De Dana Dan

Genre: Comedy

Director: Priyadarshan

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Suniel Shetty, Paresh

Rawal, Sameera Reddy, Neha Dhupia, Archana Puran Singh, Chunky Pandey, Johhny Lever, Rajpal Yadav, Asrani,

Vikram Gokhale

Being screened at Gopi Krishna

KATHMANDU: If you love laughing at senseless jokes, then De Dana Dan is a great entertainer. Director Priyadarshan is unbelievable — he puts over a dozen characters in a single hotel and then expertly manages them and the situations without missing a beat. The twists and turns in this comedy will surely see you breaking into giggling fits in certain scenes.

Nitin (Akshay) is a cook, watchman, driver, gardener and butler to a wealthy industrialist (Archana Puran Singh) in Singapore. He does all this to repay his father’s debt. Like many young men Nitin also dreams of becoming rich and live happily with the love of his life — Anjali Kakkad (Katrina Kaif), who has been supporting him financially. Anjali’s father is desperate to find the richest person for her and is not happy with her choice. So, Anjali has to wait for the day when Nitin can actually become rich.

Ram (Sunil Shetty), Nitin’s best friend, comes to Singapore with the same dream — earn money and get married to Manpreet (Sameera Reddy), who come from high-class family. Manpreet’s family will never consent to their marriage as long as Ram does not become rich. Ram starts working as a courier deliveryman.

Harbans (Paresh Rawal) is a cunning businessman always on the lookout for a way to multiply his income and clear his debts. He thinks that the best option would be to marry his son (Chunky Pandey) to a wealthy girl whose family

will provide him with a huge dowry. He is introduced as a wealthy businessman to Manpreet’s family at a function and is soon able to impress them. So, the families decide that Harban’s son and Manpreet should marry.

With negative forces working against Nitin and Ram, both get deadlines from their girlfriends that leads them to come up with a kidnapping idea. They decide to kidnap someone very, very important— Archana’s dog, whom she loves more than anyone else and demand ransom. But a twist in the kidnapping makes the movie really funny

The whole kidnapping leads both to stay in an expensive hotel where they wait to collect for the ransom. Meanwhile, Manpreet’s wedding reception is to be held at the same hotel. Very soon everyone characters start converging in the hotel which includes a Chinese don (Asrani), a hired assassin (Johnny Lever), a club dancer (Neha Dupia), a ACB police inspector, an Indian ambassador (Vikram Gokhale), a drunken waiter (Rajpal Yadav), and all have a motive of their own.

Twists and turns and mistaken identities leave you giddy with laughter.

With lead actors from Priyadarshan earlier movies, the motley set of other actors and actresses has something very different to offer and that adds to the laughter meter. There are times when you will laugh hysterically, but at times you also feel a bit lethargic.

Some of the numbers are going to be chartbusters. Seductive Gale Lag Ja, groovy beats of Paisa, a beautiful love song by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan Rishte Naate and title song De Dana Dan are good to listen to.

Akshay and his way of justifying his role deserve special mention, while Suniel is very natural. Katrina does not have much to do, while Sameera even less, especially till the interval. Paresh, as always, is brilliant as he portrays his character superbly.

De Dana Dan has many characters making it difficult to identify one character as main and others as secondary. It ensures laughter in abundance. If you think the promos of De Dana Dan had something promising, then you should not wait any longer as the movie is a wild entertainer.