From Khazana to Tumbbad and Dhamaal, Bollywood’s treasure-hunt adventures have delivered everything from hidden riches and cursed gold to madcap comedy and even horror.
Key Points
- Dhamaal 4 continues Bollywood’s most successful treasure hunt comedy franchise, with Indra Kumar directing.
- Ahead of Dhamaal 4, Sreeju Sudhakaran revisits Bollywood’s most memorable treasure-hunt adventures across genres.
- From nostalgic guilty pleasures like Zalzala and Daulat Ki Jung to modern favourites like Tumbbad, the movies blend action, comedy and mythology.
Some viewers have a certain attraction towards movies involving characters seeking out hidden treasures. It is the thrill of the adventure, and if there are deadly puzzles thrown in, all the better.
Hollywood has built entire franchises around the genre, from Indiana Jones to National Treasure and Tomb Raider.
The franchises Bollywood has in the genre is… wait a minute… let us check our notes… no, this can’t be right… errr, just Dhamaal.
Okay, that shouldn’t be too surprising because the Dhamaal films are perhaps the only consistently successful Bollywood movies revolving around treasure hunts. Even then, it is the comedy rather than the adventure that draws audiences in.
Dhamaal 4, releasing on July 10, continues the tradition of the first and third films by sending its characters on another zany hunt for lost riches, with Indra Kumar once again at the helm.
While we wait to see if Dhamaal 4 brings both the gold and the laughs, Sreeju Sudhakaran seeks out some notable treasure hunt movies Bollywood has attempted over the years and where you can watch them online.
Khazana (1951)
Where To Watch: Not Available Online
Possibly one of the earliest Hindi films to revolve around treasure-hunting adventures, Khazana starred Madhubala and Nasir Khan.
The story followed a spirited young woman searching for hidden riches alongside her merchant father and an archaeologist, with love blossoming between the latter two.
The film was said to be loosely inspired by the 1937 classic King Solomon’s Mines. Sadly, there is no print available online to watch the film.
Locket (1986)
Where To Watch: YouTube
Jeetendra and Rekha headlined this adventure along with Vinod Mehra and Vijayendra Ghatge.
The story revolved around a royal heir trying to claim his inherited treasure before his greedy uncle, played with nefarious delight by the late Kader Khan, gets his hands on it.
Along the way, long-lost childhood friends reunite, with a locket tying everyone and everything together.
Khazana (1987)
Where To Watch: JioHotstar
More than three decades after the Madhubala starrer came another film with the same title, this time starring Randhir Kapoor and Rekha, with Jeetendra and Rishi Kapoor in cameo appearances.
Here, the inspiration came from the American classic Mackenna’s Gold.
The plot followed the hunt for a hidden Mughal treasure, while the hero also sought revenge for the murder of his father at the hands of the main villain.
Zalzala (1988)
Where To Watch: ShemarooMe
Looks like the Kapoor brothers loved Mackenna’s Gold so much that two of them starred in variations of it within a year of each other, with the third brother making a cameo in one of them.
Zalzala brought together an impressive cast comprising Dharmendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Rajiv Kapoor, Rati Agnihotri, Anita Raj, Kimi Katkar, Vijayta Pandit, Danny Denzongpa and Gulshan Grover.
The plot follows a race to find a hidden temple containing gold, with a revenge angle thrown in for good measure.
Daulat Ki Jung (1992)
Where To Watch: Prime Video
Yet another Hindi film besotted with Mackenna’s Gold. Aamir Khan and Juhi Chawla play a young couple who elope after their relationship is opposed by their families.
On the way, they are caught up with two rival gangs searching for a hidden treasure in the forest, while Kader Khan’s mysterious character tags along.
If cheesy guilty pleasures with a dash of adventure are your thing, this one deserves a rainy-day watch.
Naksha (2006)
Where To Watch: Prime Video
>
By now, you may have realised that many Bollywood treasure-hunt films owe something to Hollywood. So does this comic fantasy adventure starring Sunny Deol, Vivek Oberoi and Sameera Reddy.
A loose remake of Dwayne Johnson’s The Rundown, the film follows two quibbling half-brothers who end up hunting for a mythological artefact with the help of a map hidden by their father.
Naksha isn’t particularly well made, but Sunny Deol’s screen presence and some of the fantasy elements make it an okay one-time watch.
Dhamaal (2007)
Where To Watch: Prime Video, MX Player and Z5
A remake of It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Indra Kumar’s film pits four good-for-nothing friends and a frustrated cop against each other in a race to reach a hidden stash.
The fun lies less in the destination and more in the ridiculous misadventures that follow, as greed attracts more and more characters into the mad hunt.
Though some of its best bits are borrowed from the American original, there is still plenty to laugh about, from Vijay Raaz’s hilarious cameo as slovenly ATC officer to the driver with the rather ‘short’ nickname.
Not to mention Jaaved Jaaferi’s wonderfully scene-stealing performance.
Tumbbad (2018)
Where To Watch: Prime Video
Rahi Anil Barve’s horror masterpiece, easily the best film on this list, is a terrifying lesson in what happens when greed exceeds all limits.
Starring Sohum Shah and set in pre-Independence India, Tumbbad revolves around a man’s obsessive quest to obtain the cursed gold of the demonic deity Hastar, who resides in the womb of nature.
Though he succeeds, the treasure comes with a dangerous condition, and the consequences turn increasingly dark when both father and his equally intemperate son succumb to their insatiable greed.
Total Dhamaal (2019)
Where To Watch: JioHotstar
The first Dhamaal sequel opted for a con caper approach and disappointed fans.
The second sequel, however, performed a soft reboot with a continuity and cast reshuffle (like replacing Sanjay Dutt with Ajay Devgn) and returned to the treasure-hunt setup of the original.
The result wasn’t as funny as the first film (Anil Kapoor-Madhuri Dixit portions were less effective than the rest) but was still a considerable improvement over Double Dhamaal. It also became a box office success, paving the way for another sequel.
Ram Setu (2022)
Where To Watch: Prime Video and MX Player
Akshay Kumar plays an atheist archaeologist who believes Ram Setu is a natural formation rather than the man-made structure described in the Ramayana.
While there is no treasure hunt as such, the quest here is for proof that the events of the epic really happened, with mythological discoveries eventually forcing the protagonist to confront his crisis of faith.
Though Ram Setu caters heavily to contemporary majoritarian religious sentiments, it suffers from lackadaisical storytelling and poor visual effects.
The lone bright spot remains Satyadev’s performance and the mythological twist attached to his character.
Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff
