#100days100scenes: Mistaken identities the golmaal genre

Mistaken identity is one of the most abused formula of Indian Cinema. It has an unbroken run at the box office for over 60 years and no signs of abating.  

First was the obsession with identical twins , in movies like Ram aur Shyam and Seeta aur Geeta then made in every decade with the hit actors of that time, Chaalbaaz and then Judwaa. Secondly Indian cinema extrapolated the statistical probability of there can be seven people in the world who look similar to each other to its non statistical extreme, so you will have the village bumpkin lookalike enter the city and get mistaken or became a don and so on . Thirdly in the absence of any Adhar card or nationally available identification proofs and any instant communication like telephones , it was possible to assume an identity that cannot be verified by shifting cities , if you say you are a distant relative of the Gupta family from a remote town and live with them , there was no way to check and the great Indian hospitality rules put a high emotional tax on such checking. Imagine you asking your wife is this really your relative and the emotional melodrama that could follow.

So the movie Golmaal in a way created the plot where a new identity like a false twin was deliberately created to protect ones virtuous self. In the modern world its the equivalent of not adding your mother and her friends to your facebook friends, so that you can remain that nice boy or girl who never puts a foot wrong socially.

The word 'Golmaal' itself became like a sub-genre in comedy with Priyadarsan in later years exploiting this sub genre to its maximum in the 90s in Malayalam and Hindi and Rohit Shetty creating his own 'Golmaal' series where the first move in his series was a copy of ' Kaaka Kuyil (2001)' - a Priyadarsan's comeback comedy movie ( Priyadarsan was making comedy movies since 84 ). Thats like a third derivative of a chemical, where someones petrol was someones lubricant. ( Hope you got the connection, else watch Rohit Shetty' cars).


Staying true to the original oil, the pure Golmaal version, the movie continued the middle class actor Amol Palekars dream run at the box office after Rajnigandha, Choti si Baat and Chitchor. Again using the simple family happy family touch of Hrishikesh Mukherji , the movie also shows how tough it was to get a job and hold onto it. Utpal Dutt in the role of his life , plays a businessman who frowns on the increasingly modern youth , who are turning cultureless and non diligent in their pursuit of Westernish goals. So Amol Palekar as Ramprasad tries to fit into the traditional image needed to get a job at Utpal Dutts company but struggles to pursue simple distractions like watching football matches, singing and such.  While spotted at a match, he creates an illusion of having a wayward identical twin and the wayward twin is engaged to teach Utpal Dutts daughter to sign. Of course love blossoms and how to protect the dual identities leads to hilarious situations in the movie.


This scene , where a simple technique to differentiate the two identities - the humble moustache wears off and results in  Utpal Dutt getting extremely angry and increasing the manic intensity on his frustration with the situation and deceit.  Amol Palekar responds with that now infamous head shaking in a wavering tone that became the standard scene for a mimicry artist. I love this scene for its references to food right from puris, parathas and all the sweets making it all the more mouth watering. What follows is Utpalion madness . And topping everything is the police station scene - where Om Prakash enters as a police inspector and mistakes Utpal Dutt for a goon and thinks he has a fake moustache. Moustache ado about nothing.




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