SOCIO-DRAMA

Starring Raveena Tandon, Sayaji Shinde, Raima Sen, Sanjay Suri, Shaan

Directed by Kalpana Lajmi

Music by Bhupen Hazarika

      DAMAN, (domination) is another movie just takes the rights of women and brings into the Bollywood limelight. 

Last year we saw ASTITVA that questioned the inequality between the genders. And now with DAMAN, director Kalpana Lajmi tries to highlight a more serious issue, that of domestic violence. 

But the serious issue shall remain a lot unanswered since Kalpana Lajmi's DAMAN is in no way any RUDAALI. Nor is it in comparison with the better woman-oriented subjects, it is no way any DAMINI or ASTITVA either.

Somehow, inspite of good performances from the lead actors, somehow the script and the story never really manages to grip the viewer. Even the big climax fails to rise the way one expects it to. 

Raveena Tandon, once again tries to do some serious acting and this time in DAMAN she plays the lead role of Durga, a normal innocent and docile girl who gets married to a ruthless chauvinist of a husband (Sayaji Shinde). Durga thus leads a torturous life at even becomes a victim to marital rape to her dominating husband.

But she does find some emotional support from her kind and understanding borther in law Sunil (Sanjay Suri).

And even when Durga finally bears a daughter Deepa (Raima Sen), her husband Sanjay refuses to accept the girl child as he prefers a son.  But she finally resorts to flee from the home when her husband is bent upon getting his 13 year old daughter married off. The situation also get worse with Sanjay accusing his younger brother of having an affair with Durga, and in a fit of anger, he also kills Sunil.

But inspite of running away from home, Sanjay still  comes searching for the mother and daughter, since it is Deepa who inherits all the wealth and property. So he tries to kill Deepa but it upto Durga to emerge fiercely to protect her child from the clutches of this monster!

Music director Bhupen Hazarika once again comes to score the music for this movie. Last time when Kalpana-Hazarika teamed up for RUDAALI, the songs were a sensation. This time most of the songs are good except for a few of them which is completely out of sync with the movie.

Raveena Tandon does give a great performance and certainly she has used all the experience collected over the years in the film world effectively here. But another person who really shines in the movie, is Sayaji Shinde. And the lead two are very well supported by a decent performance from Sanjay Suri.

Raima Sen just sits through the movie pretty, and pop singer Shaan makes a debut into Bollywood and this man is good as long as he has to do a easy-going care free dude but the man is just not ready to emote, atleast not yet!

But then except for a strong performance from Raveena and Sayaji Shinde, and a few good songs from Bhupen Hazarika, the rest of the movie tumbles miserably.

Even if the first half had something credible in it, the second half simply falters along. The shaky camerawork becomes very irritating a few scenes later. Looks more like some home video.

The screenplay keeps shifting to and fro between past and present, but Kalpana Lajmi fails to create an interest in her viewers. A better example of better narration was in the Mahesh Manjrekar directed ASTITVA. Strange how a male director could do more justice to the woman-oriented movies.

Undoubtedly one of Kalpana Lajmi's weakest creation to date!