Date:15/07/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/07/15/stories/2006071522150200.htm

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Same name, but...

Golmaal (Hindi)

Cast: Ajay Devgan, Arshad Warsi, Tusshar Kapoor and Sharman Joshi

Director: Rohit Shetty

The season of laughter just got an addition. Rohit Shetty tries to take over the baton from Neeraj Vora who gave us that deliciously tempting "Phir Hera Pheri" and falls way short. Comedy, clearly, is not Shetty's forte. Here the smiles are forced, the grins almost always unintelligible from yawns. The pace is tardy, the attention to detail absent, and action quite forgettable.

No comparison

Yes, whichever way you look at it, "Golmaal" of the year 2006 is a poor successor to that delectable hit of 1979 where Amol Palekar and Bindiya Goswami carved out a nice niche for themselves in the cinemagoers' hearts. With Om Prakash in form, that was a subtle saga that tugged at your heartstrings. This one here is just slapstick. Ajay Devgan and his co-stars Arshad Warsi, Tusshar Kapoor and Sharman Joshi play four pranksters who often resort to a con game to keep the bucks coming in.

And it does not take a sorcerer's skills to realise that the four men, two of whom ceased to be young many summers ago, will walk into Paresh Rawal's life. Now, Rawal is as necessary for a Bollywood comedy as salt is for any cuisine. Here, he has little to do.

Sole bright spot

However, for a few minutes Rawal does manage to turn the clock back in a brilliant song sequence with Sushmita Mukherji. The black-and-white song of the 1950's style is easily the highlight of this comedy whose story is wafer thin. Shetty does not get too much support from his script writer, his dialogue writer, his cast, his music directors. Result? "Golmaal" comes a cropper. Few smiles, few laughs, lots of yawns.