‘Dhamaal 4’: Not entirely humourless

It begins with madness and climaxes with mayhem, but then you expect no less, no more from the popular franchise that thrives and hinges upon humour and humour alone. As ‘Dhamaal’ moves forward towards its fourth outing, it is more of the same in a way. This time, the madcap comedy centres on a treasure, some Shaitain Singh Ka Khazana that a whole lot of fumbling/bumbling characters are after.

Ravi Kishan plays a pirate, Adhura, who is holding hostage Prithvi (Upendra Limaye), the man who has the map and can decode it too. Ajay Devgn as Guddu lands on his ship; what happens hereafter is meant to be a roller-coaster where nothing is to be taken seriously. To give the devil his due, the film does offer you some laugh-out-loud moments but gets painful and laborious in equal parts as well.

Joining the madcap party are not only Sanjay Mishra as Johnny, Guddu’s compatriot, but also two kids who happen to be the children of Guddu’s girlfriend Alia (Esha Gupta). Arshad Warsi and Jaaved Jaaferi reprise their roles as the brothers Adi and Manav. And the dialogue, “Adi, you are so smart”, delivered in trademark Jaaved Jaaferi style, still keeps ringing, mostly to our delight.

Much here is déjà vu, especially the chaos and confusion every now and then. But what is refreshing is the casting of Anjali Anand as Paro opposite Riteish Deshmukh’s Lallan. Even more heartening is the fact that she gets enough weightage amongst the crowd of men. Fat-shaming jokes abound to begin with, but the director finally arrives at a socially-correct climax.

The first half of the film moves at breakneck speed, leaving you with little time to pause or think. But to make you think isn’t the idea anyway, even though some one-liners are loaded with both fun and pun. Writing by Balvinder Singh Suri, Paritosh Painter and Vedd Prakash leaves no room for plausibility/credibility, but enough for pointed and clever jibes.

The ever-reliable Sanjay gets a lion’s share of wisecracks, mostly rib-tickling ones, like “Hum safar mein nahin, suffering mein hain”, or “bhooton ki Burj Khalifa”. By and large, Sanjay infuses even the moderately funny ones with his unfaltering USP.

Interestingly, in the star-studded cast — Ajay, Ritesh and Arshad, who undeniably possess impeccable comic timing — it’s the supporting actors, especially Jaaved and Sanjay, who shine.

Every now and then, director Indra Kumar tips the hat to his hero’s movies. ‘Phool Aur Kaante’ and ‘Singham’, references to Ajay’s films, are aplenty and ‘Dhamaal 1’ finds due mention time and again. Indra can’t help but pat his own back too. Ritesh refers to a rainbow (indradhanush) as Indra Kumar, underlining the director’s ability to give us a bundle of colours. Somewhere in the film, a dialogue goes, “It’s a family film”, and you can only expect niggles of each family unit to be sorted in the classic ‘Hum Saath-Saath Hain’ fashion.

Surprisingly, amidst the ‘joke a minute’ outlandish tenor of the film, the emotional heft works, even if the use of Hanuman Chalisa at a key juncture sounds like an oddity.

All the odd men and women gathered here are meant to bring the house down. Like the crumbling caves in which they land, the narrative crumbles like a house of cards and yet finds its feet. But a perfect landing is never achieved. Actually, some parts land and some fall apart.

The CGI-generated bits of encounters with a tiger and an octopus attacking the enthusiastic treasure hunters are especially tacky and tiresome. However, if previous outings have delighted you, ‘Dhamaal 4’ won’t disappoint you outright.

It does keep the momentum going and the humour mills churning — mostly from the same yarn, but spinning a fair dose of slapstick entertainment nevertheless. Logic-less certainly, but not entirely humourless. M does not merely stand for the island they are in search of, but a lot more craziness which starts with the alphabet.