There is a saying, ‘if your neighbour is ‘MAD’, it is fun for those who envy them’. Welcome to a Hotelfull of Mad people who have a fate to misunderstand each and every person and situation.
To pay back a huge loan taken by his father, Nitin (Akshay Kumar) works as a driver to Archana (Archana Puran Singh). His life is equal to a slave where the ‘Madam’’s love is money and her dog. Nitin is in love with Anjali (Katrina Kaif) where the pair’s marriage was fixed by parents in their childhood. Anjali’s father won a lottery and now don’t want Nitin to marry Anjali. Finding no way to live life happily, Nitin decide to commit suicide and in the attempt meets Ram (Sunil Shetty), who almost have a similar story. Together they plan to kidnap Madam’s dog to claim a million. They do succeed in kidnapping the dog but not without the share of hurdles. Then, this kidnapping lead them to a hotel which turn to be the ‘Hotel of Madness’ and thereby creating the ‘De Dana Dan’.
There is a standard set of instructions which we used to keep while going for watching ‘mindless comedies’. However, for this film, if you didn’t keep your logic and keep reminding you ‘who is who’, you are bound to miss fun. Even in IQ tests, they used to ask us, . Frank is taller than John. Ralph is taller than Frank. Therefore, John is the shortest boy. True or False? and many candidates make the answer wrong. Here around twenty plus characters are created within the first hour of the movie and all are guided to the ‘Mad hotel’ hotel rooms and the confusion is created. So, the maker’s claim, ‘miss a moment – miss a link to fun’ is true. This is an absolute ‘MAD’ film which will keep you out of your brains even if you go to the theatre full of it.
Akshay Kumar is very good in this Roller Coaster comedy role. Except that he has been locked in the cupboard for 30 plus minutes of the film, the actor did his role in style. Sunil Shetty is ok and his combination scenes with Akshay are good. Paresh Rawal tried to make the best of the situations given to him. Katrina Kaif is good, though the much publicized romantic angle was easily sidelined in the ‘madhouse’ run. The controversial ‘Gale Lag Jaa’ given way to ‘Paisa Paisa’ and the ‘sensual’ actress had to contain with the average performance. Sameera Reddy got only a small role in the film where Neha Dhupia did a good job. Archana Puran Singh, Johny Lever, Vikram Gokhale, Asrani & Rajpal yadav gives impressive performance. Rest of the cast did their roles well.
Music of the film is average. The best song of the film was given to assist the titles and the second best song ‘Gale Lag Jaa’ was not there. Bamulaiza & Paisa Paisa was more noted for colourful choreography than the music. Choreography is very good in general but was not exceptional.
Cinematography is good but it could have been much much better. The director misses his favorite Editor as well and it is showing. However, special mention is required of the Sets by Sabu Cyril. The flood scenes came as a surprise and we can really see actors floating! Wow! Dialogues in the second half are catchy.
Priyadarsan is known for remaking South Indian films to Hindi. In most films the director does justice to the original where many other current directors opted for ‘remix’ option, i.e. mixing parts of other successful films. In De Dana Dan, Priyadarsan opted for a ‘Re written remake cum remix’, where the entire second half is almost like his Malayalam film ‘Vettam’ where the first half have no such similarity whatsoever, including some quality fun. The climax is rewritten adding ‘universal’ parts from many other films. I will say the ‘rewriting’ part needed much better attention. . The film could have been better told with a tight script and better editing.
The highlight of the film is its attempt to connect too many knots to one point and the fun in untying it, to create fun. It is not at all easy to create such situations and more difficult is to present it well. The film succeeds in creating the much advertise fun, but if you are looking for a down to earth fun as in ‘Hera Pheri’ you will be disappointed. This is an entirely different genre film, ‘Madhouse comedy’. For all those who looking for light entertainers without brain and logic, this must be a good watch!
My rating: 3.5 stars
