Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Golmaal - The Amol Palekar one

Hindi cinema has a number of movies about identical twins and more (most hilariously in Angoor, but also there in Chaalbaaz, Seeta aur Geeta, Kishan Kanhaiya, Judwa, and not so good (triples) in Dilip Kumar's Bairaag and Amitabh's Mahaan). The Golmaal made by Hrishikesh Mukherjee did not have doubles, but showed the problems that can occur when you are forced to manufacture a double. This movie is a laugh riot, I have not found a singler person till now who did not like this movie. The scenes look natural, not contrived (although the sequences including bigger stars was really not necessary). The movie was released in 1979 and held its own among the various action movies that were popular in that era.
Golmaal is the story of Amol Palekar and Utpal Dutt. Ram Prasad Sharma (Amol Palekar) stays with his sister. He is freshly minted accountant and one day his uncle advises him to try for a job in Utpal Dutt's company. With a warning to appear simple, not show any knowledge of sports or any subject other than his own (accounting) since Utpal Dutt does not like youngsters focusing on things other than their main work, Amol Palekar reaches the interview, dressed simply and with a moustache (very important for Utpal Dutt). He gets the job and all goes well till the time he wants to attend a hockey match (after making some other excuse).
Coincidentally, Utpal Dutt is also there at the hockey match and spots Amol Palekar, and life changes for him after that. Confronted at the office, he spins a story about his identical younger brother (without a moustache) called Lucky (Lakshman Prasad Sharma), totally opposite in values. Utpal Dutt unexpectedly engages Lucky as a music teacher for his daughter (Bindiya Goswami) who falls in love with him. His moustache had to be sacrified long back, and now he sports a false mush whenever he is in office. He also has to invent a mother, and then scrambles to get one when Utpal Dutt wants to visit. So Dina Pathak comes on the scene.
Things are going on with humour, and then start moving to a conclusion. Bindiya tells her father that she loves Laxman, and Utpall Dutt promptly refuses to entertain any such request. He tries to push Ram Prasad towards her, and she cannot stand him, till the time he reveals his true identity to her.
Just after, Ram Prasad's moustache slips and Utpall Dutt confronts him with jail, and thus starts a wild chase (another comedy sequence with Keshto Mukherjee is included). Finally everything is revealed and all's well that ends well.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Ashish,

Came across you blog. I wonder how do you manage to write so many blogs? Great job.

Can you also post your articles on http://www.bestofindya.com for others to enjoy your work.

-Indya
boi@bestofindya.com