Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; November 13, 2017)

Seventeen years after they were paired in Rajkumar Santoshi's 2000 dram, Pukar, in which he played an army office, Major Jaidev Rajvansh, whose reputation is in tatters and life endangered after he throws over a childhood friend, Anjali, for a beauty queen, Indra Kumar is all set to bring back one of the most popular jodis of the '90s in his next film. "Yes, Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit have been paired in Total Dhamaal which goes on the floors in January in Mumbai," says the director.

The duo has been seen in more than a dozen films together, starting with Hifazat, some of them cameos like Dil Tera Aasahiq and Gharwali Baharwali. Their most memorable outings have been Tezaab, Parinda, Ram Lakhan, Kishen Kanhaiya, Beta, Khel and Pukar. Indra Kumar had directed them in the superhit Beta, which bagged them the Filmfare Award for Best Actor and Best Actress respectively.

Our memories of the 1992 family drama, which was the official remake of the 1987 Tamil film, Enga Chinna Rasa, is coloured with the sensuous "Dhak Dhak Karne Laga" and you wonder if we will see a repeat a quarter of a century later. Indra Kumar quips, "This film is essentially a comedy so don't expect any 'Dhak Dhak' but I promise total dhamaal. Anil and Madhuri have always been a great pair to work with and getting them together again is a dream."

The filmmaker has scored a hattrick of hits — Dil, Beta and Raja — with Madhuri, and since her return to B-town, everyone has been waiting for the director to reunite with his 'lucky mascot'. "I approached her a couple of months ago and the script worked its dhamaal on her and everybody else," asserts Indra Kumar, whose film, co-produced by Ashok Thakeria, also features Ajay Devgn as the new entrant and Riteish Deshmukh, Arshad Warsi and Jaaved Jaaferi from the original, which opened in 2007, followed by Double Dhamaal that arrived four years later.

Madhuri had once admitted that almost 95 per cent of her films were shot in picture perfect Ooty. Indra Kumar was superstitious about one particular tree and always managing to get it in the frame with his leading lady. Will he shoot with the 'lucky' tree again? "I can't because someone chopped it. Thank God they couldn't axe my dreams of working with Madhuri again," he laughs, admitting that he would love for his film to release during Diwali 2018. "Of course, the final decision on the release date will be taken by the studio we tie up with but it would be great to have a dhamaal Diwali next year," he signs off on an ebullient note.