Gold Maal

Director: Hrishikesh Mukherjee

Cast: Amol Palekar,Utpal Dutt,Bindiya Goswami,Dina Pathak,Deven Verma,David Abraham

DVD: Shemaroo,Rs 199

A man and his fake moustache. Ram Prasad versus Lakshman Prasad. Utpal Dutt in a crackling role. Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s light-as-souffle film still tickles the funny bone.

As far as Hindi films go,this is a priceless father-daughter confrontation moment. A rebellious daughter hell-bent on marrying the man she loves is fighting with her old-fashioned dad who thunders,“Tumhari shaadi us se nahin hogi jis se tum prem karti ho. Tumhari shaadi us se hogi jis se main prem karta hoon.”

This is just one little gem from Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s gloriously funny Gol Maal. It all starts with a moustache— the presence or the absence of it. Mukherjee uses the moustache as a symbol of the difference between traditional and new values,a reference to an India just waking up to the influence of the west.

The film takes off from a common man’s need to save his job. The proceedings are set in motion from the title track itself— Gol maal hai bhai sab gol maal hai/Seedhe raste ki yeh tedhi hi chaal hai— crooned by the film’s music composer,RD Burman,and his able assistant,Sapan Chakraborty. Our common man,Ram Prasad (Amol Palekar),has to take the tedhi chaal from the word go to get a job. His uncle (David Abraham) warns him that his future boss Bhavani Shankar (Utpal Dutt) is “a character of strong likes and dislikes”. Shankar prefers to hire people who represent traditional Indian values—which he believes are best displayed by a moustache and a kurta pyjama—and utters the classic line,“Jiske paas mooch nahin,uske paas mann hi nahin hai.” When Prasad is caught bunking by Shankar who spots him at a hockey match,he has to come up with a believable excuse and fast. He invents a twin brother who is moustache-less and all things Shankar hates.

The film then goes into howlarious territory when Shankar wants to meet the irresponsible twin,Lakshman,whom he hires as a music teacher for his daughter (played by Bindiya Goswami though Rekha was the original choice). The daughter falls in love with Lakshman whom Bhavani hates. The mix-up also includes a fake mother (Dina Pathak) and delightful cameos by Amitabh Bachchan,Om Prakash,Keshto Mukherjee and Deven Verma. Hrishida’s direction ensured that the viewer got a perfect soufflé.

Palekar,who gets “embarrassed” when today’s youngsters praise his ingenious twin portrayals,feels Gol Maal is such a hoot because the cast shared fabulous bonhomie. “The shoot was like a picnic. Hrishida,Utpalda,Dinaben and I were a gang. We liked each other a lot; we improvised the scenes and had a lot of fun which spilled over to the screen,” he says. Palekar had decided not to do the film when Hrishida called him. “I had heard about him being a dictator on the sets and not sharing any script details with his actors. I didn’t think I would be comfortable in that set-up,” he says. What made him change his mind? “He gave me a detailed narration and also confessed that he was all that I had heard about him but promised he would be different with me,” says Palekar who later acted in Mukherjee’s Naram Garam (1981),Rang Birangi (1983) and Jhoothi (1986).

In one of his rare interviews,Mukherjee said that he made Gol Maal in order to come out of depression after the dismal response to the Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Alaap (1977). A Bengali film about a character getting involved in a web of lies sparked the idea for Gol Maal. The brilliance of the writing team — story writer Shailesh Dey,screenwriter Sachin Bhowmick and dialogue writer Rahi Masoom Raza — is apparent in the comic touches. When Shankar realises that he’s been fooled by Prasad,he goes chasing after him with a pistol and even looks for him inside a flower pot. Shankar catches Prasad. The fake maa,in her original avatar as a socialite,creates a fake twin of her own in order to cover up.

Palekar,who shared a strong bond with Mukherjee (the latter gifted him his prized bioscope which was a gift from his mentor,Bimal Roy),tells us about the great director. “On the first day of the shoot,I saw him playing chess with Razasaab. I was flustered and pleaded with him to pay attention to me. To my surprise,he was aware of all that I had done during the take. He was such a keen observer and,at the same time,so relaxed.”

Gol Maal was shot in 40 days and 90 per cent of the film was shot at Hrishida’s Carter Road bungalow,Anupama. The hall was converted into Shankar’s office and the drawing room into Prasad’s house. The famous party scene was canned in his garden. After Gol Maal’s thumping success,distributors would refer to the film as Gold-maal. Gold,indeed.

harneet.singh@expressindia.com