Kamaal Dhamaal Malamaal

Starring: <strong>Nana Patekar, Shreyas Talpade, Madhurima Bannerjee, Om Puri, Paresh Rawal, Asrani, Neeraj Vora</strong> Directed by <strong>Priyadarshan</strong> Rating: <strong>***</strong> If you can overlook the outrageous suggestion that Nana Patekar could be Om Puri’s son then you’re in for some clean healthy wholesome and engaging fun in this comic drama about a stranger who walks into a Catholic village and changes malfunctioned lives with his positivity.

The producers of Priyadarshan’s latest comic romp Kamaal Dhamaal Malamaal(KDM) are under very serious pressure to postpone their release date so that it doesn’t clash with Akshay Kumar’s godly comedy Oh My God(OMG). However, the OMG team is not budging, come what may. Both the films are slated for a September 28 release. Apparently the KDM producers have been besieged with “requests” from the other camp to move forward, as a clash between the two films, both essentially comedies, doesn’t make any box office sense.

It is not often that a hit combo comes back to make yet another super hit. Paresh Rawal and Nana Patekar are coming back together in Percept Pictures’ Kamaal Dhamaal Malamaal (KDM) directed by Priyadarshan all set to hit the marquee on 28 September. “Nana has a very unusual role in the film. He normally sets the screen afire with his dialogue delivery but this time it is his silence that will score,” remarks Paresh.

Shreyas Talpade got the biggest surprise of his life when director Priyadarshan had a treehouse constructed for him at Wai where he was shooting for <em>Kamaal Dhamaal Malamaal</em> produced by Percept Pictures. So much did he fall in love with the treehouse, that the star yearned to have it constructed for himself. He casually mentioned it to Priyadarshan and the next day it was all done. “The next morning when I woke up, I was shocked to see a treehouse being constructed for me. I was touched that Priyan Sir took so much pain to make my one dream come true,” divulged Shreyas.

Two senior actors Nana Patekar and Om Puri, who are pitted together in Percept Pictures' Kamaal Dhamaal Malamaal after a gap of after 30 years, are the ones who enjoy every moment of shooting together. In fact Puri gets immensely annoyed at somebody when he calls Nana Patekar Buddha. “How can you call him an oldie? He is my son from my last birth,” he goes on to add. Nana on the other hand keeps teasing Om Puri for his continual sleeping habits and grins that the senior actor can sleep even in the pauses between words!

So engrossed was the 62-year old Nana Patekar with the shoot of Percept Pictures’ Kamaal Dhamaal Malamaal (KDM), that despite a back injury, he was always dot on time for the film’s shoot. When we enquired about his pain, Nana shot back saying, “Injuries are like guests. If you treat them well and pamper them, they stay back and refuse to go away. If you keep yourself aloof from their existence, they leave as quickly as they came.” To prove his point, Nana said that he effortlessly lifted Shreyas Talpade on his shoulders for a pose for the Priyadarshan-directed film.

In a rare case of animal-human bonding, the crew of Percept Pictures’ Kamaal Dhamaal Malamaal was witness to Nana Patekar befriending a kid goat that was hired for the shoot. So much was the little delight attached to Patekar that it followed him on the sets and became his pal. When not facing the camera, the actor spent his time pouring love to the animal and feeding it grass. They got acquainted really well with each other. “They even communicated. The baby goat seemed to understand every word the actor said and nodded its head,” said a crew member.