Circa 1980 and the #FilmFare awards. Nominations include #AmitabhBachchan for #KalaPathar and #MrNatwarlal. Then there is #RajeshKhanna for #AmarDeep. There is more. #RishiKapoor for #Sargam. Guess who won the Best Actor Award that year? An unassuming Marathi theatre actor, the common man’s hero #AmolPalekar stole the thunder and the rest is all #Golmaal.. err history….
ASHOK’s FIVE reviews #HrishikeshMukherjee’s 1979 comedy classic #Golmaal. You can watch it on #SonyLiv and on #YouTube.
There is one scene in the film where #UtpalDutt is furious at a nervous #DinaPathak is trying to engage her in a conversation to try and get her to confess that she has tricked him. He is fuming but this is offset by his efforts to seat himself next to her on a swing on which she is perched. And that scene captures the genius of #HrishikeshMukherjee and his eye for detail. 42 years later one may well accuse the film of patriarchy, slapstick humour and a lot of tomfoolery but as you sit through it and pick up these small nuances you realize it is pure genius for its time. And what a time that was. #AmitabhBachchan as the angry young man was going all guns blazing as he reflected the angst of the youth against the cap on opportunities in the nation. Amidst that backdrop, films like #Golmaal acted as a much-needed panacea for the common man. No wonder then that Hrishikesh da went on to make many more in this genre - #ChupkeChupke, #Mili, #Anand, #Guddi, #Khoobsurat and #Bawarchi.
#AmolPalekar is the veritable director’s actor as he manages to transform from the demure, oil-slicked-hair, short kurta donning Ram Prasad to the keychain twirling, brash and colorful shirts of Lakshman Prasad with the change of a thin pencil moustache. Playing a double role in those times was a big thing and here it is testimony to Palekar’s genius that he pulled off this with complete ease. And stood his ground against some heavy-weights of the industry as well. There are many memorable things about #Golmaal - #Gulzaar’s lyrics, #RahiMazoomReha’s writing, #KishoreKumar’s singing and #HrishikeshMukherjee’s direction but what stood out for me was the effortless ease with which #UtpalDutt and #AmolPalekar pulled off the confrontation between them without ever being loud or crass. No wonder then that it brought them both #Filmfare awards that year - for Best Actor in a comic role and Best Actor respectively!
Another reason to watch it is nostalgia. For some of us who are equally passionate about sports, we have here a hero who wakes up at dawn to watch #SunilGavaskar, #BishenBedi, #GundappaVishwanath, #MohinderAmarnath and #Chandrasekhar take on the Aussies. He also watches football and is excited about black pearl #Pele’s Cosmos taking on Mohun Bagan. He bunks office to go watch the India-Pak hockey test featuring #Samiullah and #Isaluddin.
Ram Prasad lands himself a job with the Bhavani Shankar (#UtpalDutt). He has to confirm to Shankar’s peculiar notions of good behaviour - a moustache, indian clothes and complete devotion of the job with no interest in any other hobbies. Shankar himself loves to watch sports and catches Ram at the hockey test. In an effort to salvage his job, Ram invents a fictitious twin Laksham ‘Lucky’ Sharma and shaves off his moustache. Shankar falls for this duplicity but the plot becomes more intricate with Lucky falling in love with Shankar’s daughter Urmila (#BindiyaGoswami). Ram now has to find a fictitious mother (#DinaPathak) and the comedy of errors takes on a hilarious twist. Along the way there is #DevenVerma who plays Ram’s friend and advisor, #David as Doctor Uncle, #OmPrakash as the Inspector, #KeshtoMukherjee as the drunk and the lanky #AmitabhBachchan in a short cameo.
The music is outstanding. #KishoreKumar excels with #AanewalaPal set to #RDBurman’s music. The title song needs to play and you know that mischief is afoot. Some of the dialogues are brilliant and display a brand of intelligent humour that is clearly lost somewhere. “Jiska naam Bhavani Shankar ho, woh toh paida hote hi Buddha ho gaya” Lucky tells his prospective father in-law without batting an eyelid. Or when Lucky transforms into Ram Prasad and re-enters his house just as the fake mom is engaging Bhavani Shankar and yelps ‘Maaaaa…’ in that amazing falsetto that only Palekar can muster. Some of the other dialogues stand out, not so much for the humour but point to the attention to detail about everyday conversations - “Dahi badaa khaane ka man nahi lage toh ladki se ladka ban raha hai ya toh prem rog ho gaya hai” Urmila’s friend admonishes her in one scene!
#UtpalDutt and his genius is simply awesome. He comes up with some brilliant Bangla phrases muttered under his breath which must be clearly improvisations on the script ; “Daant kelane bancharam” is something you should look out for ! There is a lot of word play around the moustache “Log mooche kyuin saaf karte rehte hain” and much much more … the joy of watching #Golmaal is discovering the brand of intelligent humour and calling out those amazing nuances that are hidden away all through the film!
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