It would be unfair to compare Rohit Shetty's Golmaal Returns to the original Golmaal. This sequel is not really a continuation of affairs but sports a brand new story along with a few brand new faces like Shreyas Talpade and Kareena Kapoor. Shetty's film is a two and a half hour saga of mayhem. It is great fun, but it does not turn to be the Diwali cracker that one was looking forward to. It has its moments of brilliant comic timing and dialogue, but falls short of being a laugh riot. It's not as if the actors do not try hard; in fact, they do, but the chemistry is missing and the overall impact on a laugh meter would be just about average. Some of the puns and jokes are not sharp enough and just about miss the mark. What could have been riotously funny, stops just short of being one. The last Golmaal was about four friends and one girl but this time round, all four guys have their own girls. The film's story is spun around Gopal (Ajay Devgan) and his TV serial crazy wife Ekta (Kareena Kapoor). They live along with his sister (Amrita Arora) and her dumb brother (Tusshar Kapoor). Along with being obsessed with the saas bahu serials, Ekta is very suspicious of her husband. One night, Gopal does not come home. He stops on his way home to rescue a damsel in distress, Meera (Celina Jaitley), from the clutches of some goons and end up spending the night together on a yacht close by. Meanwhile, Ekta has raised the roof on her head, her fertile imagination running riot. First she imagines him to be dead but the next morning when he saunters in, she is dead sure that he has spent the night with some girl. To save himself, Gopal lies that he was with his old school friend Anthony Gonsalves and even invents an address. Ekta couriers a letter on this address to confirm that Gopal's story is correct. Enter Laxman (Sheryas Talpade), who comes to Gopal's office to look for a job. He desperately needs an appointment letter so that he can get married to his girlfriend, Meera, and Gopal desperately needs an Anthony Gonsalves. Laxman agrees to do the job for him. Unfortunately, Gopal had not bargained for an actual Anthony Gonsalves (Vrajesh Hirjee) living at the address that he had just invented. He receives Ekta's letter and lands at her residence. His suspicious wife (Raakhi Vijayan) too follows him there. Adding to the mayhem is the police inspector (Arshad Warsi), who is in love with Gopal's sister but shares a hate hate relationship with him. A body has been discovered and the body belongs to one of Gopal's colleagues, who he had threatened a few days before. Gopal has three days to prove his innocence or face a term in jail and a divorce from Ekta. Along with Laxman and his dumb brother in law, he sets out to find the girl he had rescued and save himself. Of course, it all turns out well in the end, but not before utter mayhem erupts on screen. The film is well written and the director does not let any potential comical situation go waste. Kudos to him for that! But the dialogues could have been punchier, one feels. Also certain actors like Arshad Warsi, for instance, somehow don't seem to get into the mood. He hams it right through the film and fails to create the required effect. He did a far better job in a film like Sunday. While the presence of Shreya Talpade is definitely a plus for the movie, Kareena Kapoor adds nothing substantial to her role, except for star power. Oh, she pouts and sulks well enough, but lacks the kind of energy she had displayed in Jab We Met. Talpade and Devgan, and in some places, Tusshar Kapoor, make up for their out of form colleagues, but the effect shows on the film. The remaining two girls, Amrita Arora and Anjana Sukhani hardly have anything of substance to do. On the other hand, Celina Jaitly, of whom one did not expect much, was quite a revelation. Devgan is terrific in the movie, playing the hen pecked husband to the hilt. He shares an excellent rapport on screen with Shreyas and Tusshar, and the trio together are really fun to watch. The film’s music is an absolute non starter, and the manner in which the songs have been used, makes it clear that they have been inserted into the movie, just like that, with no thought given to their relevance and connection to the plot. The story is well written, quite tight in fact, but the dialogues could have been punchier. Also, quite a few gags fail to have their desired impact, like the one with the Saif tattoo. There are quite a few others, which do not exactly have one rolling in aisles. In short, Golmaal Returns could have done with a lot more mad energy. But it yet a fun ride, so do hop on!