Gooooool Maaaaaaaaaal

Last weekend, I wanted to watch a light, simple comedy and relax after a hectic week. What could be better than the 1979 classic Golmaal from Hrishikesh Mukherjee.

This movie is truly refreshing thanks to its simplicity. And for someone like me who likes to get nostalgic about the good ol' days, this is the one. Made in Hrishikesh Mukherjee's trademark comedy style - with the story revolving around one person's obsession.

Synopsis:
Bhavani Shankar (Utpal Dutt) is an industrialist who "is a character of strong likes and dislikes". He gets bowled over by the heera of a man, Ram Prasad Dashrath Prasad Sharma (played by the understated Amol Palekar), for 3 main reasons:

• He doesn't cut short his name.
• He is ignorant about everything in the world other than his education.
• He has a moustache.
  

Ram Prasad, in reality, is a character who enjoys balancing his life between work, music, sports and friends. All hell breaks loose when Bhavani Shankar spots Ram Prasad at a hockey test match, that too on a day when Prasad left early to tend to his sick mom (fictional of course).

This gets the movie into a spiral of comedy of errors. Ram Prasad invents a twin brother and a mother (who in turn invents a twin sister), woos the boss' daughter (Bindiya Gowswamy) and manages to get married to her after a chase scene.

The characters in the movie are all good people (not the extremes of Sooraj Barjatya) who have their own strengths and weaknesses. Hrishida manages to bring out the different shades of each character through numerous situations. Music by R D Burman goes along with the tone of the film, with the beautiful "Aane Waala Pal Jaane Waala Hai" being the pick of the lot.

Dialogue is fabulous. Sample this - "Kapda tho shareer ke uparardh ki lajja nivaran keliye hota hai".

Big B makes a couple of appearances in the movie - as himself. So do Deven Varma and Rekha.

Memorable for: "Maaf...whuhahahahahaha...main tumhe saaf kardoonga" "Eeeeeeeeeesh" Utpal Dutt's fantabulous rendering of dialogues. This movie couldn't have been made without him.