Director: PriyadarshaniCast: Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty, Paresh Rawal
Rating: 
DE DANA DAN HINDI MOVIE REVIEW
STORY AND MOVIE ANALYSIS:
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.
As the name suggests, De Dana Dan is a quickie flick which is hastily written, rapidly filmed, has swift storytelling and speeding characters giving you no time to breathe, gasp, feel, absorb react or relate. The film takes time to kick-off and nothing much happens in the first half. The second half gains momentum with cross-connections of characters inside the hotel. The more you attempt to keep a track of the individual tracks, the more it confuses you. The less you try to join the links, the more it binds you.
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.
As the name suggests, De Dana Dan is a quickie flick which is hastily written, rapidly filmed, has swift storytelling and speeding characters giving you no time to breathe, gasp, feel, absorb react or relate. The film takes time to kick-off and nothing much happens in the first half. The second half gains momentum with cross-connections of characters inside the hotel. The more you attempt to keep a track of the individual tracks, the more it confuses you. The less you try to join the links, the more it binds you.
ARTIST AND OTHER PERFORMANCE:
What could have been the USP of the film, acts against it with the comic chemistry of Akshay-Paresh-Sunil clearly missing. In fact the other character artists add more value to the film varying from the deafening ones (Archana Puran Singh, Manoj Joshi) to the hilarious ones (Johnny Lever, Rajpal Yadav, Asrani). Undoubtedly the humour is loud and noisy but this slapstick is appended with some story (Suresh Krishanan). Unfortunately for a comedy, the dialogues are pretty lame with not sufficient punches or one-liners.
Pritam’s music is quite outdated this time and every song is forced into the narrative. Salim-Sulaiman’s background score is loud and at several instances overshadows the dialogues. With a major part of the film being shot inside the hotel, the camerawork isn’t much demanding and K Ahambaram does well as the cinematographer. The art direction (Sabu Cyril) and SFX (Red Chillies) effects for the deluge sequence in the climax are well executed though it doesn’t contribute much to the film. For a comedy, De Dana Dan is considerably long at almost 3 hour runtime and could have been more crisply edited.
Akshay Kumar repeats himself but is funny at times. Sunil Shetty seems jaded and uninterested. Paresh Rawal hams. Archana Puran Singh is in the Masti mould. Manoj Joshi goes over the top. Johnny Lever gets the best sequences and is clearly the scene-stealer. Rajpal Yadav and Asrani are equally hilarious. Katrina Kaif looks pretty. Sameera Reddy and Aditi Govitrikar can’t act. Neha Dhupia is better amongst the females. Chunky Pandey is non-existent. Vikram Gokhale looks miscast in comedy, which he has probably attempted for the first time.
Pritam’s music is quite outdated this time and every song is forced into the narrative. Salim-Sulaiman’s background score is loud and at several instances overshadows the dialogues. With a major part of the film being shot inside the hotel, the camerawork isn’t much demanding and K Ahambaram does well as the cinematographer. The art direction (Sabu Cyril) and SFX (Red Chillies) effects for the deluge sequence in the climax are well executed though it doesn’t contribute much to the film. For a comedy, De Dana Dan is considerably long at almost 3 hour runtime and could have been more crisply edited.
Akshay Kumar repeats himself but is funny at times. Sunil Shetty seems jaded and uninterested. Paresh Rawal hams. Archana Puran Singh is in the Masti mould. Manoj Joshi goes over the top. Johnny Lever gets the best sequences and is clearly the scene-stealer. Rajpal Yadav and Asrani are equally hilarious. Katrina Kaif looks pretty. Sameera Reddy and Aditi Govitrikar can’t act. Neha Dhupia is better amongst the females. Chunky Pandey is non-existent. Vikram Gokhale looks miscast in comedy, which he has probably attempted for the first time.
FINAL VIEW:
De dana dan was not very good convincing one movie. it is an average movie.
