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.

Statutory Warning....

Movie makers today seem to be striving towards political correctness and social responsibility. I observed this in a couple of movies I saw this year. Pity they couldn't prevent the movies from being duds!

Political Correctness:
Its a bird..It's a plane...It's.......SUPERMAN. Superman Returned this year with a son in tow. The movie, sadly, didn't go on to make history.

There is one scene in the movie that struck me for its "Disclaimer" quality. Superman saves an airplane, incidentally carrying the love of his life, whose controls stop working. On putting it back to the ground, he tells the panicked passengers "....After all, flying is still the safest mode of travel!"

What amazed me was the striking stupidity in the way the statement was made. I understand what the director wanted to convey to his audience. And with people world over getting more and more scared about air travel, may be it was wise to convey the message. But, I can't get over the fact that you choose to show an airline in trouble and then have the hero say these words. (Statutory Warning eh?)

And, to think of it, if he were Superman, he would say "Don't worry about this minor snag. As long as I am around, you are safe." So much for Superman!

Social Responsibility:
"Anthony Kaun Hai?" - probably the worst-suited title that Hindi cinema has seen in a long time - was a decent movie, rather a tad too slow. Coming just before Munnabhai Returns, it was forced to carry a baggage of expectations, which somehow split totally across its seams and emptied the theatres of audience.

This movie has Sanjay Dutt, playing a contract killer, asking Arshad Warsi for the password to a hotel room safe. Warsi gives him a number like 1008 to which Dutt says something to the effect of "Birthday? 10th August? A lot of people make this mistake"

Hats off to Mr. Dutt but "where were the audience?"

Cinema, to me, is a great medium to dramatize what you want the audiences to take home. Diluting this with such spoken messages dilutes the effect and gives it a preachy after-taste.

And I thought this one was only for the cigarrette packs.