‘Dhamaal 4’ movie review: Ajay Devgn struggles in this listless hunt for laughs

For a franchise whose premise is a loud satire of the destructive nature of human greed, the driving force, Indra Kumar, behaves like his desperate protagonists. By pushing the series into a hollow fourth installment, the makers seem to be executing their own creative heist — mining the final ounces of goodwill from a beloved 2007 comedy to secure a quick box-office payout.

Ajay Devgn, who has produced the summer adventure, leads a pack of imbecile characters on screen chasing a mythical treasure. The star brings his deadpan energy to the madness as Guddu, who teams up with the eccentric Johnny (Sanjay Mishra) to hunt for a goldmine of laughs.

Along the way, they are joined by the aggressive Adi (Arshad Warsi) and the stupid Manav (Javed Jaaferi), who turns simple instructions into absurd situations and treats human bodies as rubber bands. Then there is the anxious Riteish Deshmukh as the greedy Lallan bouncing off the boisterous Paro (Anjali Deshmukh) for an extra-large dose of humour. Ravi Kishan joins the party as a bungling pirate Adhoora, who has his own bizarre plans to take home the loot.

They are masters of the game, yet the script leaves them with absolutely nothing to hang onto. The screenplay works like a comic digest where writer Paritosh Painter has merely swapped out the cover, leaving the inner pages completely repetitive. Instead of crafting a cohesive narrative that leverages their sharp situational wit, the writers strand these veterans inside a fragmented sequence of sketches. They seem to be forced to manufacture energy out of thin air, react to unpolished CGI animals, and recycle dated gags, in which the derriere becomes the literal and figurative focal point.

A still from ‘Dhamaal 4’
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

The cheap CGI tricks not only create absurd encounters with crocodiles, tigers, and octopuses, but they also place characters on structurally impossible cliffs that shatter any illusion of reality. So many scenes lead to the cliff that the film becomes a cliffhanger in its very structure, constantly dangling the audience over a precipice of artificial tension rather than letting the story breathe. After a point, the actors feel like a mirror of the makers, driven by pure, undisguised opportunism.

The franchise is expected to take a tone-deaf approach toward social and cinematic sensibilities. You know, the motivation for the comedy here is body-shaming, but even in the cringe, hyper-exaggerated comedy space, the timing, the structure, and the wit don’t consistently come together. The only time it works is when Guddu (Ajay) knocks on the door of his girlfriend, Alina (Esha Gupta), to win over his children, and is welcomed by a couple of ghosts. Then there are fun antics and conversations between Riteish and Anjali, centred on body size, that spark some low-brow humor. Of course, Sanjay Mishra and Javed Jaaferi work overtime to make the slapstick tick, and Ravi gives it all to keep this bloated ship afloat. 

While juveniles in all age groups might find some moments of mirth in this mindless entertainment, for the rest, it is a test of patience. As for Kumar, the question is, how about a sequel to Dil or Ishq?

Dhamaal 4 is currently running in theatres