Gol Maal

Hrishikesh Mukherjee directs another comedy movie involving simple middle-class people and presents it through their everyday struggle. The entire picture is simple, authentic and fun. The concept of a young guy who would go to any extent to not lose his job is very interesting, and Mukherjee handles it with great success. Gol Maal is a comedy of errors and it's wonderfully developed and narrated. It's not a complex story, but it's not a silly one either, and the simplicity works in its favour. The film benefits from its genuinely lifelike sets and costumes, its script, and its proceedings, which grow from humorous to amusing to suspenseful to hilarious. It gets funnier and funnier as it goes along, as the conflict gets more complicated, the obstacles are doubled, and the irony grows. But the movie also has soul, and that's one of its high-points. The characters are colourful and memorable, but they also have depth which makes them easy to identify with. The relationships are also very impressively portrayed and it's nice to see how united families and relatives can be and how they care for each other and help each other in times of need.

Gol Maal is very well cast, and for me, there are three actors who totally nail their parts: Amol Palekar, Utpal Dutt and Dina Pathak. Palekar is excellent in the role of a simpleton who is forced to live a double life in order to save his job. He displays the differences between the two roles his character has to play brilliantly, with just subtle change in body language and a few nuances here and there. Dutt is hilarious, skillfully creating a memorable persona of a strict boss with a soft heart. His is the funniest performance in the film. Dina Pathak, one of Hindi cinema's greatest character actresses, is awesome as she is in all the films I've seen her in. She comes across as a vivacious, fun-loving and kind woman and, like Palekar, wonderfully plays her 'two' roles. Among the supporting cast, David stands out and is as always likable as the kind uncle. The film also has fantastic music by maestro R.D. Burman. "Aane Wala Pal" is my favourite number, and it is performed to perfection by the great Kishore Kumar. Gol Maal is overall a lighthearted and heartwarming comedy but it has the power to captivate, and it can always provide a fun watch for the entire family.

A comedy of errors in which a lie and a mistaken identity sets into motion a domino effect of such proportions that every time a character faces an obstacle your heart leaps into your mouth, only to fall back with a thud because you continuously feel the urge to laugh uncontrollably.

Like any Hrishikesh Mukherjee movie, Gol Maal tells the story of next door people in the most heart-warming manner with a good dose of clean and genuine humor that takes a clean bite at the culture and traditions of middle-class India. Ramprasad Sharma (Amol Palekar), a chartered accountant by profession, is a colorful personality who is a sports junkie in the afternoons and an amateur singer in the evenings. With the help of his uncle he lands up a job at a trading firm and embarks on a mission to please his boss Bhavani Shankar (Uttpal Dutt in a hilarious turn) because his whole identity is fake considering his boss disapproves fashion, vehemently opposes the obsession of sports among the youth (although he is a secret sports fan himself), dislikes people who abbreviate their names and use recommendation to get a job, encourages purity of language, and sees mustache as a symbol of pride and a window to the soul. Ramprasad has none of the "good" qualities sans the mustache, his only saving grace, which he ends up losing in an attempt to save his skin after being spotted at a Hockey match by his boss. Remembering the plot of a movie an actor friend of his is doing, he manages to convince Bhavani Shankar that it was not him whom he had seen at the stadium but his jobless, good-for-nothing, clean shaven identical twin Laxmanprasad Sharma aka Lucky. So, during the day Ramprasad works as a straight-as-a-reed worker bee quoting quasi intellectual teachings of his imaginary father and in the evening takes on the role of his mustacheless notorious twin brother who teaches music to the boss's daughter and also romances her on the sly.

Hrishikesh Mukherjee, once again succeeds in creating a complex story around some simple and some quirky characters like Mrs. Kamala Srivastav (Dina Pathak) – a reluctant mother for hire and Bade Babu (Yunus Parvez), a not so bright colleague of Ramprasad whose favorite pastime is pulling hair out of his nostrils. He went so far as to mount this broad satire on the platform of Bollywood itself wherein an actor friend of Ramprasad Deven (Deven Varma as himself) mouthpieces the idea that life indeed is stranger than fiction as depicted in the movies and does the humble job of furnishing the fake mustache to the protagonist, the complex results of which sets the whole hanky-panky business into motion.

The rest of the cast is mediocre except for Shobha Khote and David in minor roles. Bindiya Goswami as the love interest only shines in her introduction scene and has nothing better to do except look lovelorn. Needless to say, it is the comic timing between Uttpal Dutt and Amol Palekar that is the star of the movie and the two went on to do three more films together with mixed results.

If you like comedies (and everyone of us does) don't miss this. Hrishikesh Mukherjee was always brilliant, but in this he is exceptional. Amol Palekar and Utpal Dutt are great as ever. This movie is so (don't know what to say) that one can't stop laughing throughout it. If you haven't seen this you are missing something.

This is the best comedy I have seen so far. Neither has such a comedy ever been produced again, not it will be. Utpal dutt is just great and so is Amol Palekar. Two great actors and very well supported by Dina Pathak. Bollywood, why have you stopped making such excellent movies. I have seen it 20 times and each time I see it, I like it even more. I know almost all main dialogues of the movie now. Wondeful film and must watch. I would give it a 10/10.

This has got to be one of the best movies I have, and will ever, see. It's comedy at its best.

The casting is superb, with Amul Palekar, Dina Pathak, Utpal Dutt, Manju Singh, and of course, a whole lot of special appearances.

The story is quite ridiculous at times, but the acting and music more than makes up for it. Some of the sequences such as Ramprasad's interview with Utpal Dutt and the scene where Dina Pathack comes into their house through the window, are out of this world. It makes me wonder, what ever happened to good Indian comedies?? The story resolves quite nicely, and all well that ends well. Basically, a thoroughly enjoyable film.