Thursday, November 26, 2009

De Dana Dan - Reviews (Nikhat Kazmi, Khalid Mohd., Raja Sen, Taran Adarsh, Rajeev Masand)




Nikhat Kazmi's Review -

Rating - 2.5/5

Blame it on the director, but they're mostly missing in action: Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif and Suniel Shetty. And it's hard to fathom why! Why in moviedom's name would a filmmaker sign the three most thoroughbreds of comedy and waste them away with a vanishing act? Haven't the threesome -- Akshay, Suniel and Paresh -- passed the litmus test at the box office and given contemporary cinema some of its best comedies in the Hera Pheri sequels? So why would anyone want to brush aside their crackling chemistry for a load of chaos created by a bunch of side characters who dominate the entire second half of the film? More importantly, why would a director lock his lead player, Akshay Kumar, in a cupboard, for reels and reels of the film, specially when he has been responsible for most of the laughs in the first half?

Hara-kiri, did we say! Or is it simply a case of bad judgement. Whatever be the case, De Dana Dan is a film that begins soundly and then slips into cuckoo land, only because the primary characters and their story is side-tracked for a compendium of tertiary tales. And these too, are so confusing, you keep losing the plot and the character count even though you desperately try and keep pace with the mayhem in this marriage that mostly transpires in a hotel in Singapore.

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5 comments:

  1. given the way she was giving ladoos till now , DDD must have been very poor to get only 2.5 stars.

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  2. On Twitter in his minireview:
    RajeevMasand says De Dana Dan: Whose idea of comedy is this? It's a migraine-inducing monstrosity! Take your Saridon with you. Don't say u weren't warned.

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  3. Raja Sen -


    In Priyadarshan's latest film, Akshay Kumar [ Images ], playing a miserable indentured chauffeur, whines about the state of his ragged uniform. He speaks of how the belt is held up by a pyjama drawstring, how the button is hanging on for dear life, and how there's really nothing holding it together.

    He may well have been speaking of the film itself, a loud, overlong collection of slapstick subplots that would have nothing in common but for one man.

    Priyadarshan, refusing as always to call himself a director -- 'filmed by,' proclaim his credits -- attempts to stitch together this ragtag quilt in his usual style, ending up with a stupidly elaborate monstrosity.

    All manner of morons -- philanderers, dognappers, murderers, hookers, marriagable daughters and dumb-waiters -- congregate in a plush Singapore hotel, and chaos ensues. Big surprise.

    There is much slamming of doors and misunderstandings involving rooms, and all is what you'd expect until we get to the climactic washout, which involves an undoubtedly impressive, albeit unnecessary, hotel flood.

    Yet the film has been a damp squib right from the get go. The flaccid first half never quite recovers, and while the second half musters up a few genuine moments of mirth -- mostly because Manoj Joshi's face turns positively scarlet in anger -- it's too cruelly long to really help things. Also one suspects those rare second-half laughs occur simply because one is mindnumbed into submission.

    Read more here

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  4. Akki films reviews r as boring as his films . they r same for all his films . why do reviewers even see it . just change name and director and lead heroine and its done . they can save some part of their braing too.

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  5. Taran Adarsh Review -

    Be forewarned. DE DANA DAN is the most bizarre film from the maharaja of laughathons, Priyadarshan. Not even in your wildest dream you'd think that Priyadarshan would place almost an entire film in a hotel and have its entire cast, comprising of 26 [or is it 27?] characters, most of them weirdos, interacting with each other. Brings back memories of BLAME IT ON THE BELLBOY? May be!

    But Priyadarshan needs to be credited for pulling it off. There are times when you laugh hysterically at the most outlandish jokes and situations. There are times when a raised eyebrow or a wide-open jaw makes you break into a guffaw.

    Be cautioned. DE DANA DAN is a loud film, with each and every character screaming on top of his/her voice, with the characters shouting, running, even floating and swimming in the end.

    But what do you expect in a Priyadarshan film that has a title like DE DANA DAN? The promos never promised path-breaking or thought-provoking cinema that would give birth to debates and discussions. So why look for logic in this one?

    DE DANA DAN makes no qualms of narrating a story you haven't heard before. Here, the story is non-existent and it's left on Priyadarshan to mix-n-match those two dozen characters and keep the momentum alive for the next 2.45 hours.

    IF AT ALL YOU WANT TO READ MORE, READ IT FROM HERE

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