Movie Review - Golmal(hindi, 1979)

 I was watching this film called Bol Bachchan starring Abhishek Bachchan and Ajay Devgan. This pathetic attempt at comedy is supposed to be the official remake of the 1979 Amol Palekar starrer Golmaal. Golmaal has been a benchmark for comedy movies for years. Such subtle but hilarious comedy has not been seen in Hindi cinema for a long time now. I have decided to review a few Hrishikesh Mukherjee classics in my movie reviews.

  Let's start with Golmaal then. Golmaal was directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, written by Sailesh dey and had music by R.D Burman. In leading roles were Amol Palekar, Utpal Dutt and Bindiya Goswami. This film has influenced many a director working on comedies. The characters Ram Prasad Sharma and Lakshman Prasad Sharma(Lucky) from the film Main hoon na were tributes to the lead roles in Golmaal.

Ram Prasad Sharma, (Amol Palekar) is on the lookout for a new job and his uncle (David) suggests that he attend an interview with Bhavani Shanker( Utpal Dutt). Bhavani Shankar is a man of traditional and wierd tastes. He dislikes today's youth as they show more interest in music and sports and do not believe in hard work. To get the job Ram needs to

• have a moustache
• wear kurta pyjama
• feign ignorance about sports and music
• act traditional and conservative

Ram creates a fake persona at the interview and gets selected for the job as Bhavani Shankar is impressed with his values.  One day Ram takes leave from office citing his (dead) mother's ill health as a reason. He goes to watch a football match, where Bhavani Shankar sees him. In order to save his job, Ram lies that he has an identical twin, Lakshman Prasad Sharma , who has no moustache and does not have a job.  To save this story, Ram comes up with a string of lies and this leads to some hilarious scenes.

 Bhavani Shankar wants Lakshman to teach music to his daughter Urmila (Bindiya Goswami). Urmila and Lakshman fall in love, but Bhavani Shankar wants Urmila to marry Ram. When Bhavani Shankar who is impressed by Ram's values decides to meet his mother, they hire a socialite Mrs Shrivastav(Dina Pathak) to play the part.

This leads to more lies when Bhavani Shankar accidentally meets Mrs Shrivastav at a party and then she lies that Ram's mother is her identical twin. The scene which follows is the most hilarious one in the movie. Watch it here.

How Bhavani Shankar realizes the lies and how he has a change of heart forms the rest of the story.

Amol Palekar carries the movie effortlessly on his shoulders. His comic timing is amazing and his portrayal of the soft spoken Ram and impish lakshman is impressive. Utpal dutt is his usual self in the role of Bhavani Shankar. Dina pathak, Deven Varma , David and Manju Singh form a great supporting cast. Bindiya Goswami looks pretty but has nothing much to do. The music by R.D Burman is amazing, with songs like Golmaal and  Aane wala pal being popular to this day.

 Golmaal is an evergreen comedy with Hrishikesh Mukherjee's signature style. It is one of the films that I love watching over and over.

Book Review - The fourth protocol

Yes, I did promise to review movies and video games too, but books have always been my first love. Today I wish to review a book, that is as old as I am. I came across this book about 10 years ago and was engrossed in it within moments of opening it. My copy was missing the first twenty or so pages, and yet, I felt the book was gripping.

 The Fourth protocol by Frederick Forsyth has been one of my favorite books for a long time. The title refers to the fourth protocol of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty(NNPT) of 1968. This protocol prohibits the delivery of nuclear weapons into any of these countries other than being dropped off aircrafts or on ballistic missiles. This also meant prohibition of assembling a nuclear device close to target before detonating it.
The book picks on real life treaties and workings of the government both within Russia and Britain. It also highlights the involvement of spies and secret service agents on both sides. The central plot of this novel is plan Aurora, hatched by the British master spy Kim Philby at the behest of the general secretary of the Soviet Union. Aurora is put into motion in order to ensure a labour party victory in the coming general elections in UK. Russian agent Valeri Petrofsky is undercover in England and collects all the parts of the nuclear device which are smuggled in as harmless packages. An unforseen incident with one of the couriers brings to light the plot and a search is on to find petrovsky and foil the plan.

At the beginning of the novel, a burglary happens in a senior civil servants house. A few top secret documents are also stolen along with other things. The notorious thief , Jim Rawlings has a patriotic side to him. He sends the documents to MI5 when John Preston investigates them. This leads to a discovery of spies in the guise of diplomats. During his investigations, John finds out about the smuggled parts of the nuclear device and tries to capture the perpetrators. It is upto John and his team to prevent the "accident" that could change the face of British politics forever and trigger a collapse of the Western alliance.

The fourth protocol is an eventful thriller involving espionage, deceit and treachery. Though the plot has many twists and turns, this book is not for those who love fast paced thrillers. The book involves a lot of descriptions on international relations, politics, covert operations and government administration. These do slow down the plot at certain times. The ten page report by philby might even put some to sleep. 
But, if you can brave these parts, this is a gripping spy thriller. The fourth protocol was also adapted into a movie of the same name starring Pierce Brosnan and Micheal Caine.