Nitin Bankar (Akshay Kumar) is a personal butler, cook, driver, watchman, gardener to a wealthy female industrialist (Archana Puran Singh) in Singapore. Like any young man, Nitin too, dreams of a better life, but misfortune is his constant companion and his reality is his job under Archana. He desperately wants to become rich and marry the love of his life, Anjali Kakkad (Katrina Kaif), who supports him financially.
Ram Mishra (Suneil Shetty), Nitin's best friend also came to Singapore with the dream of striking it rich, but ended up a courier delivery man. He falls for Manpreet Oberoi (Sameera Reddy), but her high society parents will never approve of marriage, not unless Ram has lots and lots of money. In the midst of all this, is Harbans Chadda (Paresh Rawal), a shrewd businessman, is looking for ways to multiply his income and avoid his debtors. He decides the best way would be to marry his son off to a girl whose parents can give him a large dowry. He is introduced to Manpreet's parents at a Diwali function and is impressed by their social status. He introduces himself as a well-established businessman, impresses them and they decide to get Manpreet and Harbans' son (Chunky Pandey) married.
With several factors working against them, Nitin and Ram soon reach a dead end in their relationships. When both receive ultimatums from their girlfriends, they realize that only a life of vice can help them out of their misery. They come up with an audacious plan to kidnap someone important and demand a ransom. The kidnapping goes well, and both hide out at a local hotel while waiting for the ransom money. But misfortune is never far, and the kidnapping spirals out of control.
Meanwhile, Manpreet's wedding reception is being held at the same hotel that Nitin and Ram are hiding in. Soon, they are joined by a motley set of characters including a Chinese Don, a hired assassin, a ACB police inspector, a club dancer, an ambassador, a young frustrated double crossing wife, a letch, a drunken waiter, and a dead body nobody wants check into the hotel....
What happens next is De Dana Dan...full of many twists and turns that will leave you giddy with laughter... De Dana Dan...full of Masti and Madness!!!
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.
DE DANA DAN promises laughter and entertainment and sticks to its promise. This one's not for the hard-nosed types, but for those who worship escapist cinema. Who want to chuckle, giggle and chortle at those mindless jokes. In short, DE DANA DAN is a pure dhamaal entertainer!
Nitin [Akshay Kumar] is a butler, cook, driver, watchman, gardener to a wealthy female industrialist [Archana Puran Singh] in Singapore. Like any young man, Nitin too dreams of a better life. He desperately wants to become rich and marry the love of his life, Anjali [Katrina Kaif], who supports him financially.
Ram [Suniel Shetty], Nitin's best friend, also came to Singapore with the dream of striking it rich, but ended up a courier delivery man. He falls for Manpreet [Sameera Reddy], but her high society parents will never approve of marriage, not unless Ram has lots and lots of money.
In the midst of all this is Harbans [Paresh Rawal], a shrewd businessman, who's looking for ways to multiply his income and avoid his debtors. He decides the best way would be to marry his son [Chunky Pandey] off to a girl whose parents can give him a large dowry. He is introduced to Manpreet's parents at a function and is impressed by their social status. He introduces himself as a well-established businessman, impresses them and they decide to get Manpreet and Harbans' son married.
With several factors working against them, Nitin and Ram soon reach a dead end in their relationships. When both receive ultimatums from their girlfriends, they realize that only a life of vice can help them out of their misery. They come up with an audacious plan to kidnap someone important and demand a ransom.
The kidnapping goes awry and both hide at a local hotel while waiting for the ransom money. But misfortune is never far and the kidnapping spirals out of control.
Meanwhile, Manpreet's wedding reception is being held at the same hotel that Nitin and Ram are hiding in. Soon, they are joined by a motley set of characters including a Chinese Don [Asrani], a hired assassin [Johny Lever], a ACB police inspector [Sharat Saxena], a club dancer [Neha Dhupia], an ambassador [Vikram Gokhale], a young frustrated double crossing wife [Aditi Govitrikar], a letch [Shakti Kapoor], a drunken waiter [Rajpal Yadav] and a dead body nobody wants to check into the hotel.
DE DANA DAN is atypical Priyadarshan film that has the unmistakable stamp all over it. But, at the same time, DE DANA DAN is erratic and uneven - energetic at times, lethargic at places. Also, the culmination to the film is very similar to the director's earlier works, with the entire cast running helter-skelter.
On the flip side, you miss Akshay's presence in the second hour. He disappears [gets locked in a cupboard] for at least 20 minutes and the focus, hence, shifts to the other characters. His fans will miss his presence, for sure. Besides, the film tends to get very lengthy towards the second half and overtly verbose too.
Director Priyadarshan is synonymous with comedies and the ace storyteller promises laughter in abundance. Handling so many characters, plus making a film on mistaken identities could be very tough, but the director gets it right. Pritam's music is alright, while the RDB track, 'Paisa', is the pick of the lot. Salim-Sulaiman's background score is energetic. K. Ahambaram's cinematography is alright.
The review would be incomplete if one ignored the dialogue writer's [Jay Master] contribution to the film. The lines are laced with wit and soaked in humour and bring the house down on several occasions.
DE DANA DAN has so many characters that it gets difficult to pinpoint or single out any one actor. Akshay is at his best in a Priyadarshan film and DE DANA DAN proves it. Suniel is natural to the core. Paresh is incredible; he pitches in a superb act. Katrina and Sameera don't have much to do. Amongst the plethora of actors, Johny Lever, Neha Dhupia, Manoj Joshi, Asrani, Vikram Gokhale and Archana Puransingh deserve special mention.
On the whole, DE DANA DAN is targeted at the masses and it delivers laughter in abundance. Leave your brains behind to enjoy this madcap entertainer!
Review By : Taran Adarsh, www.bollywoodhungama.com
De Dana Dan almost marks a decade of the end of the sensitivity and sensibility of director Priyadarshan who switched on to commercially driven comedy capers post the success of Hera Pheri . De Dana Dan also almost marks a decade of the widespread acceptability that the slapstick genre has gained in scarcity of sane comedies.
Going by its casting, do not expect De Dana Dan to be a sequel, tribute or extension of the Hera Pheri series. Forget the threesome chemistry, there is hardly a single frame in the film where the trio of Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty and Paresh Rawal share screen space. Except of course for the trademark Priyadarshan style chaotic climax where again their chemistry is diluted (literally through flooding fuss) as the entire cast joins them for more commotion...
Nitin Bankar (Akshay Kumar) is a driver under debt and Ram Mishra (Sunil Shetty) is a courier boy who hasn’t delivered much in life. Though both have already assigned girlfriends (Katrina, Sameera) for them, the film still takes too long to come to point. Money is the need of the hour and so Priyadarshan does some hera pheri in the story – which means a kidnap. Just this time the duo kidnaps a canine and you wonder if the film is going to the dogs.
As you try to keep a count on the ever-increasing character artists, the entire cast checks-in a five star hotel. Soon the story takes the shape of the 1992 Hollywood flick ‘ Blame it on the Bellboy ’ which was remade in Bollywood just a year ago as ‘ One Two Three ’ (and also starred Sunil Shetty and Sameera Reddy). A comedy of errors ensues with characters doing Bhagam Bhag throughout the hotel.
Call it a ‘wardrobe’ disaster but Akshay Kumar is locked in one for practically an hour of the film’s runtime. With a seemingly lost Sunil Shetty and a screeching loud Paresh Rawal, it’s left up to the character artists to save the ship. But a flood is induced in the climax as the director seeks inspiration from another Hollywood flick ‘ The Towering Inferno ’ (1974) with each character going down the drain.
As the name suggests, De Dana Dan is a quickie flick which is hastily written, rapidly filmed, has swift storytelling and speeding characters giving you no time to breathe, gasp, feel, absorb react or relate. The film takes time to kick-off and nothing much happens in the first half. The second half gains momentum with cross-connections of characters inside the hotel. The more you attempt to keep a track of the individual tracks, the more it confuses you. The less you try to join the links, the more it binds you.
What could have been the USP of the film, acts against it with the comic chemistry of Akshay-Paresh-Sunil clearly missing. In fact the other character artists add more value to the film varying from the deafening ones (Archana Puran Singh, Manoj Joshi) to the hilarious ones (Johnny Lever, Rajpal Yadav, Asrani). Undoubtedly the humour is loud and noisy but this slapstick is appended with some story (Suresh Krishanan). Unfortunately for a comedy, the dialogues are pretty lame with not sufficient punches or one-liners.
Pritam’s music is quite outdated this time and every song is forced into the narrative. Salim-Sulaiman’s background score is loud and at several instances overshadows the dialogues. With a major part of the film being shot inside the hotel, the camerawork isn’t much demanding and K Ahambaram does well as the cinematographer. The art direction (Sabu Cyril) and SFX (Red Chillies) effects for the deluge sequence in the climax are well executed though it doesn’t contribute much to the film. For a comedy, De Dana Dan is considerably long at almost 3 hour runtime and could have been more crisply edited.
Akshay Kumar repeats himself but is funny at times. Sunil Shetty seems jaded and uninterested. Paresh Rawal hams. Archana Puran Singh is in the Masti mould. Manoj Joshi goes over the top. Johnny Lever gets the best sequences and is clearly the scene-stealer. Rajpal Yadav and Asrani are equally hilarious. Katrina Kaif looks pretty. Sameera Reddy and Aditi Govitrikar can’t act. Neha Dhupia is better amongst the females. Chunky Pandey is non-existent. Vikram Gokhale looks miscast in comedy, which he has probably attempted for the first time.
