DE DANA DAN [2009]
Cast : Katrina Kaif, Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty, Sameera Reddy, Paresh Rawal, Neha Dhupia, Rajpal Yadav, Johnny Lever, Aditi Govitrikar, Asrani, Chunky Pandey, Archana Puran Singh, Tinnu Anand, Supriya Karnik, Manoj Joshi, Vikram Gokhale
Movie Review:
De Dana Dan almost marks a decade of the end of the sensitivity and sensibility of director Priyadarshan who switched on to commercially driven comedy capers post the success of Hera Pheri . De Dana Dan also almost marks a decade of the widespread acceptability that the slapstick genre has gained in scarcity of sane comedies.
Going by its casting, do not expect De Dana Dan to be a sequel, tribute or extension of the Hera Pheri series. Forget the threesome chemistry, there is hardly a single frame in the film where the trio of Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty and Paresh Rawal share screen space. Except of course for the trademark Priyadarshan style chaotic climax where again their chemistry is diluted (literally through flooding fuss) as the entire cast joins them for more commotion.
Nitin Bankar (Akshay Kumar) is a driver under debt and Ram Mishra (Sunil Shetty) is a courier boy who hasn’t delivered much in life. Though both have already assigned girlfriends (Katrina, Sameera) for them, the film still takes too long to come to point. Money is the need of the hour and so Priyadarshan does some hera pheri in the story – which means a kidnap. Just this time the duo kidnaps a canine and you wonder if the film is going to the dogs.
As you try to keep a count on the ever-increasing character artists, the entire cast checks-in a five star hotel. Soon the story takes the shape of the 1992 Hollywood flick ‘ Blame it on the Bellboy ’ which was remade in Bollywood just a year ago as ‘ One Two Three ’ (and also starred Sunil Shetty and Sameera Reddy). A comedy of errors ensues with characters doing Bhagam Bhag throughout the hotel.
Call it a ‘wardrobe’ disaster but Akshay Kumar is locked in one for practically an hour of the film’s runtime. With a seemingly lost Sunil Shetty and a screeching loud Paresh Rawal, it’s left up to the character artists to save the ship. But a flood is induced in the climax as the director seeks inspiration from another Hollywood flick ‘ The Towering Inferno ’ (1974) with each character going down the drain.
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