Total Dhamaal: Too many comics make a total khichdi

Total Dhamaal

Hindi (U)

Director: Indra Kumar

Cast: Ajay Devgn, Riteish Deshmukh, Arshad Warsi, Javed Jaffrey, Madhuri Dixit, Esha Gupta, Anil Kapoor

Rating: 2 stars

A dash of this plus, a pinch of that and something of almost everything. Now mix it all up and voila! You have Total Dhamaal.

Si señor, summer’s already here and don’t we need something cool and new?

But sadly, the latest edition in the ‘Dhamaal’ series is an ode to its own past — so hung up on the past that even some of its songs are remixed versions.

We get the old ingrediants in a new container — many contenders for a huge amount of money, a treasure hunt, mad race, a humane angle and a happy ending.

Total Dhamaal is one of those film that’s still hung over on The Hangover. Even the cute primate, Crystal the Monkey, makes an appearance.

The cast consists of a motley of comedians, each with their own masterstroke.

The film must be appreciated for giving a good amount of screentime to each one of them.

This is the reason one is able to sit through the movie without feeling a “dhamaal” of boredom, apart from a good joke here and there.

There is the thief Ajay Devgn and his sidekick Sanjay Mishra; a not-so-happy Gujju-Marathi couple Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit; police commissioner Boman Irani and his deputy Vijay Patkar; brothers-in arms Arshad Warsi and Javed Jaffrey; a Bengali helicopterwala Johnny Lever and a tender coconut-sipping South Indian Ali Basha to name a few.

Phew! Imagine the budget!

That listed, one is also convinced they didn’t have enough cash left for the scriptwriter.

The movie mostly deals with physical comedy accompanied by ugly Bollywood background sound cues (can someone take those away?), which is supposedly to tell you: “Hey, that last sentence was the punchline.” With the elections here, demonetisation too makes its way into the story.

This film may not be a great choice for the weekend, but one can certainly watch it for the sinful joy of being able to make fun of it.