It´s been in the news for a while now, and no amount of controversy will be able to save this film from sinking. Daman is probably one of the most shoddy and uninteresting films of the year. Kalpana Lajmi has failed with this one and how! The film was touted to be a gem and a classic, taking up such issues as marital rape. But the film does it in such an insensitive way that the viewer is shocked that this film could even have been considered for a National Award. Coming from a director who has made the classics Ek Pal and Rudaali and the contemporary Darmiyaan, Daman is probably one of her most embarrassing pieces of work.

The film starts off with a young Durga (Raveena Tandon) who is anxiously awaiting her wedding. She see´s marriage as a security net of sorts, and aspires to be the happiest woman in the world. Her marriage to Sanjay Saikia (Sayaji Shinde) as tea plantation owner from Assam turns out to be a nightmare rather than the dream that she was hoping for. He sleeps with one of her servants and upon confronting him, Durga is brutally beaten and then raped by her husband. Thus begins a horrible cycle of being physically, mentally and emotionally abused. Through this all, Durga has a pillar of support from her brother-in-law Sunil (Sanjay Suri). After Durga gives birth to a baby girl, Sanjay refuses to accept it, he will only accept a boy. He kills his brother under the influence of alcohol, accusing his brother of impregnating his wife and fathering the baby girl, Deepa (Raima Sen). Durga, along with Deepa, runs away after Sanjay demands that their now thirteen year old daughter be married off. Durga vows that Deepa will never have to go through what she did. This anger´s Sanjay even more, and after Deepa is set to inherit all the property, he even tries to kill her. This is where the meek Durga grows fierce and strong in order to save her child, and we witness a clichéd ending which leaves you upset for paying full price to see this bakwaas!

The films major flaw of this film is poor characterization. None of the main characters are truly believable and effect the performances of the actors in the film. We are never told why Sanjay is so angry, and Durga´s rising in the end is very unlike her meek character. To her credit Raveena has done a good job in portraying Durga. The flashes of talent we once saw in Shool and Ghulam-e-Mustafa are displayed very well in this film. Raveena is the only artist in this film to truly rise above her poor characterization. There are countless scenes where she blows you away, and she proves that yes, she too is an actress. Raveena shows that she can express feelings very well through her facial movements, and should not be constantly sidelined to nothing but a dancing bimbo. She carries off many of the scenes with ease, but her characterization leaves a lot to be desired! However as for her deserving the National Award, Tabu and Karisma´s performances were much more endearing and made so much more sense. Raveena did do a great job, but it is not National Award worthy against the other two performances! Of the rest of the cast Sayaji Shinde does a good job, but his character is so exaggerated that his performance suffers. I´m sure he would have been even more effective if we knew the motives behind his anger and abuse. Never-the-less he is very scary and does a good job in conveying the anger of his character. Everyone else is sidelined to almost nothing in the film. Sanjay Suri desperately need to stop taking silly roles as a second fiddle. He shows a spark of talent in this film, but is easily done away with and so his performance can´t really be commended. Raima Sen is beautiful but she was much more convincing in Godmother. Here she grates on your nerves, and her performance is nothing noteworthy, just average. Shaan should never ever decide to take up acting, he is horrible, and needs to take lessons if he wants anyone to take him seriously.

The second major flaw in the film is the script and the direction together which make a very lousy film. Kalpana has very good intentions of bringing up a very serious issue, but she does it in such a poor way that no one will be able to relate with any of the points brought up. The script had so much potential and could have been something hard hitting and very unique, but Kalpana somehow managed to ruin it. Instead she subjects the audience to disturbing rape and abuse scenes which seem to be there for the sake of the topic and nothing more. Kalpana needs to realize that just adding these scenes will not make her film hard hitting, but backing it up with a relevant characterizations and believable scenarios would be of great help. The film seems to send out the wrong signal to abusive husbands, and shows them as victorious over their wives, something which is very unrealistic. The college romance angle also seems forced to add a little commercial masala to the film, and in turn we witness something so pathetic and arbitrary that even the audience is embarrassed watching the film. Also Raima looks like Raveena´s daughter when she is dressed as a conservative village girl, but once she hits college she looks more like Raveena´s sister, and Kalpana really should have thought of the repucussions in that image shift. The ending of the film is horrible and we have seen it before, which leaves it very unconvincing, however one must say that Raveena does excel in this scene as well as her rape scenes near the beginning. The music is soft and soothing, but is not made for the charts. Among the songs Bhupen has done a fabulous job with Sun Sun Goria and Gum Sum Gum Sum. The cinematography could have been so much better, as a result the production values look very bad, and gives the film a cheap look.

Overall the film is horribly scripted and very badly shot. It pales in comparison to Kalpana´s earlier works. She does cover some issues and there is a lot of discussion on various women´s issues in the film, but that does not help make the film effective. The film is a horrible portrayal of what really goes on, and in between unconvincing scenarios and poor character sketches the audience is left bewildered. What really makes you think is how much everyone in the film raved about it when shooting for it, claiming that it would be breakthrough and worth the wait, instead the only good this about the film besides the fact that it ended is the lead actresses performance. Raveena Tandon´s performance is the only thing worth watching the film for, she truly excels. Hopefully Kalpana will get it right with her next two Modh and Chief Minister-ji. Sadly this much awaited film only disappoints! Next time with better execution of this powerful topic, the message may finally get through. A sad case since many of us were hoping for an intelligent film.