Everytime I see Golmaal (and I never really tire of seeing it), I miss the Hrishikesh Mukherjee brand of comedies which graced the Hindi movie scene in the 70’s and 80’s. This genre of movies provided real clean wholesome entertainment without ever crossing the limits of decency. The hallmark of these movies was great direction, simple storylines, middleclass identification, fabulous performances and sophisticated humor.Golmaal would rank rate alongside classics like ’Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi’ in the annals of history of comedies in Bollywood.
Golmaal’s the comical story a man’s small white lie to get a job and how his entire world turns topsy turvy in an attempt to cover that one lie. RamPrasad (Amol Palekar) pretends to be a nerdy, serious sports hating person when he applies for an accountant’s job as he is warned of his boss’ (Utpal Dutt) utter dislike for anything beyond the job and workplace. Things begin to go wrong when his boss espies him at a football match. Ram manages to convince his boss that he had seen his twin Lakhan who’s clean-shaven. Unfortunately, his boss decides to employ Laxman as his daughter Urmila’s (Bindiya Goswami) music teacher. Thus begins Ram’s double life as both the twins (with and without the moustache). The situation gets out of hand when Urmila daughter flips for Lakhan while the boss prefers to have Ram as a son-in-law. The mouche in contention which distinguishes the twins adds a new dimension to the story and the comedy of errors that follows makes up the rest of this laugh riot.
Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s amazing sense of timing manifests in his direction of this non-stop rib tickler. Superb acting by the leading cast (Utpal Dutt is simply out of this world) is ably supported by memorable cameos (Dina Pathak as the on-hire mother and her twin and Keshto Mukherjee in the police station scene). Superstars Amitabh and Rekha make special appearances. RD Burman’s musical score enchants with gems like Aane Wala Pal. This is one movie that has endless repeat value.