Total Dhamaal: Fails to impress, despite a stellar star cast

Total Dhamaal (also known as Dhamaal 3) (transl. Total fun) is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language adventure comedy film directed and co-produced by Indra Kumar. It is the third installment of the Dhamaal film series. It is a sequel to 2011’s Double Dhamaal. The film stars Ajay Devgn, Riteish Deshmukh, Arshad Warsi, Javed Jaffrey, Madhuri Dixit, Esha Gupta and Anil Kapoor. The film was released on 22 February 2019.

The film is a slapstick comedy loosely borrowed from 1963 Hollywood film It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. The film grossed Rs 100 crore (US$14 million) worldwide in three days of release. Going by Rotten Tomatoes, the film has scored 43% based on 7 reviews. Taran Adarsh rated the film with three stars and found it entertaining and loaded with clean humour. Himesh from Koimoi gives 3 star out of 5 saying “Total Dhamaal is a fair clean entertainer that can be enjoyed with the entire family. It’s definitely an improvement over previous instalment Double Dhamaal.”

Trade analyst Sumit M kadel stated that “Total Dhamaal is funny specially in 1st half. Its a no brainer fast paced family entertainer, lavishly shot and well performed by Ajay Devgn, Madhuri Dixit, Anil Kapoor, Riteish Deshmukh and the entire cast. 2nd half is moderate and it could have been better. Overall Good film.” Rating- 3 out of 5 Ronak Kotecha writing for The Times of India gave two stars out of five and feels that in the ensemble cast, the film had the potential to be a comic roller coaster ride.

He concluded saying “However, the fact that the film is slapstick is not a problem, what brings it down is poor writing and execution.” Raja Sen writing for Hindustan Times rated the film with one star out of five.