Movie Review: De Dana Dan;
Star Cast:
Akshay Kumar,
Sunil Shetty,
Paresh Rawal;
Katrina Kaif,
Neha Dhupia,
Sameera Reddy;
Director: Priyadarshan;
Rating: **1/2
PRIYADARSHAN'S LATEST offering De Dana Dan, seems like a reprisal of the hit Hera Pheri, with the talents of Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty and Paresh Rawal combined again. Sadly, after the two hours forty minutes film gets over, you realise how far it stands from that comedy caper.
When Akshay Kumar's character Nitin, who is a chauffeur in sad circumstances, talks about the condition of his ragged uniform, it feels as if he is giving the film its most honest review. The belt is supported a pyjama drawstring, the buttons might fall off at any moment and how nothing seems top be holding together. What makes the film more doomed by its makers, is how Priyadarshan, in the credits which few stay on to watch, has no intention to call himself the director – it says "Filmed by….".
Like every film directed by Priyadarshan, this too gets several-unrelated-yet-related-characters who shriek when they speak and gets them together for all star finale, when all 26 of them strive to find a way to escape the hotel in the end. There are kidnappers who nab a dog, murderers and body deliveries and the above mentioned trio that is rarely together.
Akshay Kumar is the handyman servant, who is the butler, cook, driver,watchman and gardener to industrialist Archana Puran Singh who settled in Singapore. He wants to marry Anjali (who else but Katrina Kaif?), who gives him financial support. His best friend Ram (Suneil Shetty) comes to Singapore, seeking wealth from foreign shores and ends up as a courier delivery boy. Conveniently, he finds wealthy Manpreet (Sameera Reddy), whose parents refuse to let them get hitched.
Meanwhile, Harbans (Paresh Rawal) wants to make more money and decides to get his soon married to a wealthy girl. He sees Manpreet as a suitable candidate and impresses her family by pretending to be equally rich, almost like Anupam Kher in Dil.
The two heroes receive ultimatums to get rich quick or lose their lady loves and promptly decide kidnapping is the only way to do so. In the midst of this, Priyadarshan throws in Chinese Don (Asrani), a hired assassin (Johny Lever), an police inspector (Sharat Saxsena), a club dancer (Neha Dhupia), a letch (Shakti Kapoor), a drunken waiter (Rajpal Yadav) and a dead body. The situation deteriotes to a bad copy of Blame it on the Bellboy.
While the audience would strive to follow all of the riddled plotlines and some genuinely funny moments like Manoj Joshi's red in the fact act, they can also stick to listening to the music by Pritam or croon along to Paisa, the track given by RDB. The composition is good and one can say a lot about the technical soundness of Ahamabaram's work.
Word to the wise,
Try not to plan the weekend simply on De Dana Dan.
The children were lined up in the cafeteria of a Catholic elementary school for lunch. At the head of the table was a large pile of apples. The nun made a note, and posted on the apple tray:
'Take only ONE. God is watching.'
Moving further along the lunch line, at the other end of the table was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies.
A child had written a note, 'Take all you want. God is watching the apples.'
Punchline: story of a psychotic orphan
Genre: Youth/Romance
Type: Straight
Banner: Aditya Arts
Cast: Allu Arjun, Kajal Agarwal, Navadeep, Shraddha Das, Ajay, Brahmanandam, Mukesh Rishi, Sayaji Shinde, Srinivas Reddy, Tarzan, Radha Kumari etc
Music: Devi Sri Prasad
Cinematography: RD Rajasekhar
Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh
Written by: Vema Reddy
Direction: Sukumar
Producer: Aditya Babu & BVSN Prasad
Release date: 27 November 2009
Story Review :
Arya is an orphan and Ajay is his friend in an orphanage. A rich couple visit that orphanage and wanted to adapt one of these two guys. Arya and Ajay use a toss to decide their fortunes. Arya wins, but lets Ajay go as he thinks that friendship is all about giving. Ajay grows up as a rich man and Arya grows up as a poor guy. Ajay starts a software company and Arya joins him as an employee. Geeta is the new employee of the company. Both Ajay and Arya fall in love with her. The rest of the story is all about how these two guys try to make Geeta fall for them.
Artists Performance:
Allu Arjun is perfect as Arya. His character in the movie has the qualities of a psychotic and he portrayed the character flawlessly. He shined in emotional scenes in the second half of the movie. Allu Arjun is probably the best dancer of current era in Tollywood. That is the reason why he made hugely difficult dances appear fluid and effortless in the first four songs of the movie.
Others:
Kajal Agarwal is good as a girl who is not committed to any guy at heart. She rendered the image of a typical confused girl about love. Navadeep is nice as a guy with selfish and practical thinking. He is extremely good with histrionics when he delivers dialogues to Allu Arjun at hospital in the climax scene. Shraddha Das is gorgeous in a brief role. Ajay is excellent as Subba Reddy, mainly due to entertaining characterization. Brahmanandam is partly entertaining. Mukesh Rushi is adequate. An actor with better command on Rayalaseema dialect would have done justice to Sayaji Shinde's role.
Technical departments:
Story - screenplay - direction: Story of the movie is about the conflict of love (Geeta) and friendship (Ajay) of a confused guy (Arya) with psychotic tendencies caused due to loneliness in life. Making a movie based on such a characterization is a highly risky proposition and director Sukumar partly succeeds in it. Sukumar is basically an intelligent guy with a flair for parallel thinking. His intelligence and creativity is shown in conceiving certain scenes of the movie like
1. Using a bubble gum to decide who is going to be hero's best friend (just like throwing stone into empty cup in Arya)
2. Hero wearing glasses to see the heroine clearly in his dreaming because heroine appears blurred. (montage shot of 2nd song)
3. Love letter episode
4. The drinking scene between Arya and Subba Reddy
5. With one dialogue (Aayanaku champentha kopam vunte, naaku chachipoyentha prema vundi), the love angle of entire movie is justified.
Sukumar is also extremely good at penning screenplay for some part of the movie. The best example is the way he distributes three characters in a stand-off of second half (like puli, meka, gaddi story we listen when we were kids).
However, there is a major glitch in Arya 2 compared to Arya movie. In Arya movie, hero is shown as a guy with mischief and he sincerely fights for a girl because he loves her. When he wants to chase a girl with sincerity, audience would love it and follow the hero character with empathy. Hence there is emotional involvement for hero's character from audiences. In Arya 2, hero would be sincerely chasing the girl to take her and give it to his friend. Hence, there in less involvement from audiences point of view. So, there will not be sympathy for hero when he loses girl and there will not be feeling of triumph (from audiences involvement angle) when hero finally gets the girl. Another major obstacle in the movie is the factor of confusion. The character of hero vacillates between the feelings of selfishness and sacrifice throughout the movie. The director cleared the confusion only towards the climax.
Other departments:
Songs of Arya 2 are excellent to listen and I was a bit hesitant about director doing justice to the songs on the screen. Sukumar comes up with a fabulous job of canning all the songs with energy and verve. Background music is also good. Cinematography by Rajasekhar is of top class. Credit for lush visuals should also be given to Prime Focus (DI) and Pixelloid (VFX). Dialogues are well written. Editing by Marthand K Venkatesh is good. Production standards by Aditya Arts banner (Aditya Babu and Bhogavally Prasad) are of top-notch.
Analysis:
First half is is not gripping due to lack of conflict point. Around 45 minutes of the movie in first half where Arya tries to make Geeta fall for him appears redundant. Second half is better than the first half. The last 15 minutes is clear as the director reveals the real character of Arya, thus relieving us of confusion. The plus points of the movie are creative scenes, Allu Arjun, songs (dances) and technical values. On the flipside, psychotic orientation and confusion in hero's characterization doesn't get audiences involved in the movie intently. The runtime of the movie is also high. On a whole, Arya 2 is a different film that can appeal to A centers and class crowds.
Johny Johny
Yes Papa
Private Company
Yes Papa
Any Motivation
No Papa
Many Tensions
Yes Papa
Do u Sleep well
No Papa
Onsite Opportunity
No papa
Boss Ki Galiyan
Yes Papa
Increment
Ha ha ha :)
A man was filling out a job application. When he came to the question,
"Have you ever been arrested?"
"No.", he replied.
The next question, intended for people who had answered in the affirmative to the previous
question, was "Why?"
The applicant answered it anyway:
"Never got caught."
Rajiv answers:Rajiv answers: "They'll find us!"
