Cast: Sharman Joshi, Tusshar Kapoor, Kunal Khemu, Rajpal Yadav
Direction: Priyadarshan
Desperate to make some quick cash so they can repay a loan and set up a business of their own, four out-of-work buddies – Sharman Joshi, Tusshar Kapoor, Kunal Khemu and Rajpal Yadav – figure out that the only way they can get rich is if they’re able to woo a richie-rich girl into marriage.
As if on cue, Tanushree Dutta moves into the house next door along with her elderly grandparents. Even as they vie for her attention, each trying to outdo the other, our frightfully foolish foursome find themselves inadvertently involved in a mystery of unexplained suicides and believe it or not, a missing drum, thus justifying the title of this mindless movie, Dhol.
Much like director Priyadarshan’s last film Bhagam Bhag and to be honest, much like many of his recent films including Chup Chupke, Garam Masala and Hulchul, this one too is a nightmare in the name of comedy.
It’s replete with double-meaning dialogues and pavement slang, so much so that you turn away your face in disgust every time they use lines like chaddi mein naag hai and the like.
Once again turning to familiar ground for inspiration, Priyadarshan steals the plot of Dhol from that rib-tickling Malayalam comedy In Harihar Nagar, but what he’s unable to bring to his Hindi rip-off is the original film’s consistent sense of fun.
Dhol does have its moments, but they’re few and far between. For the most part, you’re so parched for entertainment, you’re willing to laugh at even the handful of slapstick moments this ridiculously complicated film offers up.
What’s not funny however, is the loud, over-the-top style of delivering dialogues which seems to have become a trademark of Priyadarshan’s films.
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I’m not sure if the director’s lost his hearing already, but I suspect we certainly will if we have to watch another film like this in which the actors don’t talk to each other, they scream and shout and yell out their lines to each other.
In the second half, when Dhol becomes a thriller of sorts, you’ve really had enough. I challenge even Priyadarshan himself to sit through the entire two-and-half-hour duration of this film, without hoping for a power failure, or even an earthquake – any reason really for the film to be stopped midway.
Of all the actors in this mangled mess of a film, it’s only Rajpal Yadav who gets a few laughs out of you, but I have to say here he’s got such a hostile manner of acting, that he makes all those vulgar, loud dialogues in the film seem even more vulgar just by the aggression of his performance alone.
I’m going with one out of five and a suggestion to stay far, far away from Priyadarshan’s Dhol. The one star is for the smattering of genuine comedy you’re likely to find here, the rest is just indifferent film-making, an insult to your intelligence.
You know, every time I walk out of the cinema after watching a Priyadarshan film, I feel like he can’t make a film worse than this. And every single time, he surprises me by surpassing his previous achievement.
Rating: 1 / 5 (Poor)