Total Dhamaal Movie Review: Ajay Devgn's film lacks comic essence, finds humour in life-threatening situations

Movie Name:Total Dhamaal
Critics Rating: 2.5 / 5
Release Date: February 22, 2019
Director: Indra Kumar
Genre: Comedy

Total Dhamaal is the third instalment of Dhamaal series directed by filmmaker Indra Kumar. This third edition ensembles A-listed Bollywood actors including Ajay Devgn, Anil Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit and Riteish Deshmukh among many others. Total Dhamaal is anything but adventure, despite makers of the movie calling it an “adventure comedy”. However, all is not lost when it comes to comedy. Some scenes will leave you rolling on the floor laughing for a couple of seconds but the "ultimate fun" as promised in the posters is surely missing.

The larger-than-life effect, as portrayed in the official trailer, is somewhere missing in the two-hour-twenty-minute film.

Read on to find out more about the Total Dhamaal!

Total Dhamaal | Storyline

The story of the film doesn't bring anything new on the table and rather follows the same notes of Dhamaal. Similar to its first edition, Total Dhamaal has five pairs of cartoonish characters - conmen Ajay Devgan and Sanjay Mishra, a Gujju-Marathi couple played by Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit, two firemen Riteish Deshmukh and Pitobash, fun jodi of Adi-Maanav played by Arshad Warsi and Javed Jafferi respectively, and police commissioner Boman Irani with inspector Vijay Patkar.

All these five pairs are on a run to find the hidden secret treasure of Rs. 50 crore in a zoo in a place called Janakpur. The film tries to bring out humour in the life-threatening situations for these characters.

Total Dhamaal | Star Performances

Since Ajay Devgn-led film Total Dhamaal teams up many talented Bollywood actors, the director Indra knew how not to waste a star cast that has actors with genuine comedic talent including Arshad Warsi and Javed Jaffrey. The classic Adi-Maanav pair did light up the scenes but the actors were given so little to perform. Another actor Riteish Deshmukh, who has been part of the previous Dhamaal films, also did justice to his Bhojpuri character with his silly sense of humour.

On the other hand, the iconic onscreen pair of Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit didn't fit into this madcap universe. Their characters weren't of much importance, rather breaching the comic flow of the film.

Paired with Ajay Devgn, Sanjay Mishra comes out all guns blazing. He is just hilarious. The actor's callous and chill attitude brings out satisfying cockney humour. Other actors including Johnny Lever, Mahesh Manjrekar and Esha Gupta did justice with their cameo roles. Though, one of the brilliant comedy actors we have in the Bollywood industry, Johnny Lever's character should have been stretched.

Total Dhamaal | Aesthetics

Music - The film consists of four songs in total; a theme song, Speaker Phat Jaaye, and the rest two are recomposed namely -Paisa Yeh Paisa from Karz, Mungda from Inkaar. The song Mungda is an item dance performance starring actress Sonakshi Sinha.

VFX - Going into the technicalities of the film, visual effects are amazing and a movie-goer might not easily distinguish between the VFX and the real location.

Total Dhamaal | Verdict

You people are not missing out on something big this weekend but the film can be a one-time watch as it represents a clean family kinda comedy on the silver screen. Also, if you would ask us to pick on our favourite edition of Dhamaal series, our heart still sticks to the first one!