No life in this remake

The silence is deafening in the movie hall even as the hero bashes the dreaded goons, braves a battery of questions from the human rights panel and ‘stumbles’ upon the lovely heroine before falling inevitably in love. Just when there is a collective effort at stifling yawns, actor Ravishankar’s entry electrifies the audience. In a rare occurrence, the villain carries the film on his shoulders!

Director Madesh could have infused some life into the remake of this Surya-Jyothika starrer. His intentions are no doubt good - remaining faithful to the original has saved many a film maker before. But with a budding actor, his gamble doesn’t pay. Even Ramya’s presence fails to lift the film. Amateurish handling leaves behind a lot of dissatisfaction. This is not to take away anything from Chiranjeevi Sarja. His hard work shows. Equally obvious are his wide-eyed wonder while interacting with his leading lady.

As Tamate Shiva, Ravishankar hogs the limelight easily. Cinematographer Manohar’s work is adequate while Harikrishna’s music fails, mainly due to the acoustics in Kapali and over-loud background score. K V Raju’s dialogues seem to be translated from the original, in places.

Overall, the actors’ lack of belief in their roles takes away viewing pleasure. Even the action department fails, with its poorly conceptualised action sequences.
Dandam Dashagunam sounds robust, but only in title.