Comedies, the flavor of the season, surface again with gusto and thrill! A comedy has been proclaimed to be a sure shot formula for box office success and this is evident from the recent successful releases. Besides this promising commercial aspect, when there are names like Priyadarshan, Sharman Joshi, Rajpal Yadav and Tusshar Kapoor on credits, one can expect fun in unlimited form.

Priyadarshan's golden streak of success through comical flicks maintains its top form in 'Dhol'. Yes, the film entertains to the hilt with minor hiccups though but still it's the powerful comical quotient that rules the show.

Dhol' brings back memories of yesteryear classic 'Padosan' and hits like 'Golmaal-Fun Unlimited' and 'Hera Pheri' for its premise, execution and treatment. Priyadarshan's intellect of innovating hilarious situations and complementing them with quizzical one-liners and chirpy dialogues is the highlight of this fun frolic entertainer. It's first big occasion when he has gone miles ahead from his regular formulae to imbibe the traits of "male bonding" principles for his comical flick.

Like all his successful works, he has maintained hilarious flow of events in 'Dhol' though with a suspense thriller that retards the film's pace. It would have been better if this dark shaded suspense thriller was removed to maintain the comical flow of the film.

'Dhol' is presumed to be an inspirational lift from decades' old flop 'Parda Hai Parda' (1992), which was originally lifted from Malayalam, hit 'Harihar Nagar'. No matter where does the idea or the inspiration come from, it's important how it entertains the audience. 'Partner', 'Heyy Babby', 'Dhamaal' and now it's Priyadarshan's 'Dhol'. It seems the audiences have given their positive verdict in favor of comedies.

'Dhol's basic premise centers around four happy-go-lucky guys who dream of being rich without toiling hard for it. Their basic aim is to enjoy life king-size by marrying rich girls and making their career out of their wives' parental money and wealth. Greedy yet still good at heart, they get condemnation from every quarter but their spirits of building dreamy castles doesn't die.

'Dhol' is a story about four young boys - Sameer alias Sam (Tusshar Kapoor), Pankaj alias Pakkya (Sharman Joshi), Markand alias Maru (Rajpal Yadav) and Gautam alias Goti (Kunal Khemu). Though all of them share one room, yet they are always unable to pay their house rent.

In a hot pursuit to enhance their standard of living, they risk their life by venturing into a small business but everything goes berserk. Maru deceives his corrupt uncle (Tiku Talsania) while Pakkya takes liberty with her relations by misleading his sister and her husband (Asrani). To get rid of this financial mess, they plan to charm a rich girl and finally marry her.

Dark and dusky bombshell Kanchan (Tanushree Dutta) arrives in their neighborhood and all the four pranksters try to impress her. The crux of 'Dhol' triggers off from their playful antics and this is where typical Priyadarshan's stamp rules the show. On flip side, Kanchan has dreadful past of losing his brother Rahul in this town. His brother's best friend Jay (Arbaaz Khan) and his beloved Sophie (Payal Rohtagi) are the only two clues that can solve the mystery of her brother's murder.

Jay was an accomplice in Zikembo's (Murli Sharma) criminal act and now he is looking for the mysterious "dhol". All the four pranksters proclaim to be Rahul's best friend so as to befriend Kanchan and finally marry her. Zikembo calls all these guys to his place for this mysterious "dhol". The climax of 'Dhol' is very entertaining and hilarious and its Priyadarshan's brilliant vision that makes comical acts look so simple.

'Dhol's brightest aspect comes in the form of Rajpal Yadav's comical acts. The film highlights his exceptional comical timing and his one-liners work impressively in delivering hilarious moments in the film. Rajpal's witty conversation with Tiku Talsania followed by the scenes where he schemes for bank loan with other friends is highly amusing. The climax scenes where he fights and gets beaten by villains are also finely executed.

Kunal Khemu was impressive in his first comical appearance after the success of 'Kalyug' and 'Traffic Signal'. His witty and humorous dialogues suit his personality and character and work well in the first half of the film.

The scene where he tries to enter Tanushree's house and gets beaten by her grandmother draws laughter. Tusshar Kapoor maintains his top form in comedies and should stick to such flicks rather than trying something silly in movies like 'Aggar' or 'Kya Love Story Hai'.

Tusshar's role may not be as amusing as it was in 'Kya Kool Hai Hum' or 'Golmaal' but still it has enough substance to make his presence felt. The scene where he along with three other tries to douse "havan" fire is hilarious, and so also the one when he gets a flak from Om Puri.

Like Tusshar Kapoor, Sharman Joshi maintains his peculiar tinge in witty humorous one-liners and funny acts. His boxing scene sequence and later changing his identity with Rajpal Yadav are some of his finest performances.

'Dhol' is filled with loads of such comical "masti" and it's difficult to pick and choose the best scene from the flick. The slapstick comedy reaches its peak when all the four boys throw Om Puri's car from the cliff , Rajpal Yadav tries to impress Om Puri in the market and finally, when in the climax they confront two sects of gangs and eventually escape. Isn't this the finest aspect of skillful writing?

However, there are minor dents that retard the flow in the second half where the murder mystery deepens with extra-stretched sequences. Despite all such insignificant minuses, 'Dhol' promises a good deal for young audiences who relish comical flicks.

The movie's scripting, dialogues and screenplay (Manisha Korde) have been excellent. Cinematography (Piyush Shah) has all the elements of enticing pop genre and shows bright edges in a couple of thrilling song sequences. Pritam's music is a big disappointment though and is the weakest in recent times. Except for title track "O Yaara Dhol Baajake", none of the tracks has fire or flare to entice audiences.

After 'Hera Pheri', there hasn't been a single film where Priyadarshan has faltered with comedy, and 'Dhol' maintains his impeccable record. The film is expected to open with encouraging box office response and draw big returns from metro cities.

It's likely to be more dominating than its contemporary releases and will be good news for Bollywood box office barometer. In nutshell, Priyadarshan's 'Dhol' sounds loud and big!