Total Dhamaal Review - A Complete No Brainer

Cast - Ajay Devgn, Riteish Deshmukh, Arshad Warsi, Javed Jaffrey, Madhuri Dixit, Esha Gupta, Anil Kapoor, Boman Irani, Johnny Lever, Sanjay Mishra and Sonakshi Sinha (Song).

Director - Indra Kumar

Take old classic’s like Rat Race and It’s a Mad Mad Mad World, add some Hindi commercial masala and voila, a recipe for Total Dhamaal is ready and it has been served with slapstick comedy by some of the biggest names in Industry.

500 Million Bounty or a treasure hunt has the entire ensemble into a frenzy to get it first, a rat race of greedy and eccentric characters. The cast consists of a bickering couple, local hooligans, greedy siblings, a police commissioner and the mastermind of the loot.

Indra Kumar directorial Total Dhamaal is the third instalment in the Dhamaal franchise. This time around the makers have used new elements of cars and trains colliding, bridges falling, wild animals and a massive ceiling fan attached helicopter crashing...so imagination is wild and comedy is loud, it is one of those movies, where you leave your brain behind, go to cinema hall, watch it, laugh and go home!

Despite having a massive ensemble, the plot and narrative is just one pile of rickety crumbled old one-liners and lacklustre comedy. Like every commercial comic caper the film opens with a bang and from there it goes downhill pretty fast.

The entire lot is put together in an unconvincing plot twist and miraculously everyone is in pair, so one doesn’t need back sub-plot or new scene construction.

The only saving grace is ever-green Bollywood Jodi – Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit Nene and their constant bickering as a couple.

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.

Arshad Warsi and Javed Jaffrey are constant from their old instalments and does get few chuckles in the new one as well.

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 talents, which otherwise would have made the better. The film falls flat when it comes to special effects or even for that matter computer graphics is shabby.

The first half is bearable but the second half is a drag and you wait for it to end! The filmmaker and writer miss out on the opportunity to generate a steady stream of humour.