'Das Ka Dhamki' is produced by Karate Raju. Here is our review of the film.
Plot:
Hotel waiter Krishna Das (Vishwak Sen) feels offended when a rich lady insults him by mocking his poverty. He dreams of a rich life with his friends (Hyper Aadhi and Mahesh Achanta) whom he calls 'amma' and 'nanna' because his biological parents have been long dead. By a quirk of fate, KD gets to sit on the chair of a pharma company's CEO. He owes his sudden luck to the uncanny fact that he is the CEO's doppelganger. When he realizes that he has been trapped, there is no going back to the peaceful job of a waiter.
Post-Mortem:
When Ajay is introduced as a dangerous money-lender, you suspect the intent of this film. Does it even intend to transcend the low-scale ambitions that Telugu action entertainers were known for in the 2000s? You soon start suspecting that the film is stuck in a time warp. As the story progresses, some of your worst fears are confirmed. Ajay's character, despite being a filthy rich moneybag, doesn't know how to handle a commoner who is now flexing his muscles in the corporate building that he has come to inhabit.
On the upside, the script offers an unexpected twist in the second half, introducing the actual antagonist. This twist is milked so much that the film becomes a repertoire holding half of all the twists we are going to watch in all movies put together this year.
The story makes us question the motives of different characters at every step. This is not intelligent when the plot is narrated with the sole intent of deceiving the viewer. Even a car chase sequence is not what it is, prima facie. When Nivetha Pethuraj's Keerthi (who is apparently in love with KD because she believes he is a rich guy) prods a key character to shed his inhibitions and go crazy, you know there is more to the plot than meets the eye.
A low-ranking cop comes and warns the hero at the corporate office. He is just another policeman played by an unfamiliar artist. We blame the casting choice at first but it makes sense later. There are quite a few choices that make sense only in retrospect. Despite any efforts to view the film with a sympathetic lens, it is difficult to ignore the fact that it frequently reduces itself to a simplistic, action-oriented narrative.
Krishna Das also has a romantic 'maradalu' to boot when he impersonates the CEO. The mother's sentiment is artificially narrated. Sen's acting brings out Krishna Das' confusion and guilt. He pulls off multiple shades with ease. However, his acting alone can't do the heavy lifting all by itself.
Closing Remarks:
'Das Ka Dhamki' is a middling product. The writing and execution suffer heavily in the stretch where the bad guys fail to keep the cards close to their hearts. With more strategic writing in this area, the film could have elevated itself to a higher level.
