Dhamaal 4

The fourth instalment in Indra Kumar's Dhamaal franchise is rattling, loud and ludicrous. It goes above and beyond slapstick and brainrot. But somehow, none of the constant bickering, exaggerated movements, comical accidents and confusion land. At 2 hours 23 minutes, Dhamaal 4 is an excrutiatingly exhausting watch that never moves the story beyond square one.

You will find buried treasure before you find the comedy. Weak writing, bad AI visuals and dated humour have drained the franchise's comic spark.

Dhamaal 4 disappoints with its lazy writing, recycled gags, and problematic humour, despite a committed ensemble cast. The film's humour is largely infantile, relying on slapstick and recycled gags, with few genuine laughs. The way Dhamaal 4 treats its female characters reveals that the filmmakers have little interest in keeping pace with the times.

If this is what Dhamaal 4 considers comic gold, the bar has sunk alarmingly low. I laughed a grand total of five times throughout the film. I began counting midway because keeping track of the laughs was far more engaging.

Despite the flaws, Dhamaal 4 retains the franchise for good. It is a fun rollercoaster family entertainer, with a heart, tailor-made for kids.

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. Instead of crafting a cohesive narrative that leverages their sharp situational wit, the writers strand these veterans inside a fragmented sequence of sketches. For the rest, it is a test of patience.

At 2 hours 20 minutes long, Indra Kumar film starring Ajay Devgn, Riteish Deshmukh, Arshad Warsi and Jaaved Jafferi is a collection of gags, weakly stitched together.