As the film’s tagline goes, it is about a young man’s survival game in mafia land.

Kumar (Dhanush) joins a mafia gang after his father murders his mother. He soon takes over the mafia gang and becomes youngest leader. He admires a prostitute Krishnaveni (Sneha) and makes his ‘live-in’ partner. As things are turning out to be good for Kumar, he encounters his close aide Madhu’s sister (Sonia Agarwal). Falling for her charms, he forcibly marries her. In the consequence of events, he also marries Sneha. And then plot thickens with his two wives changing his course of life.

Analysis

The film starts off interestingly but soon drifts into a mediocre gangster movie. Storywise, it has nothing new but director Sri Raghava resorts to the technique to make the film different but he fails to succeed. The film’s first half is similar to many of the mafia movies we have seen like Satya, Nayakudu et al. A youngster joining mafia by consequences and rising to the top is oft-repeated theme. And the second half completely loses its steam after the hero is fascinated by Sonia’s charm.

Without doubt it has good technical standards. In particularly, cinematographer Aravind Krishna’s work is splendid. Heroine Sneha’s performance is a treat to watch. But the excessive violence, lewd language, and hero’s obsession about sex puts off.

Also the hero’s character lacks sympathy. Indeed, in the end one gets confusion as to what the director’s intention to make the film. He has not really thrown any new light on the mafia lifestyles. And its running time is 3 hours, too lengthy for this kind of films. The entire second half moves at snail pace.

What’s hot!

Director Sri Raghava seems to have inspired by many of Korean and Mexican movies. The lighting method and ambience of the film is similar to such films. Sneha as prostitute has come up with brilliant performance. She steals the show. Dhanush has done neat job but he goes overboard in many instances. Sonia Agarwal enters at fag end of the film. She is just okay. And the rest of the characters are relatively new faces.

Yuvanshankar Raja’s music, especially his recording, is simply superb. Aravind, the cinematographer, has maintained the consistency of his good camerawork. He has used low lighting to get the feeling of grim look in tune with the film’s theme. The editing by Kola Bhasker is okay. But the excessive use of split screens and fade outs and fade ins should have been avoided.

What’s not!

It is superficial attempt. The director Sri Raghava’s story has nothing new. The violence towards Sneha and other characters and the excessive gory scenes are cheap gimmicks. Except for the first half, Dhoolpet has gloss but not soul.

Bottom-line!

Disappointing fare. For Rajnikant’s son-in-law it is bad start in Telugu.