Review: Daggaraga...close to boredom

Hyderabad: Sumanth, Vedhika starrer Daggaraga Dooramga is so na've in its treatment of its main subject that the film sends the audience to the borders of boredom.

Directed by Ravi Kumar Chavali, the film was touted to be an action love story and the action part is largely based on a cat-and-mouse chase between the leads and a group of terrorists.

Sumanth stars as Gautham, an ad-film director who creates a model on his computer without realising that Meenakshi (Vedhika), who lives in Vizag, looks exactly like Gautham's creation.

When Meenakshi's prospective groom turns her down after he sees Meenakshi's photos on several hoardings, she seeks her friend Zarina's help to get her out of trouble. Zarina (Sindhu Tholani), is an investigative journalist who has been keeping an eye on group of terrorists in Hyderabad and one fine day captures their conversation on a video recorder.

When Meenakshi lands in Hyderabad to meet Zarina, she lands in trouble with the terrorists and police and it is up to Gautham to come to her rescue. What happens next forms the rest of the story. After a film like Raaj, Sumanth chooses to play safe. Although the concept of Daggaraga Dooramga seems reasonable on paper, the film doesn't work at all.

The director spends too much time in setting up the story and bringing all the elements together. The first half an hour alone is spent on Gautham (Sumanth) coming up with designs for his ads and it's only with the introduction of Zarina (Sindhu Tholani) that the film's pace picks up.

The main problem with the film is the uni-dimensional approach to the characterisation of terrorists and what they plan to do. Such characters and even their dialogues have been part of too many films and the concept just doesn't work in this action love story.

It's almost superficial and we are never on the edge of our seats throughout the film. Even the songs pop up abruptly which hamper the film's pace even more.

None of the actors make a strong impression, although it's not their fault completely. Their character graph goes for a toss in such a contrived plot and even their anger, at times, seems to be genuine, it's been there for more than two decades.

Vedhika looks beautiful and Sindhu Tholani looks clueless in her scenes. Even the presence of Brahmanandam, who's introduced for some comic relief, fails to brighten the mood.

The only silver lining in the film is the title track whi ch has been beautifully composed by Raghu Kunche. Pedda Puli song is well-composed although its timing is abrupt.

Ravi Kumar Chavali could have made better use of the resources he had for the film. Perhaps little more depth in the characters could have salvaged the film.

Daggaraga Dooramga is extremely predictable and clich'd in its approach. It's time to move on from referring to Kasab and bomb blasts in Hyderabad, Mumbai to whip up anger and passion from the audience.