Film: Total Dhamaal
Cast: Madhuri Dixit, Anil Kapoor, Ajay Devgn, Ritesh Deshmukh, Arshad Warsi, Sanjay Mishra, Boman Irani, Jaaved Jaaferi, Mahesh Manjrekar, Pitobash Tripathy.
Director: Indra Kumar
Rating: * ½
Runtime: 130 mins
Indra Kumar obviously knew that he did not have content smart enough to keep the audience gratified so he packed-up this exasperating-slide-into-nonsense with middling stars past their prime hoping to get the audience go into a nostalgia side-trip as the full-on-nonsense plays on. He has included his fave Jodi Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit – both trying rather strenuously (and it shows) to rekindle decades old magic with their ageing bodies and waning charisma. There is also this Dance number Mungda from Inkaar, which was originally picturised on Helen, now being vapidly performed by Sonakshi Sinha in the film.
Thankfully this movie is targeted at the family audience so it’s not sleazy and ribald like ‘Great Grand Masti.’ But the level of comedy is as low and unyielding as Indra Kumar’s most recent flop movie. If you want to laugh anytime during the runtime you’d probably have to ask the person sitting next to you to crack a joke. That’s the degree of inanity that this vexing entourage of has-beens produce.
This sort of stringy assortment of jaded routines expects actors to make fools of themselves and I must say almost all of them rise to the occasion gallantly. Unfortunately the audience is not enthused. Everything dome here has been done before. There’s not much originality even if it’s all clean and devoid of sexual innuendo. Women continue to be objects of ridicule though.
The storyline has versatile actors playing dumb and dumber. Guddu (Ajay Devgn), a small time crook, double-crossed by his own colleague, Pintu (Manoj Pahwa), is back on the trail of the bounty only to learn that three other groups i.e. A bickering couple Avinash (Anil Kapoor) & Bindu (Madhuri Dixit Nene; Firemen turned criminals, Lallan (Riteish Deshmukh) & Jhingur (Pitobash Tripathy) & two weird siblings Aditya (Arshad Warsi) & Manav (Javed Jaffrey) are also after the loot. So it’s a free for all and the resultant melee looks like a bunch of retards were running around unhinged. Total Dhamaal is proof that even a good crop of actors can’t salvage a mediocre product.
The comedy is largely non-existent and when it does show up it feels and sounds abysmal. Hollow salutes to the current Govt’s ‘make believe’ Governance crop up at regularly intervals. The music, like in such films, is imminently forgettable. The CGI which involves animals, birds and some bouncing vehicles (Rohit Shetty variety) is so tacky that all sequences involving CGI elements look entirely flat and stupid. It’s a pity that mainstream filmmakers are still getting away with making such insipid, outdated stuff for the Gen Next audience. Do not expect to be entertained by these jaded routines !
