Golmaal 3: No Laughing Matter!
By MovieTalkies.com, 05 November 2010
3 / 5
Rohit Shetty and gang are back with their Diwali 'dhamaal', only this time the 'dhamaal' quotient is little weak. The laughs come, but in bits and pieces and one is not really rolling down the aisles. Probably, we may have seen the last of the 'Golmaal' series.
Shetty seems to be inspired by Basu Chatterjee's 1978, Ashok Kumar starrer, 'Khatta Meetha', which was about an old couple remarrying and trying to settle down with their kids from an earlier marriage. Shetty borrows that from the earlier movie and tweaks it to fit the 'Golmaal frame.
In this case, the elderly couple, Pritam or Pappu, and Geeta or Guddi, played respectively by Ratna Pathak Shah and Mithun Chakraborty, could not get married because of Guddi's rich father, played by Prem Chopra. They meet years later in Goa, by which time both of them are playing father and mother respectively to children they adopted years ago.
Gopal (Ajay Devgn) and Laxman (Shreyas Talpade) have grown up believing Guddi to be their mother while Madhav (Arshad Warsi), Laxman (Kunal Khemu) and Lucky (Tusshar Kapoor), have been bought up by Mithun's character. Both sets of siblings are con men and have been conning their respective patrons, Puppy 'bhai' (Johnny Lever) and Vasooli (Mukesh Tiwari) for money to fund their various business ventures, all of which come to nought because of their rivalry.
Matters take a turn when Guddi and Pappu meet and realise that they are still in love with each other. Dabbu (Kareena Kapoor), another orphan who has been brought up by Guddi, plots and plans their marriage and now both sets of warring siblings find themselves living in the same house.
The usual rivalry takes place, but the children finally set their differences behind them when they realise that they are actually orphans who have been brought up by Geeta and Pritam. Into this main plot is the subplot of Puppy 'bhai' who has a 'Ghajini' syndrome. He forgets who he is after every five minutes or so, to the disgust and dismay of his henchmen played by Vrajesh Hirjee and Sanjay Mishra.
He steals a costly necklace belonging to a 'maharani' and hides it in Pritam's suitcase as the cops are after him, but as is his nature, he promptly forgets about it. So there is one final chase in the movie when Puppy 'bhai' finally remembers where he has hidden the necklace and is after poor Pritam, who has no clue about what is happening. Of course, all is well at the end as the necklace is discovered and the cops take away Puppy 'bhai' and his henchmen and the family lives happily ever after.
There are gags in plenty in the movie and a lot of jokes are aimed at the industry with Shetty and his team not sparing even the two Khans, Salman and Shah Rukh. The funniest track is definitely the one belonging to Lever, who walks away with the acting honours. He is great to watch and has been given some of the best lines in the movie.
Shetty's homage to Mithun is really well appreciated as he re creates the 'Disco Dancer' persona of the actor along with the two evergreen numbers, 'I am a Disco Dancer' and 'yaad aa raha hai'. But did he then have to spoil the whole effect and have that entire episode of the dog fastening himself to Pritam's rear end? The comedy seems to degenerate here and that is precisely the problem with 'Golmaal 3'.
Unlike the previous two films in the series, this one has very little to laugh at. Actors like Ashwini Kalsekar, Mukesh Tiwari and Sanjay Mishra, who are Shetty regulars and actors who have created a lot of laughs in previous movies, hardly have anything worthwhile to do in this movie. In fact, neither do Khemu, Talpade or Hirjee have much opportunity to show their talent.
Lever rightly has the lengthiest track and he carries it off very well. As for the regulars, one would have preferred to see Devgn revealing some of his comic talent in the movie. His head banging and the bit about twisting people's fingers loses its appeal after a while and his character is not exactly very endearing, which is definitely a minus for the movie.
Kareena is quite good as the tomboyish Dabbu. Warsi as Madhav is his usual competent self. But the highlight of 'Golmaal 3', Tushhar, is actually quite a put off in this movie. There is absolutely no scope for comedy left in his act of a mute character and surely Talpade could have done a better job of stammering and stuttering?
Ratna does a good job of playing the role of Guddi and is quite good in the flashback scenes, especially in the sequence where Pritam comes to meet her father Prem Chopra, also played by Prem Chopra, and asks for her hand. One very well executed scene. All three, Mithun, Chopra and Ratna are excellent. The tongue in cheek humour is brilliant. Mithun seems to have a blast in the movie as does Prem Chopra.
Shetty packs the film with all his usual elements and his favourite actors, but the writing seems to let him down in this movie. It is not as punchy, sharp and crazy like his previous efforts. And that, in the end, seems to be the stumbling block out here.
Add to it, that Devgn's character, which doesn't quite jell with the comic mode. A lot of repitation could have been avoided, especially with Lucky's character. But on the flip side, 'Golmaal 3' may not be three times funnier than the first two in the series, but it certainly should keep the smiles going…