DNK Movie Review

After delivering a big blockbuster last year with his debut film, Little Heart, the YouTuber-turned-actor, Mouli Tanuj Prasanth, teamed up with one of the top production houses, Mythri Movie Makers, for his second film, DNK, a crime comedy. Debut director Sreenu Kambala wrote the script and directed the film, while Sinjith Yerramilli scored the music. Sushmitha Shetty, played the lead actress role, while senior actors like, Ali, Raghubabu, Bhadram, Rajitha, Priya and Gundu Sudharshan, played crucial roles in the film. After generating decent curiosity among the audience with the teaser and trailer, the makers released the film in theatres today. Did Mouli score a blockbuster with his second film as well? Did the debut director, Sreenu Kambala, come up with an entertaining crime comedy film? After Little Hearts, did the music director, Sinjith Yerramilli, score yet another chartbuster album for a film starring, Mouli? Let’s figure it out with a detailed analysis.

What is it about?

Eswar(Mouli), a good-for-nothing youngster who dropped out of engineering, aims to earn quick money through cricket betting and online gaming. He falls in love with an equally hopeless but seemingly rich girl, Deepu(Sushmitha Shetty). The girl’s father(Raghubabu), gets to know that Eswar, took about ten lakh rupees from Deepu and lost all that money. Deepu’s father warns Eswar to return the money as quickly as possible. What did Eswar do to earn money quickly? How did he end up involving himself in a gold shop robbery? What trouble did he get himself into because of the decision to rob a gold shop? Did Eswar really do the robbery? If not, who did it? Forms the rest of the story.

Performances:

Mouli looked very confident and he did try to pull off the film with his comedy timing. But, the director’s intent to show him as a mass hero did not work. Though he performed well, the elevations, slow-motion shots, dances and punch dialogues, looked odd. Sushmitha Shetty in the lead actress role did nothing apart from just being there. The role she played was written poorly and her performance was equally poor.

Character artist, Bhadram, played the comedy villain role. Although he did a decent job with his performance, it felt like he was miscast in the role. Raghubabu and Ali in crucial roles generated a few laughs here and there. And, the same happened with senior character actresses, Rajitha and Priya. Almost every actor in the film, including Mouli, was loud and over the top in most places. Everyone seemed to have just delivered what the director asked for.

Technicalities:

Sinjith Yerramilli’s background score was one of the biggest negatives of the film. He came up with a loud background score that did not help the film in any way. There were multiple songs in the film but none of them worked. Suriya Balaji’s cinematography was adequate. There’s not much to talk about in his visuals. He delivered what was needed within the limited available resources and budget. Sreedhar Sonpally’s editing was crisp in the first half but he should have done a better job in the second half. Especially, the editing during the third act, looked rushed. Let’s discuss the writer and director, Sreenu Kambala’s, work in detail in the analysis section.

Positives:

1.⁠ ⁠Twists
2.⁠ ⁠Opening & payoff sequence on Laughing Buddha

Negatives:

1.⁠ ⁠Crude Jokes
2.⁠ ⁠Lack of original ideas
3.⁠ ⁠Loud background score
4.⁠ ⁠Over-the-top performances
5.⁠ ⁠Needless slow-motion shots
6.⁠ ⁠Poor Writing

Analysis:

The genre, Crime comedy has a very high success rate in the Telugu film industry. Crime comedy films like Money(1993), Swamy Ra Ra(2013), Brochevarevarura(2019), etc., were thoroughly enjoyed by the audience in the past. The debutant director, Sreenu Kambala, indeed came up with an interesting idea for his first film with Mouli, in the lead role. However, an interesting idea cannot make a film successful. It requires a fresh approach in storytelling and very good expertise in writing the comedy episodes to make an engaging and entertaining crime comedy film. Unfortunately, with DNK, the director failed to come up with an interesting narration. The writer’s and the director’s inability to come up with fresh ideas was evident throughout the film. A full-length track on a gay character to generate comedy, seriously? When do our directors stop using gay or queer characters to generate comedy, well crude comedy?

To be fair to the writer and the director, he in fact came up with a few interesting twists. There was nothing groundbreaking about the twists but they had enough potential to thrill the audience, if executed with a well-written screenplay. Also, the way he introduced the hero character with a Laughing Buddha idol and then gave a payoff to the idol during the pre-climax and climax, was very interesting. Mouli in the lead role did his best to pull off the film with his comedy timing but it is impossible for him or any other upcoming actor, to pull off such a blandly written film. There were a few sequences that generated laughs but those moments were very few and far between.

‘Naa thammuduni chusi vuntaru.. Vadu baga disciplined andi.. nakante munde lesthadu poddunne’, ‘ Tiffin chesava? Ledu…cheddama?’, ‘Yesuko battala shop… Yesukunedhi ikkadena.. Ippudu Veedini veyyala’ – These are a few lines which Sreenu Kambala, came up with to generate comedy. The film had many such crude moments throughout. The first meeting sequence between the lead actor and the actresses and the follow-up sequence to the same on a gay character in the second half, were disgusting to say the least. It was surprising to see such a crudely written film from a top production house like, Mythri Movie Makers. Instead of trying to come up with their own ideas, the director used references to successful films like Kadagam, Nuvvu Naaku Nachav, Sivaji, Bigil, Chandramukhi, Lankeswarudu, OG and a few other films, to generate comedy. The team even did not hesitate to copy the ‘Govinda Govinda’ song from Khadgam. The least we expect from a young team is at least a few fresh ideas but in DNK, what we get to see is crude jokes, unnecessary slow-motion shots, needless references to at least ten films and their famous dialogues, and a loud background score. One of the reasons why Little Hearts worked big time is because of the charm and innocence portrayed by Mouli while playing his character. But in DNK, we don’t see that charm and innocence. Right from the introduction scene of Mouli, there was an attempt to show him as a mass hero with needless slow-motion shots. All of it looked very artificial and out of place.

Overall, the basic idea of DNK, has the potential to become a good crime comedy film but the lack of fresh ideas in the writing, made it a very underwhelming watch. Especially, the crude jokes and the entire track on the gay character test your patience after a point and make you feel bad about the free-falling standards in writing the comedy episodes in Tollywood lately. Hopefully, Mouli, will learn from the mistakes quickly and focus on his strengths before it gets too late.

Bottomline – Crude & Loud

Rating – 2.25/5