Cinemaah

Half The Humour



Tastes in comedy (as in everything else) differ—what cracks up one person, may offend another and may leave a third cold.  Bollywood comedies can never please the entire gamut of audiences, that’s why Indra Kumar’s Double Dhamaal, might have a mixed response.

How many times can one laugh at guys being kicked or hit in the crotch, followed by the rolling-eyes reaction?  Is a man in a female gorilla suit being hit on by a real gorilla supposed to evoke laughter?  Is it funny when a guy dips a French fry into blood thinking it is ketchup, eats it and quips “It’s different.”  Who knows!

Double Dhamaal is the sequel of the fairly funny Dhamaal, in which the four goofy friends Adi (Arshad Warsi), his lisping half-witted brother Manav (Javed Jaffrey), Boman (Aashish Choudhary) and Roy (Ritiesh Deshmukh) were introduced, along with cop Kabir (Sanjay Dutt). At the end of the last film, they had donated a large sum of money—ill-gotten gains—to an orphanage.

Now the four are waiting by the wayside (literally!) for luck to come their way again, and are outraged to find that Kabir is rolling in wealth.  They force him to make them partners and end up getting conned by him and chased by a don Batabhai (Satish Kaushik).  Kabir says he had seen Kaun Banega Crorepati and leant that only Cons become Crorepatis.  Kabir has his sister Kiya (Kangna Ranaut) and girlfriend Kamini (Mallika Sherawat) helping him in his elaborately staged cons.  

The four land up in Macau and are furious to find Kabir lording it over a casino called Four Jokers. They decide to get even.  They get into all kinds of weird disguises,  mimic stars (that always gets laughs), and plan to loot Kabir.

A throwaway line here, a gag there works, but on the whole, the yelling, screaming, pratfalls and double entendre are just not funny and the strain shows.  There are really tasteless and racist jokes – like when Roy pretends to be a black man with two retarded brothers. Aashish Choudhary in drag is not a pleasant sight. Mallika and Kangna just parade around in skimpy clothes, so do a lot of white junior artistes.

Indra Kumar and his team of actors try really hard to get the comic juices flowing, but poor gags can’t make a comedy.  But then, if people are determined to laugh, who can stop them?