Film : Golmaal Returns

Banner : Shree Ashtavinayak Cinevision Ltd

Producer : Dhilin Mehta

Director : Rohit Shetty

Cast: Ajay Devgan, Kareena Kapoor, Shreyas Talpade, Celina Jaitley, Arshad Warsi, Amrita Arora, Tusshar Kapoor, Anjana Sukhani

Rating: 2/5

Gathering thoughts on this film is by far the most difficult task. The film is as good as it is bad. It’s funny in parts and awful in most. Golmaal Returns is one of those films that take the audience for granted and play back old content, only rehashed. After having seen movies like Masti, Golmaal, No Entry, Garam Masala, welcome and the endless list; GR is just another film to join the illustrious list. Bottom-line, it’s the same confusion, sexual jokes and circling plot that even Golmaal returns takes the help of.

The film essentially gyrates around Gopal (Ajay Devgan) and wife Ekta (Kareena Kapoor) who share a love-doubt relationship. Staying with them are their respective siblings, Esha (Amrita Arora) and Lucky (Tusshar Kapoor). While Ektas’ doubts galore, Gopal does not help by playing macho man to Meera (Celina Jaitley), saving her from brutes. After having saved her and providing her with shelter in a private yacht, he returns home to his overdramatic wife only to be questioned and cross-examined about his deeds. To set things straight he employs Laxman (Shreyas), but things only get worse. In the meanwhile Gopal is being investigated for the murder of a fellow worker in his company and leading this probe is ACP Madhav (Arshad Warsi). One thing leads to another and at a point before you know it everyone is in the mess, knee deep. The acquitting of Gopal, the realization of a television serial inflicted wife, the triumph of love and some amusement is in a nutshell Golmaal Returns.

To a great extent Golmaal Returns tries to explore a lot many new areas, but sadly fails in succeeding. This can be attributed to the fact that there is just a lot to digest in this one film and nothing is carried forward throughout the film, but left stranded. The biggest problem with Golmaal returns is not the plot but the characters. The story if had been executed well would have done wonders for the film, but the truth is the characters are tried and tested products of a million odd films. The past film references bring a smile to you face, but even that is short-lived and is not carried forward.

The entire film revolves around Gopal and Ekta, both of the characters are so shallow that because of this nothing around them seems convincing. Additionally the film in many parts tries to be over funny, a little too much for its own good. There are some scenes which have you in splits, but then there are some others where you begin laughing and soon begin tearing your hair because they are expanded to no end. Like the scene where Ekta misunderstands Lucky, a funny scene stretched so much that it stops being funny. Soon enough the film begins being predictable and all that it rides on is humour.

Technically the film is not stylistic at all. Yes it has color but it’s literally all over the place. The editing is simplistic and so is the camerawork. Not that if it had been any other way it would have done wonders, simply because the characters were worn-out. So we see the characters dressed in the designer apparel, great but how about getting them precise in the first place. An element like music is treated with such force that even enjoying it seems impossible.

Even performances from the actors are trite. Devgan seems bored. Kareenas’ character as the Television serial loving housewife is great but the lack of exploring it only has her delivering the lines and emoting in the most stinging manner. An actor, who has grown from her performances film after film, is seen reenacting her emotions from her film Khushi, dreadful. The two to watch out for performing luminously are Tusshar and Talpade, they get you to laugh and perform their roles to the T. Warsi, Jaitley and Sukhani do OK in their small roles. On the other hand Arora in her role is dire; her character created is so thin that expecting a great performance is unjustified.

Go watch Golmaal returns it packs in the laughs but in terms of a story or performances it is weak. The film is all jokes and little sense. Watch it if that’s what you heart is set out for.