Movie Review - Golmaal Again!!! – By Suhel Johar

Rohit Shetty-Ajay Devgn's 'Horror' Comedy Golmaal Again!!! Is A 'Mindless' Comic Caper.

 

Rohit Shetty is back to films , two years after the disastrous SRK starrer Dilwale, and this time around, he has chosen to play safe by making Golmaal Again!!!, the fourth installment of his successful franchise — Golmaal. Rohit Shetty, who has been entertaining audience with Golmaal series for over a decade now, has come up with a package that is clearly glitter filled with suspense. Golmaal Again!!! operates under a much defined nucleus and while Shetty has brought its previous cast together for the franchise, he has twisted the story with a blend of horror and melodrama. The masses maker known for his penchant for slapstick comedy sequences and over the top action packed screenplays. Rohit goes about unapologetically full blast – given his signature scale.

Golmaal Again!!!  starts with Ana Mathew (Tabu) a librarian living in Ooty who can see and talk to spirits of all those who led incomplete lives. The movie shifts and reveals about Gopal (Ajay Devgn), Madhav (Arshad Warsi), Lucky (Tusshar Kapoor), Laxman 1 (Kunal Kemmu) and Laxman 2 (Shreyas Talpade). The five kids who are the problem are also the live wire. They unfortunately break up into two groups and leave the orphanage to enter the big bad maverick world.  Thus, we have Gopal and Laxman 2 on one side and on the other we have Madhav, Lucky and Laxman 1.

Gopal is ghost phobic and has friend Laxman 2 even singing lullabies to him. While the Gopal team works for Babli (Sanjay Mishra), Madhav et all work for Vasooli (Mukesh Tiwari) and bad man Reddy (Prakash Raj). Both groups independently land up near the orphanage at a blind neighbour’s (Sachin Khedekar) home that is home to Ana and Damini (Parineeti Chopra). Needless to mention, Gopal is smitten by Damini and a mild directive is enough to melt his heart. He is all rowdy in the day and scared of ghosts at night. The two warring groups come to occupy the hugely haunted house in Ooty. Hoping to take possession of the same for real estate ambitions is Reddy (Prakash Raj) and Nikhil (Neil Nitin Mukesh), the baddies. Damini is none other than another earlier occupant of the orphanage Khushi for whom the boys have a soft corner. Before the tale around Damini is revealed, the ghost is at large and the entire gang is busy trying through its madcap methodology to gather incriminating evidence against Reddy and Nikhil to assist the local police officer.

Golmaal Again!!! has been focussed mostly on entertainment which has been laced with horrifying episodes. The film is not a comedy unlike the previous installments of Golmaal and is laced with loads of horror. Unfortunately, what you are stuck with for two and half hours, is an unending series of gags that will make you choke on your popcorn with cringe and embarrassment. Whether it is punning on words, films, songs or even Nana Patekar’s mimicry, the situations seem trite and gimmicky. There is nothing endearing about buffoonery which involves a group of grown men acting like nincompoops.

The first half provides entertainment in true Rohit Shetty style. The second half of Golmaal Again!!! dips down even though it has dose of entertainment. Some of the episodes have been repeated and have been taken from the previous installments. Overall, the second half of Golmaal Again!!! is a disappoinment even by Rohit Shetty standards but the film might just strike a chord with the film's loyal fan-base.

Rohit Shetty has managed to deliver another mindless comic caper with Golmaal Again!!!. Every step in the tale is light-hearted, flippant and meant to be taken at face value. The logic, the narrative, the decibel levels are not for analysis. Overall Rohit Shetty's Golmaal Again!!! is not an improvement on his abilities. It's just another reiteration of what he enjoys – mindless fun.

The story of the film by Rohit Shetty seems clichéd and inspired from south Indian horror comedy films like Kanchana, which has been adapted to suit the tastes of Bollywood audience.

Yunus Sajawal’s script is manipulative and one of convenience. The gags alternate between being truly funny and averagely routine. Often though, it's not the wit but the carefree camaraderie and cheerful association between the actors that Golmaal Again!!! truly benefits from. The dialogue by Farhad Samji is pedestrian and the jokes are more self-referential than witty.

The cinematography by Jomon T John is excellent. Editing by Bunty Nagi should have been crisper. Music by Amaal Mallik, S. Thaman and DJ Chetak is listless and the background score by Amar Mohile is deafening.

Performancewise, Ajay Devgn has been exceptional as Gopal and he tops the show with his outstanding performance throughout. Parineeti Chopra looked stupendous on screen and that’s all that one can talk about her work in the film. The film leaves you wondering why actors like Arshad Warsi, Tusshar Kapoor Shreyas Talpade and even Kunal Khemmu are not seen more often on screen. Their talent surely justifies their exposure more often on the silver screen. Each of them have a fine sense of comic timing and add great value to the humour element. The narrator, Tabu (yet another addition to the team), is hardly tested, she however musters just enough for the role and given her repute as a serious actor, throws up possibilities to filmmakers to consider her for different roles. The supporting cast, including the likes of Neil Nitin Mukesh, Johnny Lever, Sanjai Mishra, Prakash Raj, Mukesh Tiwari, Murli Sharma, Vrajesh Hirjee, Ashwini Kalsekar, Vijay Patkar, Uday Tikekar and Sachin Khedekar do their assigned tasks with effortless ease.

On the whole, Golmaal Again!!! is a typical Rohit Shetty “Take it or leave it” kind of film. Specially for Rohit Shetty fans, the film is just as a character in the film says: it is not logic, it is magic.