Review of Damarukam

Damarukam (2012)
4/10
Indianized - End of Days!!
26 November 2012
Long long time ago, there was a battle between Gods and Demons in which there is a lone survivor from the Demons side. Andhakasura (played by Ravi Shankar) (Andhaka - meaning Darkness + Asura - meaning Demon: A demon born from darkness). He vows to avenge the death of his companions and goes into penance for thousands of years waiting for the right time.

The time is right when there is a rare celestial alignment of planets and a girl is born (the story jumps forward to the current day). The demon now has to wait for the girl to grow up, and marry this girl (Anooshka) at the right time and then sacrifice her to the Gods to get a control over the primary forces - Air, Water, Fire, Earth and Lightening. This will then make him powerful, to raise an army to fight back with Gods once again.

The only threat to Andhakasura is from a human who is a devout worshipper of Shiva as a child, but who later becomes an atheist due to a personal tragedy. Andhakasura believes he killed this only threat when the boy was a 12-year old. But a twist in fate makes the boy survive and become the hero of the story - King Nagarjuna!

Nagarjuna looks young and energetic. How does he manage it every time! Anooshka looks divine. Prakash Raj was a a let down.

The movie does not meet the hype surrounding it. It is loosely based on the Hollywood blockbuster - 'End of Days (1999)' casting Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gabriel Byrne and Robin Tunney.

The mythology behind 'Andhakasura', on which this movie is based on, is much more interesting and intriguing than what was shown in the movie. The movie made an attempt to cover the weakness of the plot with the VFX special effects. Its a good attempt but still does not fully make up for the weak plot. The editing is not top class, with many scenes just put in to fill up the time.

Plot - Weak and mythologically inaccurate. Though one could argue that this is just an inspiration and not supposed to show what actually happened.

Acting - The acting is a 6/10, the main cast have done their bit.

Direction - OK.

Comedy - Poor for Tollywood standards. Lot of comedians, but the director did not make good use of them.

Music - Very good. As expected from DSP. 'Nesthama Nesthama' song and 'Reppalle' song are very nice. Charmi really slimmed down for the item song 'Sakkubhai'.

Special Effects - Good, but the ones from the previous movies like Eega, Arundhati were better and more tied up with the storyline. The special effects with the one containing 'Nandi' is really amazing.
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