Golmaal Again review: a one-time Diwali entertainer!

Movie: Golmaal Again

Cast: Ajay Devgn, Shreyas Talpade, Tusshar Kapoor, Arshad Warsi, Kunal Kemmu, Parineeti Chopra, Tabu, Prakash Raj, Johnny Lever and Neil Nitin Mukesh.

Director: Rohit Shetty

Producers: Reliance Entertainment, Mangal Murti Pictures and Rohit Shetty Picturez

Rating: 2.5/5 Stars.

Rohit Shetty’s Golmaal Again is a film which is heavily dependent on the nostalgic value of the franchise and its tried and tested formula of stupid gags, one-liners and funny jokes in rather unfunny situations. Ajay Devgn is back as the he-man Gopal who is now also scared of ghosts, Shreyas Talpade as Laxman is now partially speech-impaired, Kunal Kemmu as someone who stuck around from the third film, Arshad Warsi as Madhav and of course, our dearest Tusshar Kapoor aka the tongue-tied Lucky is also back to be made fun of. It will be a relief for the audience to see them back after 7 long years and one can see the makers using the nostalgia value right from the beginning. Did the film tickle our funny bones like the last three? Let’s find out!

Golmaal Again begins by creating the backstory of the characters in an orphanage, who collectively raise a girl child Khushi (Parineeti). Soon, fate plans different lives for them after running away from the orphanage, but it’s the death of its owner that brings them back together. Soon, the gang learns that the house is haunted and then we are painstakingly taken to the twist, which becomes the basis for the film to turn into a horror comedy with a revenge plan at the heart of it.

Given that you now have a jist of the plot, you know where most of the comedy lies.

Ajay Devgn stays true to Gopal as the finger-bending he-man who still works hard on getting his anger in control but gets cold feet with the mere mention of a ghost. A little overdone, but nothing major. Arshad Warsi seems to be in top form as Madhav and it looks like he’s secretly becoming the character over the years. It was also a delight to see Tusshar Kapoor as Laxman. One would wonder as to how he nails it every time. Others were also half decent.

Spoiler Alert: they all get possessed by the supernatural being once in a while, who makes them a perfect mimicry of Nana Patekar.

As far as the supporting cast goes. The Golmaal gang were nothing but a bunch of extras whenever Johnny Lever or Prakash Raj were given the screen time. Neil Nitin Mukesh also makes a stylish entry but doesn’t give us the bad-guy feels. Tabu and Parineeti came as a pleasant surprise, but we wish that they had meatier roles to work with. Giving them maximum frame space at times and playing an emotional track in the background doesn’t mean that the audience will get invested in them. Here’s hoping that they too become somewhat of a constant.

Rohit Shetty has by now mastered the art of handling an ensemble with a lot of extras and that’s no secret. But, only if he had mastered the art of working with a good script and bringing original jokes into them. If you have seen the previous films, you could see many of the jokes from a mile away, but it’s also true that some of them work. The song sequences are where you could go and relieve yourself.

Our overall verdict? You should definitely give this film a try if you don’t mind an overstretched and forcefully dramatic second half.

Fair warning: The film is nowhere close to Golmaal 3.