Flashy posters of De Dana Dan across the city claim, ‘the great entertainers are back’. Sunil-Akshay-Paresh-Priyadarshan are back alright. But they fail to recreate the magic of Hera Pheri… instead, present a confused pot-pourri of slapstick.
Movie: De Dana Dan
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Suneil Shetty, Paresh Rawal
Director: Priyadarshan
Too many cooks spoil the broth; this old adage pretty much explains why De Dana Dan lets down. Here’s presenting another masala potboiler! But this one’s not an epilogue to the cult Hera Pheri. No Baburao Ganpatrao Apte here. Now that that’s clear, be prepared to meet a glut of new characters. Nitin Bankar (Akshay Kumar) is indebted to a rich, malicious industrialist (Archana Puran Singh) and serves as her driver-cook-gardener. Ram Mishra (Suneil Shetty) is a delivery boy working for a courier service. Nitin and Ram, both broke, have rich high-maintenance girlfriends (Katrina Kaif and Sameera Reddy respectively). An hour into the film, we’re still clueless about the story. Cut to a song! Ridiculously placed, the song-dance numbers are irksome and loud. Er… not half as loud as the characters. Meet Mr. Harman Chadda (Paresh Rawal) who’s a conman trying to marry off his son (Chunkey Pandey) in a wealthy household. He ropes in both Kat and Sameera, hey he’s a conman! The girls give an ultimatum to their loverboys. So Nitin and Ram must make easy and quick money and elope with the girls. They make an extortion plan to obtain a lump-sum from Archana Puran Singh.
The story is then bombarded with many more characters, who are directly or indirectly running after the moolah - Neha Dhupia, Shakti Kapoor, Manoj Joshi, Aditi Gowitrikar, Asrani, Johnny Lever, Vikram Gokhale and Rajpal Yadav. Everyone lands up at a plush Singapore hotel. A series of crazy and convoluted events follows. While this is happening, the lead characters literally disappear. Nitin is stranded in a wardrobe for a good sixty minutes of the film! We’re not missing out on much, are we?
Akshay Kumar is hot and effortlessly funny, but what’s with his graph? Tasveer 8×10, Chandni Chowk to China, Kambakkt Ishq, Blue and now De Dana Dan! Oops… Neha Dhupia has more scenes than Suneil Shetty. Paresh Rawal is not exactly in his elements. As for Katrina and Sameera, they are pretty props in the film. Their cumulative on-screen performance lasts for 10-15 minutes. Fortunately, the supporting cast does a great job of keeping the audience entertained. Kudos! Watch the movie for their histrionics. Johnny Lever is a riot! Rajpal Yadav, who plays a sneaky waiter, is at his funniest best.
If you can’t convince them confuse them, right Mr. Priyadarshan? No wonder the movie lacks storyline. However, slapstick comedy with a big star cast and a couple of hit numbers (paisa paisa) works wonders for the Bollywood-loving, massy audience. If you’re not one of them, sit back with a tub of popcorn and an open mind; you might just enjoy the flick.
Tags: de-dana-dan, de-dana-dan-u-a, movie-review
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