The goofy gang from Golmaal, a comic caper about friends who are always getting into trouble, is back for a fourth instalment.
Ajay Devgn returns as the ring leader Gopal, along with the franchise’s principal players, Tusshar Kapoor as Lucky and Arshad Warsi as Madhav, while seasoned actress Tabu and Parineeti Chopra are new entrants. The actors are cagey about the plot of Golmaal Again, and want their fans to learn about it at the cinemas. All we know is that there is a supernatural twist and the men are trapped in a haunted home.
Directed by Rohit Shetty, the Golmaal films are an ode to good ol’ buffoonery. While audiences have lapped up the Golmaal series with gusto, the reviews have been mean.
That hasn’t deterred its stars from returning seven years after the release of Golmal 3.
UAE cinema listings
Gulf News tabloid! spoke to its key players to find out more about the newest instalment of the buddy comedy:
Meet the new members of the Golmaal Again gang:
TABU AS RUKMINI
Her top line: “Let me prepare everyone that Golmaal may be a hit comedy franchise, but I am not doing any comedy. I am the only serious character in the film.”
On being a part of the Golmaal franchise: “A film’s genre is immaterial... it is still a process. You can’t just wake up in the morning, land up on the sets and just have fun. But the objective was to work with people I have known for long. But the onus is on them carry forward the brand, I am just a small part of it. The objective part here is not to be the focus, Golmaal is about Rohit and his gang of boys.”
On actor Johnny Lever being her favourite: “Johnny bhai [brother] and me go a long way back. I was 12 and studying in school when he was a part of my sister’s [Farah Naaz] film. He has known me since then and I have been his biggest fan. He’s hugely talented and is a bundle of energy. So when you have people like him around, the hours in a day feel fewer.”
On her role in Golmaal: “I can’t say anything about my role because the story doesn’t permit us to. You have to go watch the film to know more.”
On her private persona and whether it was overwhelming to have so many co-stars around her: “I can never analyse myself. And don’t you think it is too late for me to change? Being low profile has worked for me and my career. When you are on a film set, you run into tonnes of people. But these co-stars from Golmaal are people whom I have known for a long time. So it was amazingly comforting.”
On how she chooses films: “I can never have a method to all of it. As an actor, you never know what role or a film you will get. There can never be one deciding factor. It keeps altering… And I am not a cinema connoisseur.”
PARINEETI CHOPRA AS PRIYANKA
Her top line: “[I] don’t want to just bring a smile on your face. I want to make you guys roll on the floor with laughter.”
The magic of Golmaal in her own words: “Golmaal is one of the few comedy films that have become iconic in Hindi cinema. There are very few gems like Andaaz Apna Apna or Hera Pheri or [the] Golmaal series that have stuck with us. So when I got that call to be the heroine of the film, I was over the moon… I used to joke that I was OK to be a tree in the background in a Rohit Shetty film and I told him that.”
On being a part of a crazy ensemble: “It’s one solid unit. I was meeting the Golmaal gang together for the first time, but I never felt like I was a new member. I was family from day one. There are no insecure actors on this set. There was never a day where we had a problem or issues about any scene with any co-star.”
On Rohit Shetty as a director: “He’s the best captain that I could have asked for. Our loyalties are always with him because he takes care of everything.”
On her favourite Golmaal gang member: “I love Sanjay Mishra and Johnny Lever’s characters. And being around Tabu was one of the most inspiring experiences of my life. There was a time when I was dubbing for the film and I ended up watching her scenes on a loop. She’s so good.”
Meet the old players
KUNAL KHEMU AS LAXMAN SHARMA
His top line: “Golmaal is not about logic, but magic. But we are not asking anyone to leave their brains behind at home.”
On what makes Golmaal tick: “There’s no pretensions here. Everybody comes under the bus because we don’t take ourselves seriously. It’s fun for the whole family and during a festive period like Diwali, it’s important that a film is family friendly. You won’t find any double-meaning or crude humour.”
On Golmaal being criticised for making fun of specially-abled: “It is sometimes easy to offend people. But as filmmakers or writers or directors, you don’t do films to offend someone. We are making the film for the audiences. Our last one was lambasted for the portrayal of Shreyas’ character and the makers have taken it into consideration. But the idea is not to offend anyone.”
On comic timing: “Comedy is serious business. In comedy, you are putting yourself out there. But the audiences have been accepting. Emotional scenes aren’t as tough as a comic scene. In comedy, it is all about action and reaction. Lot of times, it’s funny to watch people react to funny lines. Comedy involves a lot of give and take”
On being a new father to Inaaya: “It’s my 12th day of being a father and I feel it’s the only relationship when you don’t have to invest any time to be in love. I heard my daughter cry and I fell madly in love with her… I have stood through diaper changes, but haven’t changed one myself. But I plan to.”
AJAY DEVGN AS GOPAL
His top line: “Why do people take themselves so seriously? We make fun of others, then we should have the ability to laugh at ourselves too.”
Box office success vs favourable reviews: “The box office success of a film is more important. I just hope we win the box office over with Golmaal again. The rest is just bonus… But Golmaal has a policy of keeping it as a clean, family entertainer.”
On the rumour that he signed on Golmaal Again without a script narration: “I heard the complete narration and then said, ‘yes’.”
Golmaal Again in his own words: “I don’t want to give a lot away. It is in the zone of horror comedy with a strong emotional slant. If the first instalments had the emotionally charged backdrop of Paresh Rawal and Mithun Chakraborty’s characters, this latest one isn’t far behind. All I can say is that, my character Gopal is petrified of ghosts.”
On whether egos were at play in a multi-starrer: “It was a big, giant picnic where everyone shared a great rapport. There were so many of us that we were never alone or found ourselves getting bored. We were never low or down during its filming, because somebody was cracking a joke. There was never a dull moment.”
On re-uniting with Tabu, his co-star from 1994 film Vijaypath: “We have known each other for 11 years, long before we began our career in films. We share a different rapport that goes beyond films. We do whatever we feel like and there’s never any stress.”
On his least favourite Golmaal instalment: “I wasn’t satisfied with Golmaal 2, but it did well at the box office so I was wrong. It’s just my personal opinion. But if a film does well, I should keep quiet.”
Don’t miss it!
Golmaal Again releases in the UAE on October 19.
GOLMAAL SERIES: A CRASH COURSE
Year: 2006
Film: Golmaal: Fun Unlimited
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Arshad Warsi, Sharmaan Joshi, Tusshar Kapoor and Rimi Sen.
Loosely inspired from the Malayalam hit Kaakkuyil, fans were introduced to the mad quartet comprising Gopal (Devgn); Lucky (Tusshar Kapoor), Madhav (Arshad Warsi) and Laxman (Sharman Joshi) with this comic caper. Four slackers, who are thick friends, from college take over a blind couple’s house and unleash a chaotic case of mistaken identities.
Year: 2008
Film: Golmaal Returns
Stars: Original cast, but Sharmaan Joshi is replaced by Shreyas Talpade. Kareena Kapoor, Celina Jaitly, Amrita Arora and Anjana Sukhani join the cast.
Continuing with the tradition of weaving comical plots around handicaps such as being deaf and mute, Tusshar Kapoor is on a roll here. And there’s Kareena Kapoor as the suspicious wife to Ajay Devgn who’s convinced he’s having an affair. Plus, she is obsessed with Hindi soap operas, drawing many laughs.
Year: 2010
Film: Golmaal 3
Stars: Cast from Golmaal Returns plus Mithun Chakraborty, Ratna Pathak Shah and Kunal Khemu.
It’s not often that you get to see Mithun Chakraborty poke fun at himself by doing a spoof on his own hit movies and songs. You also get to watch him court the talented actor Ratna Pathak Shah in this instalment. His romance with Shah, his college sweetheart, forms the crux of the story as Kareena Kapoor plays cupid.
The rest is the usual Golmaal formula of a bunch of idiots getting into some chaotic situations. The movie also takes a swipe at a string of Bollywood movies and iconic dialogues.
