De Dana Dan (DDD) is a film in hyper mode – idiotic, juvenile, senseless, corny, bizarre, illogical, inconsistent, outrageous but admittedly energetic and yes, even funny at places in its own silly way.

The film, aiming to be a no-brainer entertainer and little else, depends on one situation after another concerning mistaken identities and in that sense it does manages to interconnect the innumerable characters and situations reasonably well. But if you’re looking for a high class laugh riot in the league of a Hera Peri (2000), DDD is not it. Not by a mile and for all the breathlessness and running about by the huge ensemble cast, all it offers is a few genuine comic moments and sporadic witty dialogue. In fact, it is easily the weakest Akshay Kumar - Paresh Rawal - Priyadarshan collaboration till date.

The film, a series of gags, is loud and slapstick and the effort to be funny shows rather than play out naturally. This sometimes kills some genuinely funny situations as the actors run about and contort their faces and bodies in the name of comic acting. Akshay Kumar overplays desperately and while Suneil Shetty is flat, it is Paresh Rawal, Johnny Lever and Rajpal Yadav (after a looong time) who manage to give the film some of its funny moments. The girls have precious little to do except supply the eye candy. In fact, Sameera Reddy has no worthwhile role to speak of while gasp, Katrina Kaif is not even photographed or styled well though it has to be said she continues to smile ever so sweetly in film after film so well! Aditi Goviritkar is embarrassing while Archan Puran Singh is plain irritating. The dog does show remarkable comic timing that at times beats out the human actors. Still, the film has its moments like Rajpal Yadav doing his best to avoid the champagne glasses from breaking as the whole ensemble cast runs past him in the hotel corridor or his exchange with Akshay when he sees the latter hiding under Aditi Goviritkar’s bed.

Technicalities in a film of this sort - be it the camerawork, music, editing or sound design, they are just functional and obvious and add little to the film where the frame is a stage for the actors to perform.

All in all, the film is just about reasonable time pass in its few good moments but that’s about it. Oh and did I mention the ridiculous water-filled climax???