‘Golmaal’, the comedy film set in
the late 70s creates magic from the first title song with animation showing
one layer changing the colour into another layer. The concept literally
reflects the lead character’s charming persona and the ability to mould oneself
at any given situation. The title song ‘Golmaal hai bhai, sab golmaal hai’ also
represents middle-class youngsters hoping for better future as they are stuck
in their current frustrated lives. This comic love story film with subtle
touches of Indian mind-set involves the audience till the last frame. Directed
by Hrishikesh Mukherjee and written by Sachin Bhowmich and R. M. Raza; ‘Golmaal’ is a classic
example of Comedy cinema.
The film revolves around
middle-class boy Ramprasad Dashrathprasad Sharma (Amol Palekar). Ramprasad is
waiting for his results and is in search of a better job. He has a younger
sister Ratna (Manju Singh) who is studying M.A. The siblings don’t have
blood-relatives other than their close family friend, Dr. Mama (David). Dr.
Mama suggests Ramprasad to go for an interview at ‘Urmila Traders’. Bhavani
Shankar (Utpal Dutt), the Proprietor of this firm is a friend of Dr. Mama.
Bhavani Shankar specifically dislikes youngsters for enjoying sports and other
arts more than work. He also hates men with modern clothing style and no
moustache. Ramprasad can be easily accepted by Bhavani Shankar as Ramprasad
already has a moustache. He appears for interview in desi Kurta-pyjama and
poses himself as a simple-minded man. He not only impresses Bhavani Shankar but
also secures a special place in Bhavani Shankar’s heart.
On one day, Ramprasad lies about
his mother’s illness as he wants to go to Hockey test match. Unfortunately,
Bhavani Shankar also goes there and sees Ramprasad in modern clothes enjoying
himself with his friends. On the next day, Bhavani Shankar shares this incident
with Ramprasad and wants to fire him from the job. Ramprasad plays a trick of
having a twin brother, Laxmanprasad; who is exactly opposite, irresponsible and
without moustache. Bhavani Shankar is greatly surprised but trusts Ramprasad as
he knows Ramprasad’s inability to lie and even offers a job to Laxmanprasad out
of love and respect for Ramprasad. The job is to teach singing to Bhavani
Shankar’s only daughter, Urmila (Bindiya Goswami). While playing two different
characters, Laxmanprasad aka Ramprasad falls in love with Urmila and the
situation gets critical. He also brings fake mother Mrs. Srivastava (Dina
Pathak) to play the part of sick mother. Unable to tell the truth, Ramprasad
keeps on playing the game of lies. The film entertains throughout as Ramprasad
tries to overcome the risky game.
The Writer of this film has done
an outstanding job. First, He uses the title song to make us understand the
‘Real’ characterisation of Ramprasad. The first scene in which he comes home
late night for the first time, the writer shows us the caring and mature
relation Ramprasad and Ratna share. When Ramprasad comes home with his results,
Dr. Mama gives us a slight resemblance of playful minds between Ramprasad and
his dead father. When we see tense Ramprasad all ready for his interview outside Bhavani
Shankar’s cabin, writer chooses not to start the interview scene with Ramprasad
being in the cabin. Instead, he lets us see two other participants getting shunned
by Bhavani Shankar; and thus increases our excitement and involvement for the
interview of Ramprasad. Bhavani
Shankar’s daughter, Urmila’s introduction scene is intelligently played too. As
we expect the daughter to be the same as her father; the writer surprises us
with different outcome. Also, this scene helps to enhance Bhavani Shankar’s
character more. Until this scene, we see Bhavani Shankar in hard-spoken, rude,
stubborn manner; but, the scene with his own daughter makes him caring person and
hidden art lover. Also, the small scenes helping to highlight the big scenes is
the writer’s exceptional quality. When Ramprasad is about to get fire because
of the Hockey match incident, the writer inserts a small scene Of Bade Babu who
has a habit to remove the hair of his nose. The direction for this little chunk
is good too. The director starts the scene with the receptionist’s reactions to
Bade Babu’s weird doings. And later, the scene develops with laughter reducing
the tension before an important scene between Ramprasad and Bhavani Shankar. Also,
The makers keep pressing on the moustache and the audience keep waiting for the
big fallout.
This film has some great
one-liners like “Jiska naam Bhavani Shankar ho, woh toh paida hote hi buddha ho
gaya”, “Kaun Kambakht kehta hai ki Hitler mar gaya” and so on. Amitabh
Bacchan’s guest appearance is wisely placed. It helps to show Ramprasad’s lack
of knowledge of drama; who successfully delivers the best performances for the
twin brother’s part later in the film. Deven Verma Playing himself in the film
as Ramprasad’s childhood friend makes the drama seem more authentic.
“Aanewala Pal jane wala hai” and
“Golmaal hai bhai, Sab Golmaal hai” are easy to remember but difficult to
forget songs. Amol Palekar and Utpal Datt’s performances are brilliant. The war
between orthodox and modern and the chemistry between Amol and Utpal fixes the
eyes of audience to screen only. Other actors played their parts wisely. Music
by R.D. Burman is one of the masterpieces of the Indian cinema.
I can
surely say that this beautiful work of art by Hrishikesh Mukherjee will surely
dominate the audience for a very long time...
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