De Dana Dan: Review

Sanjay Gupta copies from Korean films. David Dhawan lifts bits and pieces from Bolly, Holly, Tolly, Molly, Kolly…. Priyadarshan rehashes his own films. Just as the sarson ka khet signals a Yash Chopra film and Karan Johar’s films are known by the melodrama, a Priyadarshan film can be smelt a mile away. Here are six reasons how De Dana Dan is just another product from the P-factory.

1. The plot is always on permanent holiday. Now that can be pardoned if the comedy is rip roaring, but De Dana Dan neither has a coherent plot nor enough comic moments to compensate for that. Two no-gooders (yet another Priyadarshan trademark, from Hera Pheri to Hungama) need ready cash to marry their super-rich girlfriends. So chauffeur Nitin (Akshay) and courier delivery boy Ram (Suniel) decide to take the easy way out. They dognap, well, a dog, hoping that the stinking rich owner (Archana Puran Singh) will cough up a ransom of one crore. The two check into a hotel, the dog escapes, 50 other characters are introduced into the frame, chaos ensues and then it’s all downhill. Cringe.

2. The dime-a-dozen characters, most of whom have little to do and even less to say. If they are lucky, someone will trip over them or they will walk through glass doors — the director’s done-to-death attempts at eliciting some belly laughs. De Dana Dan has every type of moron — philanderer, dognapper, supari killer, hooker, marriageable daughter, dumb waiter, Chinese don — gathering at a plush Singapore hotel. The next 160 minutes are spent on them slapping, kicking and screaming at each other. Along the way, some get locked up, Johnny Lever tries to kill the wrong man, lots of money is tossed around in suitcases, people have chloroform shoved up their noses. Doze.

3. Low-brow humour can be fun as many of Priyan’s own films have showed us in the past. But in De Dana Dan, the pedestrian humour arising out of mistaken identities and plans gone awry gets worse by the minute. Men slap their wives and you are expected to laugh. Fathers hurl the choicest of abuses at their daughters and you are expected to laugh. Shakti Kapoor attempts to bed Neha Dhupia who in turn attempts to bed Vikram Gokhale. So, Priyadarshan also means bed-lam. Yawn.

4. If you are an actor in a Priyadarshan film, you don’t speak, you screeeeeaaaaam. From billionaire tycoons to cops to hotel waiters, De Dana Dan is a scream fest. Leading the pack is Archana Puran Singh whose decibel level rises with every plunge of her neckline. But if you expect her to stun the rest into silence, then that’s wishful thinking. Deaf.

5. The acting seems to be hitting an all-time low. Suniel Shetty is not expected to act and he doesn’t surprise. Katrina Kaif is reduced to crawling on the floor and lip syncing to songs that pop up at the most inappropriate moments. Sameera Reddy needs to start taking acting lessons from KRK. Akshay, at full throttle, energises the lame first half and keeps the momentum going. His scenes are the only ones that bring on some genuine laughter. But he gets locked in a cupboard midway through the film (maybe he wasn’t paid enough) and the film goes into free-fall with his disappearing act. Paresh Rawal is the biggest disappointment, his Harbans Chaddha coming nowhere close to Hera Pheri’s iconic Baburao Apte. He is hardly there in the first half and his loud and crass act post-interval just makes you wish he would disappear too. And the much-publicised Hera Pheri trio don’t even share a single frame! Dumb.

6. No Priyadarshan film is complete without a chaotic climax. A factory in Hera Pheri, a watch tower in Bhagam Bhaag and now a flooded hotel in De Dana Dan. While people screaming and floating around might have worked in a film like Titanic, in De Dana Dan, it only adds to the mess. The tedious plot and so much water around meant that we could barely keep our eyes open for much of the 170 minutes. Snore.

And what pegs De Dana Dan a notch lower than most other Priyadarshan films? Pritam’s lacklustre music and the crass dialogues. Sample: Tinnu Anand, on discovering that his daughter (played by Katrina) has left home to be with her lover, calls her “kuttey ki pilli”! Growl.


Priyanka Roy, t2