DHAMAKA is the story of a prime time reporter getting the biggest scoop of his career. Arjun Pathak (Kartik Aaryan) was a reputed TV reporter of Bharosa 24x7. He is married to Saumya Mehra Pathak (Mrunal Thakur). All is going well but due to an unsavoury incident, Arjun is demoted and is given the post of a radio jockey on Radio Bharosa. His marriage with Saumya is about to end as their divorce proceedings are going on.

A disgraced television anchor gets a phone call that will either resurrect his career or smash it to bits. Literally so: the angry voice on the line has just blown up Mumbai's vital sea-link bridge during a live broadcast and is threatening to cause further mayhem if his demands aren't met.

It wouldn't be wrong to say that Ram Madhvani is a man you can trust when it comes to exploring the best in his actors. Sonam Kapoor starrer Neerja is touted as her career-best performance and Sushmita Sen's web show Aarya is said to be a game-changer for the actress. All of these can be assumed for Kartik Aaryan's Dhamaka too. The film comes across as an opportunity for the actor to fracture the fetters of the whimsical roles that he is identified for.

Anchors are actors seeking an audience eager for drama, a ruthless broadcast editor tells her jittery anchor, not so much as a justification or necessity but as a cold estimate of demand and supply in an intense moment of Director Ram Madhvani's Dhamaka.

It has become fashionable for Indian cinema to remake foreign films, mostly South Korean, sometimes French. Of course, this is perfectly legal, but in a nation like India with its rich and diverse stories, it may be regrettable that we do not tap more often into our own mythology, culture and fiction.

Based on the Korean film The Terror Live (2013), in Ram Madhvani's Dhamaka we see Kartik Aaryan in a whole different avatar. Unlike the frothy rom coms where he effortlessly works his charm, there is a distinct dark core to the character here. Arjun Pathak is clearly a very unhappy and disgruntled man. In fact, the only time we see him smiling is in the opening sequence, which actually is a throwback to happier times.

Ram Madhvani, a filmmaker of proven talent who has a film like Neerja and a web series like Aarya behind him, uses Dhamaka to mount a frontal and absolutely tenable attack on what most news channels dish out in a fact-free world in the name of journalism. The darts, however, are wayward at times and do not hit the target with the required power and precision.

Once a top news anchor on prime time TV, Arjun Pathak (Kartik Aaryan) gets demoted to radio. He views a mysterious phone call from a bomber as a sliver of opportunity to reclaim his lost glory. The bomber threatens to blow up the Bandra-Worli Sea Link unless his demands are met. With lives at stake, does Arjun salvage his dwindling career or the people held hostage on the bridge?

Ram Madhvani is an interesting choice to direct Dhamaka, the Hindi remake of 2013 Korean film The Terror Live because of the subject it broaches. Designed as a comment on the apathetic state of primetime broadcast media, it allows Madhavani to further narrow down the stretch between reality and orchestration, the grey area that has come to be known as his signature style of filmmaking.

A day in the life of reluctant radio jockey Arjun Pathak (Kartik Aryan) is about to turn upside down: within minutes of the film's opening, he is flung into the middle of a huge crisis. A man calls in, claiming he will blow up the Mumbai Sea Link if his demands are not met. And within minutes of that, there's a loud bang, and outside his window, in the distance, Arjun sees parts of the landmark bridge collapsing into the sea.

Dhamaka's trailer pretty much promised us a Kartik Aaryan 2.0. And the film is indeed Kartik's most challenging performance so far. After being labelled as the monologue king, and having dabbled in romcoms such as Pyaar ka Punchnaama films, Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety, Pati Patni Aur woh, Luka Chhupi and so on, Kartik's Arjun Pathak in Dhamaka not only shows his range as an actor but also touches upon a different genre and emotion.

We've our mentally messed-up Radio Jockey in Arjun Pathak (Kartik Aaryan) who just gets introduced after a song which will laugh-out-loud at how single you're. The song is Kasoor and the reason why it makes you feel so single it's a flashback montage of Arjun living his happy life with his wife Saumya (Mrunal Thakur). He's now sitting in his office with divorce papers in hand and gets a call giving tips about a bomb blast on Bandra Worli Sea Link.