Dhamaal 4 Review: Not Enough ‘Dhamaal’!

Dhamaal 4 disappoints with its lazy writing, recycled gags, and problematic humour, despite a committed ensemble cast, groans Sreeju Sudhakaran.

Dhamaal 4 is a film that seems to be in love with its own franchise while hating its own existence at the same time. It constantly places its characters in situations that remind them of similar moments from previous Dhamaal films, and then makes sure they point that out.

The makers might call it ‘breaking the fourth wall’. I call it lazy writing. Well, potato, potahto, vada pav… whatever!

In doing so, the film inadvertently hammers home the point that we’ve already seen the better Dhamaal movies, and this one is merely running on their fumes.

Then there’s a moment where a character mistakes a rainbow for the film’s director. You see, Indradhanush, Indra Kumar… funny, funny? The gag doesn’t end there. The character goes on to gush about how lovely Indra Kumar is before launching into his filmography. Thankfully, the scene cuts away.

Well, Dhamaal 4 gave me two Kumars for the price of one. Before the movie began, there was the trailer of Tera Yaar Hoon Main, which marks the acting debut of Indra Kumar’s son Aman Indra Kumar, who looks more suited to be the poster boy for Gold’s Gym than the lead of a romantic film.

A Test of Humour and Recycled Plots

Then Dhamaal 4 begins, and papa Kumar puts your sense of humour through its toughest test, daring you to find the mediocre gag that might actually make you smile.

I’ll admit he succeeds a couple of times, largely because he has assembled a cast completely committed to the onscreen lunacy. But for the most part, it was a victory for my sense of humour. Only that I was not laughing in that victory.

The template remains identical to the first Dhamaal and Total Dhamaal. A group of greedy people set out in pursuit of a pirate’s hidden treasure on a remote island. And it even ends in similar manner, where they realise the real treasure is more metaphysical than physical in a needless deviation to sentimentality.

There is Guddu (Ajay Devgn) and his faithful sidekick Jonny (Sanjay Mishra), who embark on the hunt alongside the annoying children of Guddu’s girlfriend (Esha Gupta), who resent him because he is replacing their late father.

Then there is Adi (Arshad Warsi), desperately trying to reconcile with his wife Rosy (Sanjeeda Sheikh), who has had enough because his man-child brother Manav (Jaaved Jaaferi) keeps accidentally putting her life in danger.

Then comes Lallan (Riteish Deshmukh), who marries Paaro (Anjali Anand), mistakenly believing her father is wealthy.

So Much Bodyshaming

The way Dhamaal 4 treats Rosy and, especially, Paaro reveals that Director Indra Kumar and Writers Balvinder Singh Suri, Paritosh Painter and Vedd Prakash have little interest in keeping pace with the times.

Anjali Anand’s character becomes the butt of every fat-shaming joke imaginable. Her sitting pillion on a bike causes it to tilt, and a single stomp from her supposedly shakes the ground.

Paaro, naturally, continues to worship her good-for-nothing, selfish husband as if he were a God, despite knowing he despises her appearance.

Rosy, meanwhile, is vilified for wanting to leave the family. But can you really blame her? She is set on fire on her wedding night, thrown out of a window later, and almost drowned by Manav. All she wants is to stay alive.

I’m not sure what’s more irritating here: the misogyny or the body-shaming. Actually, let’s call it a tie.

Returning to the plot, everyone learns about the treasure while attempting to rescue Guddu’s former associate Prithvi (Upendra Limaye), who has been pushed off a cliff.

Before falling, Prithvi reveals the treasure’s location, and, as expected, everyone splits into separate groups to reach it first, leading to their own series of misadventures.

As if these idiots weren’t enough, there is also the bumbling pirate Adhoora (Ravi Kishan) and his crew chasing the treasure. Among them is the ever-likeable Vijay Patkar, whose perpetually frustrated expressions at his idiotic boss provide one of the few genuine reasons to smile.

Borrowed Ideas, Infantile Comedy

Since Adhoora is a pirate, and the most famous pirate saga in modern cinema is… no, not Thugs of Hindostan, you smartass… but Pirates of the Caribbean, Indra Kumar simply cannot resist borrowing one of its most iconic scenes.

So one scene has Adhoora makes his entrance on mainland exactly as Jack Sparrow did in his intro scene, stepping off his sinking ship onto dry land just as it disappears beneath the water.

That’s not the only borrowing either.

A recurring background score cue in the second half is an obvious lift from the Italian anti-fascist anthem Bella Ciao, popularised worldwide by Money Heist.

Ah, I see what you did there, Mr Kumar. Both Dhamaal and Money Heist feature characters chasing money that doesn’t belong to them. The only heist happening here, though, is the one committed on our sense of humour.

The comedy in Dhamaal 4 finds itself in a strange place. The franchise may have grown older, as have those who grew up watching it, but its humour seems to be moving in the opposite direction.

It has become increasingly infantile, relying on Looney Tunes-style slapstick. That wouldn’t necessarily be a problem, but there are very few laughs to be found in people constantly getting hit on the head, slapped around, fake octopuses flung at faces, or making physically impossible leaps. The biggest victim of this brand of humour, quite literally, is the male anatomy, particularly the ‘jewel’ that repeatedly gets crushed. Ouch, ouch and ouch!

When body parts aren’t being assaulted or animals aren’t being abused, the jokes are largely recycled from previous Dhamaal films, complete with self-congratulatory acknowledgements, or lifted from the director’s own filmography, or of the lead actor’s, or both.

So you have Ajay Devgn chanting ‘Ram Ram… Mara Mara…‘ just like Aamir Khan in Ishq.

Elsewhere, the children, who were perhaps forced to watch Raju Chacha, employ similar ghost tricks to scare Guddu and Jonny.

I won’t deny there are a handful of amusing lines, like Guddu exasperatedly telling a character who refuses to die, ‘Kam se kam sharam se to mar!’

A couple of visual gags are also surprisingly clever, such as Manav trying to crack a walnut on his own head because, well, he’s thick-headed. But these moments are few and far between amidst an avalanche of recycled and painfully forced jokes.

Committed Performances Amidst Weak Script

I also have to credit Dhamaal 4 for putting some genuine efforts into its visual presentation. Whether it’s the use of real locations or fairly decent visual effects for a film of this nature, Dhamaal 4 at least doesn’t look lazy. The cliff-top rescue sequence, for instance, is impressively staged and almost believable.

The performances also reflect the level of commitment this madcap (un)comedy, demands. Including Ajay Devgn, who often seemed to be sleepwalking through several of his recent performances. Here, at least, he feels awake, helped considerably by sharing most of his scenes with the terrific Sanjay Mishra, who can simply stroll through a one-liner and still make it funny.

Jaaved Jaaferi’s Manav remains the franchise’s funniest character and best performance, although the film deliberately restrains him so that he doesn’t step over others’ toes. Figuratively, this time.

Riteish Deshmukh (despite his irritating habit of ending nearly every sentence with ‘bey‘ because, well, he’s from UP), Arshad Warsi, Sanjeeda Sheikh, Anjali Anand and Upendra Limaye all do fine with the material in hand.

Ravi Kishan’s impressive run continues here, and there are stretches where the film could have done with even more of him.

Dhamaal 4 ends by teasing Dhamaal 5, which admittedly isn’t quite as frightening as Mastii 4 announcing Mastii 5.

But I do hope Indra Kumar finally breaks away from a formula that has now been repeated across three films. Maybe Dhamaal 5 should begin with the characters hunting for something even rarer than pirate treasure: Good comedy writing.