Cast: Anil Kapoor , Madhuri Dixit , Ajay devgn , Riteish Deshmukh , Arshad Warsi , Jaaved Jaaferi , Sanjay Mishra , Johnny Lever , Boman Irani , Rajpal Yadav
Director: Indra Kumar
Rating: 2.5 Stars Out Of 5
Story:
Total Dhamaal is the third instalment in the Dhamaal franchise. A hidden booty of 50 crore leads to a mad chase amongst a bunch of greedy and eccentric characters. In them, are a bickering couple on the verge of a divorce, greedy siblings, local goons, a police commissioner and the mastermind of the loot. Will they finally discover the hidden treasure?
Total Dhamaal is a comedy of errors. The gags are continuous and don't let you question or pause for a moment to think about what's being said in the scene. Of special mention is the appearance by the original comedy king, Johnny Lever, who lifts the entertainment with his Bengali scientist-pilot act.
Him trying to fly a makeshift chopper fitted with a 'rickshaw kick' and a ceiling fan is gold. Johnny Lever is impressive in his short cameo. After all, who can match his comic timing and the spark he has on his face while delivering the punchlines!
TOTAL DHAMAAL DOESN'T RELY ON VULGAR LINES OR DOUBLE MEANING JOKES.
Review:
Director Indra Kumar’s Total Dhamaal leaves very little to imagination in creating a loud comedy. However, the ensemble star cast aside, this pursuit for comic adventure turns into a misadventure pretty early on in its ride.
To begin with, the film’s plot is weaker than the rickety bridge we have seen in the promo.
The film opens on quite a paisa vasool note with the grand title song introducing each one of them. They are immediately bunged in together in an unconvincing plot twist. While everyone is in pairs of two, it’s the magical pairing of Anil and Madhuri that brings out the most LOL moments.
It is refreshing to see the duo of Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit come together on screen after 18 years. Their constant bickering as a couple is entertaining.
Ajay Devgn performs well within the limitations of his poorly written character, it’s the otherwise excellent Sanjay Mishra, who comes off as grossly annoying. He constantly keeps referring to Radhe (Ajay) as bro, trying hard to force humour into the situation.
We have seen better camaraderie between Arshad Warsi and Javed Jaffrey in the previous instalments of the film. The two are largely stuck with slapstick scenes that don’t do enough justice to their collective talent. Meanwhile, Riteish Deshmukh makes good with his character of a pan-chewing ruffian Lallan, who puts his mouth where the money is, literally. His scenes with Johnny Lever are hilarious. Rest of the cast like Boman Irani, Mahesh Manjrekar and Esha Gupta are wasted in halfheartedly written characters.
Given the ensemble cast, this film had the potential to be a comic roller coaster ride. However, the fact that the film is slapstick is not a problem, what brings it down is poor writing and execution.
What the film guarantees for two hours is clean entertainment - a film with dialogues that can be seen with your full family sitting next to you. It is paisa-vasool and won't fail to entertain you.
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