'Total Dhamaal' looks depressingly crass

Comments [ 0 ] By IANS | 22 January 2019 | 10:16am

Mumbai, Jan 22 (IANS) For the boys "and I mean 60-year-old Anil Kapoor, 50-year-old Ajay Devgn", and the rest who are seen behaving like retarded juvenile delinquents let loose in a zoo "Total Dhamaal" must be fun.

Wish I could say the same for the audience.

However, after seeing the film's tumultuous CG-driven trailer filled with shots of growling animals and plummeting cars, I am not sure I would be able to sit through this travesty of cinematic experience brought to us by the one and only Indra Kumar.

Indu to friends, Indra Kumar, has been making the same Gujarati comedies for over four decades.

"Total Dhamaal" conveys the same mood of lowbrow entertainment that we saw in Indra Kumar's "Ishq", "Masti", "Dhamaal", "Double Dhamaal". To see the ostensibly funny mayhem in the trailer of "Total Dhamaal" is really very worrying.

Are the audiences going to fall off their seats watching this truckload of talented senior artistes making a fool of themselves?

There is Ajay Devgn and then there is Anil Kapoor wrestling with buffoonery and a zoo filled with animals doing their antics crudely and suggestively.

There is an elaborate gag towards the end of the trailer about Ajay's bottom landing on a rhino's horn.

To see Madhuri Dixit being part of such a distasteful gag is a reminder that Indian cinema has no respect for iconic actresses beyond a certain age. Unless you have a powerful husband as a producer like Devgn. Then you don't need to be seen in films like "Total Dhamaal". Right, Kajol?

Madhuri and the other stalwarts (including Javed Jaffry and Sanjai Mishra) let loose a volley of crassness. A lot of the "humour" is physical and involves the actors colliding with or running away from ferocious wild animals. I am sure all this must be wildly funny to some part of the Indian cinema's diverse demography.

But sorry, I am sadly not included in that demography. "Total Dhamaal" looks like a total waste of time. A sad and sorry reminder of just how little the mainstream mass audience has matured over the years.

As for anyone who thinks Madhuri Dixit indulging in undignified masti is funny, please book your ticket for this cheesy laughathon now. It may be too late later.

--IANS

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