun asks him to go ahead and do that, only for the caller to follow up on his words and blow up part of the bridge.

Instead of reporting the call to the police, as he should have, Arjun uses the opportunity to regain his old position back and reign over the breaking news. Little did he knew then that that move was a big, big mistake.

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Good things first, Dhamaka makes efficient use of its limited setup and set of characters to keep the first two acts thrilling enough. It helps that Dhamaka has to stick to a template created by the original Korean film, which offers plenty of intrigue and thrills, aided by the fact that South Korea has the same developing country problems like us in corruption, lack of bureaucratic empathy for working class and TRP-obsessed media. Dhamaka Song Khoya Paaya: A Determined Kartik Aaryan Tells Us To Live Life With No Regrets in This Amit Trivedi Number.

The film motions through the proceedings well enough as Arjun gets his RJ office transformed into a newsroom, while chaos reigns behind him through the glass windows. Dhamaka doesn't serve all the cards out for you right away. We are not told immediately what went wrong with his marriage. We are not shown the ideals clash between Arjun and Saumya, the latter an idealistic reporter on ground working for the same channel. We are not immediately informed why Arjun got demoted, but do have an inkling that there could be a connection of that reason with the caller's tragedy. The suspense might not matter in the end - the linking feels obvious - but the pacing works enough makes us keep guessing.

Two interactions that do Dhamaka a huge favour, one being between Arjun and his ratings obsessed boss Ankita Malaskar (Amruta Subhash, fantastic act here... little disappointed that she isn't around much of the last act), who doesn't mind feeding him to the dogs as long as people are glued to the channel. And the other, of course, being between Arjun and Raghubeer. Soham Majumdar, who voices the character, does an incredible job of evoking empathy for Raghubeer who only has a simple demand, that is the most difficult to offer, when egos are on the high.

Then there is Kartik Aaryan who gives a good account of himself, capturing well the resurgent arrogance of his character which transforms to abject fear and frustration. It isn't a transformative performance that boggles your mind, as we saw Sonam Kapoor in Neerja. For me, when it comes to picking Kartik's most complex performance, that would be in the much reviled Love Aaj Kal reboot. But the actor has the panache here to carry the show from the very start to the very end in a morally ambiguous role where his mistakes are his own doing and the repercussions are very much his own crosses to bear.

Now comes the disappointment, and that's a big one. The third act.

All the good work done by the previous two acts are somewhat undone here. The satire on media circus, the highlight of the second act, became more of a caricature in these portions, and it become harder to take the film seriously from hereon. We get even more caricatures on actual news channels that are self-exploitary than Dhamaka can even try to be. And considering you send your leading man to such a channel, I wonder what's the point there. Even the the whole terrorism plot leaves more threads untied here, becoming more and more implausible for reasoning.

Another sore point is how Dhamaka treats Mrunal's character here. While not wanting to spoil what happens to her, it is shown through the context of Arjun's character, and since he isn't a very likeable character to begin with, the movie rather seeks sympathy for him than to her.

While watching Dhamaka, you will be reminded of two films - the Hollywood thriller Phone Booth and Bollywood thriller A Wednesday. Both the movies end on a strong note, especially how they treat the terroriser. Even if A Wednesday turns the supposed 'terrorist' into a common man, it is not hard to empathise with his agenda, since the damage he causes is minimal and to the point. As for Kiefer Sutherland's character in Phone Booth, he remains mysterious and aloof till the very end.

'Raghubeer Mhatha' may leave us guessing about his true identity, but once it is revealed, that hardly comes off as surprise. The idea to paint him in a sympathetic light is also jarring, even if the background is tragic, for by then he has caused enough damage to both property and lives, innocent ones at that. Considering that he was far-sighted and proficient enough to anticipate moves of both Arjun and the cops, it isn't believable that he didn't anticipate the repercussions of his actions. Or maybe use his ingenuity to take vendetta on people who actually caused harm.

Yay!

- Kartik Aaryan

- The Pacing in the First Two Acts

Nay!

- The Third Act is a Major Letdown

Final Thoughts

If you have seen the OG, then this remake is more or less similar, flaws and all. Dhamaka is decent enough in the setup but struggles to maintain the tempo and couldn't rectify the flawed third act of the Korean film. The only takeaway is Kartik's strong performance. Dhamaka is streaming on Netflix.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 19, 2021 01:46 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).