Dhamaal 4 Review | Tottal Dhamaal
There is no denying that Hindi cinema is currently going through a phase where unabashed loud comedies are making a comeback, and Dhamaal 4 proudly embraces that space. Director Indra Kumar makes no attempt to disguise the film as anything else. It is intentionally loud, unapologetically silly and determined to entertain audiences looking for two hours of mindless fun.
The film gets off to a surprisingly energetic start. The opening portions play almost like a celebration of Total Dhamaal, instantly bringing back the franchise’s familiar madness. The episodic beginning works because every major character gets a moment to remind audiences why they loved them in the first place.
Riteish Deshmukh, Arshad Warsi and Jaaved Jaaferi slip back into their iconic characters with remarkable ease. The introductory sequences for Riteish Deshmukh (Lallan) and Arshad Warsi (Adi) & Jaaved Jaaferi (Manav) are among the funniest portions of the film and promise a thoroughly entertaining ride ahead. Riteish, in particular, reprises his character with much greater confidence than before, making even familiar quirks enjoyable to watch.
Ajay Devgn as Guddu makes a stylish and unique entry, exactly as one would expect from his character, and Sanjay Mishra as Johnny joins him to create a combination that looks capable of delivering endless laughs. The plot soon shifts into classic Dhamaal territory with a treasure hunt revolving around a hidden khazana beneath an ‘O’ located below a mountain shaped like an ‘M’. Till this point, the film remains firmly in its comfort zone and keeps the laughs coming.
The film takes a noticeably different turn the moment the three families finally reach the destination. Once the treasure is discovered, the screenplay changes gears completely. Instead of building bigger comic situations around the hunt, the narrative shifts into a survival drama with comic elements. Whether they survive the danger, whether they escape alive and whether they finally get the treasure becomes the central conflict of the second half.
This change in approach dilutes the momentum that the film builds so effectively in the first half. The situations become repetitive, the set pieces feel stretched and several sequences appear forced rather than organically funny. The survival angle takes over the comedy instead of complementing it, resulting in a second half that lacks the imagination and spontaneity that defined the franchise at its best.
The film keeps throwing in references to the earlier Dhamaal films to trigger nostalgia, but after a point these callbacks become repetitive instead of rewarding. Some of Riteish Deshmukh’s comic beats also feel like extensions of what audiences have already seen in Total Dhamaal. While he still manages to extract laughs through his performance, the writing does not give him enough fresh material.
One of the biggest missed opportunities is the pairing of Ajay Devgn and Sanjay Mishra. Their contrasting screen personalities have tremendous comic potential, but surprisingly the script gives them very few memorable gags together. One keeps waiting for this combination to explode into something hilarious, but it never quite happens.
That said, Dhamaal 4 never forgets its target audience. It remains a clean family entertainer that rarely gets vulgar and stays committed to broad slapstick humour throughout. This has also been one of the recurring positives in early audience reactions, with many appreciating that the franchise sticks to accessible family comedy rather than relying on adult humour.