Total Dhamaal Is A “Leave-Your-Brains-Behind-At-Home” Entertainer
Banner: Ajay Devgn Films, Maruti International, Fox Star Studios, Pen India Limited & Mangal Murti Films
Producers: Fox Star Studios, Ajay Devgn FFilms, Ashok Thakeria, Indra Kumar, Sri Adhikari Brothers & Anand Pandit
Director: Indra Kumar
Star Cast: Ajay Devgn, Madhuri Dixit, Arshad Warsi, Javed Jaffrey, Anil Kapoor, Riteish Desmukh, Esha Gupta, Boma Irani, Sanjay Mishra, Mahesh Manjrekar, Pitobhash Tripathy, Sudesh Lehri, Niharica Raizada, Swati Kapoor, Vijay Patkar, Manoj Pahwa, Rajpal Yadav, Johnny Lever, Crystal – The Monkey, Sanjay Dutt, Ashish Chaudhary, Jackie SHroff & above all Sonakshi Sinha
Music: Gourav-Roshin & Sandip Shirodkar
The Dhamaal franchise might not be counted in same league as Golmaal or Housefull films. But fact is that both Dhamaal in year 2007 & Double Dhamaal in year 2011 have been successful ventures & have worked on small screen arena as well. Therefore, recall value is quite strong. Hence, it’s no surprise that 3rd part of franchise namely Total Dhamaal, carries a lot of expectations. Makers have even upped scale & madness by not only getting 3 prominent actors (Ajay Devgn, Madhuri Dixit & Anil Kapoor) in addition to existing star cast minus Ashish Chowdhary but by also making it an adventure comedy, a rarely explored genre in Bollywood.
Scripted scenario of Total Dhamaal reveals story of a bunch of greedy madcap characters on an adventure. Guddu (Ajay Devgn) is a small-time conman. He along with his partner Johnny (Sanjay Mishra) gets a tip that a large sum of money is being exchanged in a hotel room. They reach there only to realize that one who is receiving money is a police commissioner (Boman Irani). Nevertheless, Guddu & Johnny rob money from commissioner & escape. At this point, their driver Pintu (Manoj Pahwa) double crosses them & runs away with money, amounting to Rs. 50 crores. Meanwhile, Avinash Patel (Anil Kapoor) & Bindu (Madhuri Dixit) are married for 17 years & have now filed for a divorce. Lallan (Riteish Deshmukh) & Jhingur (Pitobash Tripathy) are firemen who are fired from their job for taking a bribe. And Aditya Srivastav (Arshad Warsi) & Manav Srivastav (Jaaved Jaaferi) are in need of a job. They are employed in an antiques arts gallery by its owner Altaaf (Sudesh Lehri). Unfortunately, Manav Shrivastav ends up breaking these antique materials worth crores. With no other option, they run away from gallery & that too by stealing Altaaf’s high-tech car. They along with Lallan-Jhingur & Avinash-Bindu are on highway when they see a plane crashing. They go to site & see Pintu who is inside ill-fated flight. He’s about to die & he blurts out to them that he has hidden money he stole from Guddu at a zoo in Janakpur, located almost 450 kms away from site. Before he confesses, Guddu reaches there & tells others to back off since it’s his money. But others threaten to go to cops. That’s when Guddu devises a plan, whoever reaches Janakpur Zoo first will be sole owner of those Rs. 50 crores. Thus begins race of these guys towards Janakpur. What happens next forms rest of crux of film.
Ved Prakash, Paritosh Painter & Bunty Rathore’s story is lame as it’s just borrowed from 1st ever part. There’s absolutely no novelty & it’s completely predictable. Ved Prakash, Paritosh Painter & Bunty Rathore’s screenplay thankfully is a bit better as funny situations this time are different than last time. But at certain points, it’s also a bit random. This is especially true in 2nd half. Ved Prakash, Paritosh Painter & Bunty Rathore’s dialogues are one highpoints & add to fun.
Indra Kumar’s direction is a bit outdated. He hasn’t realized that times have changed. Plot & script already takes viewers intelligence for granted & his direction doesn’t help much either. Film gets stretched in middle of 2nd half. Also certain communities are made fun of & it might not go down well with a section of audiences. On positive side, there are numerous sub tracks as there are so many characters but he nicely shifts focus equally between them.
Total Dhamaal begins with a bang. The entry scenes of all characters are hilarious, especially that of Guddu. Lallan’s entry scene would also raise loads of laughs, manner in which all principal characters bump into each other is also quite nicely done. But then, there’s no story movement as next 80-90 minutes are devoted to characters trying to reach Janakpur Zoo & varied obstacles they encounter on their way. Some scenes here are funny & genuinely raise laughs like madness in railway tunnel, Avinash-Bindu’s attempt to take a shortcut, sequence involving GPS (voiced funnily by Jackie Shroff) & Lallan’s scary helicopter ride.
Post interval though it begins to seem repetitive. Also, 2nd half is devoid of humor especially when compared to 1st ever half. Skydiving & waterfall scenes just don’t work. Notice how makers have taken a jump in narrative. They don’t explain how Avinash-Bindu escape from waterfall & how Lallan got hold of a motorbike. It seems like director Indra Kumar suddenly realized that he’s invested too much time in doing Total Dhamaal & hence quickly jumped to climax. However he ought to have done it in a better way, finale is also quite long drawn & again like Dhamaal, it gets emotional. Thankfully element of wild animals & humor surrounding them give climax a nice touch.
Gourav-Roshin’s music gets no scope & thankfully, no songs are added in middle of adventure. “Paisa Yeh Paisa” is most memorable from lot. “Mungda” is disappointing while “Speaker Phat Jaaye” is played in end credits. Kookie Gulati’s song direction is visually great.
Sandeep Shirodkar’s background score suits genre of film. Keiko Nakahara’s cinematography is satisfactory. Durgaprasad Mahapatra’s production design is a bit gaudy & even poor in some scenes. R P Yadav’s action is fine while NY VFXWaala’s VFX is average. In scenes of animals, VFX is quite good but in some sequences, it’s a letdown. Dharmendra Sharma’s editing could have been crisper. At same time, way focus shifts from 1 character to other is praiseworthy.
Performance wise Ajay Devgn is hilarious & his expressions are spot on, thereby inducing maximum laughs. Anil Kapoor is loud but it works overall. Madhuri Dixit gets her comic timing just right. Her character also has a sensitive side. However, Anil-Madhuri’s tu-tu main-main gets on one’s nerves after a point. Riteish Deshmukh sadly gets a raw deal & gets dominated, although he too gets his share of funny scenes. Arshad Warsi is sans complaints as always. Jaaved Jaaferi, one of biggest strengths of franchise, is quite good. Since there are too many actors, his screen time is a bit less as compared to last 2 films. But his admirers will surely have no reason to complain. Esha Gupta as Prachi has a very late entry but leaves a mark. Boman Irani is decent & his scenes with Ajay Devgn & Vijay Patkar as Inspector Patkar are quite funny. From supporting cast, Vijay Patkar, Sanjay Mishra, Manoj Pahwa, Pitobash Tripathy, Sudesh Lehri, Mahesh Manjrekar as Chinappa Swami & Srikant Maski as Reddy are notable. Johny Lever as Shubroto however leaves maximum impact out of these supporting actors. Special mention should also go to Crystal (monkey Zoo security official) as he’s funny & cute & also to Jackie Shroff who is funny as voice of GPS. Sonakshi Sinha is okay in “Mungda” song.
Tail Piece: Total Dhamaal is a “leave-your-brains-behind-at-home” entertainer with its share of funny moments. If you are not looking for wisdom & rationale in a light-hearted entertainer, then this movie is definitely for you.
At the box office turnstiles, it’s only masses who might give film thumbs up & they’ll majorly determine fate of film. Period!!!!!
