Movie Shows...

Director : Rohit Shetty Producer : Ashtavinayak Music: Pritam Cast: Ajay Devgan, Tusshar Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor, Amrita Arora, Celina Jaitley, Arshad Warsi and Shreyas Talpade

The Lucknow Chapter organized a movie show for its members on November 9, 2008, and 40 members attended the show. The film screened was Golmal Returns, directed by Rohit Shetty. The members enjoyed both the movie and the short get-together.

Golmaal Returns tells the story of Gopal (Devgan) who along with his wife Ekta (Kareena) stays together along with sister Esha (Amrita) and a dumb brother in law Lucky (Tusshar). Ekta is a very suspecting wife whose suspicion habit is further influenced by watching Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji TV serials. One night, Gopal has to spend the night out with a beautiful young lady Mira Nair (Celina) on a yacht due to some unforeseen circumstances. But to avoid any misunderstanding with his wife, he concocts a cock-and-bull story about having stayed the night with a fictitious friend called Anthony Gonsalves. Ekta refuses to believe him and writes to Anthony on a fictitious address given to her by Gopal, asking him to visit her.

Gopal convinces his junior at work, Laxman (Shreyas Talpade), to pretend to be Anthony. Everything goes according to plan till the real Anthony turns up.

If that isn’t a complication enough for Gopal, a dead body is discovered at the location where he had saved Meera. The Investigating Officer, Madhav (Arshad Warsi), who is Esha’s boyfriend and also who cannot stand the sight of Gopal, learns that the latter had been missing from home that eventful night and begins checking on him. All this leads to a huge chaos where everyone is busy hiding something and ending up lying to one another to avoid further problems!

A sequel carries the baggage of immense expectations. And one definitely expects Golmaal Returns to be a step forward. The makers had thundered, “Golmaal Returns is bigger, it’s better” and that raises the bar. But the film is such a put off. It needs to be made clear that the film is not actually a sequel of the hit comic caper Golmaal (2006) by the same team. It just has the same four main protagonists of the original in a different situation. Shreyas comes in place of Sharman Joshi though.

Writer Yunus Sajawal takes an interesting premise, but instead of upgrading it, only downgrades it with lackluster situations. The writing is so weak, so lifeless that after a point one tends to sit motionless, looking at the goings-on mechanically, instead of being a participant.

A few sequences do entertain, but they’re few and far between. Not enough to camouflage the defects. In view of the fact that the writing is so weak, there’s not much that Director Rohit Shetty can do to save the ship from sinking. However, the dialogues are hilarious. Music is not as inspiring. Tha Karke is the best track, while Tu Saala (well-promoted) isn’t there in the film and Meow comes during the end credits. And by then one is exasperated!

Golmaal Returns belongs to Tusshar Kapoor and Shreyas Talpade. Tusshar is terrific yet again, the real scene stealer, while Shreyas displays his comic side very well. Both, in fact, provide respite to the viewer. Ajay Devgan is likable. Kareena does the suspicious wife act well. Celina stays on your mind even after the show is over.

Arshad Warsi is relegated to the backseat. Amrita Arora is strictly okay. Anjana Sukhani gets no scope. Vrajesh Hirjee is alright. Sharat Saxena, Rakhi Vijan, Sanjay Mishra, Murli Sharma, Mukesh Tiwari and Ashwini Kalsekar fill in the blanks.

On the whole, there’s tremendous curiosity to watch Golmaal Returns and the terrific promotion has only enhanced the excitement. But the film is a major letdown in terms of content. Barring a few jokes, this Golmaal pales when compared to its first part. At the boxoffice, expect a terrific start for the film, but Golmaal Returns lacks in the power to stand on its feet after the initial euphoria settles down.