Golmaal Returns

About the film

Golmaal Returns (transl. Chaos Returns) is a 2008 Indian Hindi-language comedy suspense film directed by Rohit Shetty. The film is a remake of the 1989 Marathi film Pheka Pheki, which itself was inspired by the 1973 Hindi film Aaj Ki Taaza Khabar, it serves as the second installment in the Golmaal film series. The film stars Ajay Devgn, Arshad Warsi, Tusshar Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor and Shreyas Talpade. The film became commercial success. It was the sixth highest-grossing Hindi films of 2008.

Plot

Gopal lives with his wife Ekta, who is addicted to watching Indian dramas and soap operas. He also lives with his sister Esha and Ekta's mute brother, his brother in law Lucky. Lucky is in love with a deaf girl named Daisy. Madhav, Esha's boyfriend, is a police inspector who believes that Gopal's company, Golden Fisheries, secretly does drug-smuggling, does not get along with Gopal.

One night, while returning from his office, Gopal saves an attractive young woman named Meera from some dreadful goons. Due to circumstances, both of them decide to stay the night at Gopal's friend's yacht. When he arrives home the next day, an over-suspicious Ekta suspects Gopal of flirting around with his female employees and having an affair with his secretary. Knowing how difficult it is to convince her with the truth, he invents a story about spending the night with a fictitious friend named Anthony Gonsalves. Ekta becomes suspicious and does not believe his story as she knows that he never had a friend by that name, and hence, she decides to write to Anthony to visit him and to confirm Gopal was telling the truth.

Later, Gopal meets Laxman Prasad, who has come to interview for a position in his office. He is Meera's boyfriend, which is not known to Gopal. Gopal asks him to pretend to be Anthony, and meet and convince Ekta that he was indeed telling the truth, in return for a job. Laxman agrees to do so, and everything goes according to plan until the address on which Ekta had written a letter to Anthony as well as his name turns out to be real. Anthony and his wife, Julie, mistake the letter for a love letter, and Julie arrives at Ekta's house to complain, believing she and Anthony are having an affair. The real Anthony then later shows up at Gopal's house with intention of sleeping with Ekta, but he is scared off in a comical way by Gopal, Lucky and Laxman. Gopal warns the real Anthony not to show up around his residence ever again. However, Ekta and Esha spot Laxman with Meera while shopping and interrogate the real Anthony.

Production

Ajay Devgn is paired opposite Kareena Kapoor. Amongst the rest of the multi-starrer cast, actress Amrita Arora is the love interest of Arshad Warsi whilst Celina Jaitly and Anjana Sukhani are paired opposite Shreyas Talpade and Tusshar Kapoor, respectively.

Originally expected to commence shooting for the film in Dubai on a forty-day schedule, the cast shot for the film in Goa on a twenty-day schedule. Shooting later continued in places like the Filmistan Studios in Mumbai, South Africa and Bangkok.

Music

The soundtrack was released on 24 September 2008 by director Rohit Shetty and actors Ajay Devgn, Tusshar Kapoor & Shreyas Talpade on the musical show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2009. While the film's soundtrack contains six new songs composed by Pritam Chakraborty for the sequel, the album also consists of songs from the first film. Lyrics have been penned by Sameer.

The music video of the song "Tha Kar Ke" cost ₹3.5 crore, making it the most expensive Bollywood music video up until that time. Its choreography and picturisation was reportedly inspired by the Sivaji song "Athiradee".

Joginder Tuteja from IndiaFM gave the film's soundtrack 3 out of 5 stars and noted, that "Golmaal Returns is yet another winner from Pritam who delivers what is expected from a soundtrack for a film belonging to action-comedy genre. No one attempts to do anything exceptional or different from routine but walk the path which has been successful in the months gone by. The music may not go the Race (2008) way but does well enough to ensure immense awareness about the film due to its fast paced approach." According to the Indian trade website Box Office India, with around 14,00,000 units sold, this film's soundtrack album was the year's tenth highest-selling.

Release and reception

Golmaal Returns was considered financially successful. It grossed between ₹420–450 million in the first five days.

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 0% of 6 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 3.7/10.

The film was released on DVD on 10 December 2010. The release included a single disc edition with the film and special features being the making of the film, and three songs: "Golmaal Remix", "Meeoow", and "Tu Saala".

Controversies

In 2008, Shakuntala Bhatia, wife of director Rajendra Bhatia filed a complaint against Shree Asthavinayak Cine Vision Ltd., accusing them of directly copying the story of her husband's film Aaj Ki Taaza Khabar (1973).

Key details