47 Years Of Gol Maal: Why Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s ‘Smothered Outrage’ Still Beats Modern Slapstick

Hrishikesh Mukherjee had a unique way of revealing truths about people who lied. His films often explored deception, but always with warmth, humour and an underlying innocence. In Anand, Rajesh Khanna’s character invents friendships with strangers on the road, pretending he has known them through imaginary encounters. In Khubsoorat, Rekha’s mischievous heroine quietly challenges the strict authority of Dina Pathak’s character by organising secret fun sessions on the terrace with the otherwise subdued family members. Mukherjee even made an entire film around the art of lying, Jhoothi, once again casting Rekha in the lead.

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47 Years Of Gol Maal

Among his most celebrated explorations of deception is Gol Maal, released on April 20, 1979. It still has a certain tongue-in-cheek recency to its humour. The remake released a couple of months ago borrows chunks of Hrishida’s narration including Dina Pathak’s characters as Mrs Shrivastava, the socialite and part-time actress who masquerades as the hero’s mother.

In Rohit Shetty’s Bol Bachchan, the role is transformed into a mujra performer played by Archana Puran Singh, hired to impersonate the mother of Ram and Laxman Prasad. While the tone differs, the spirit of the two characters remain largely same. Another character, the actor Deven Verma, who plays himself and helps Ramprasad prepare to act as his fictional twin Laxmanprasad (Lucky), is far more fleshed out in Bol Bachchan and turned into the neo-Amol Abhishek Bachchan’s sidekick, layed by Abhishek Krushna.

A David Among Goliaths

Gol Maal came in the year of Raj Kumar Kohli’s intensely commercial Jaani Dushman and the acutely realistic marital drama Grihapravesh. It came at the peak of the Bachchan wave. 1979 was the year when the Big B’s Mr Natwarlal, Kala Patthar and Suhaag swept the boxoffice. And yet Gol Maal held its own. To this day it invites spinoffs.And we aren’t speaking only of Bol Bachchan.

Filmmaker David Dhawan once admitted to us that two of his Govinda hits, Hero No 1 and Coolie No 1, drew inspiration from Gol Maal. “Whenever I ran out of ideas, I would look towards Hrishida’s cinema,” David confessed.

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Innocence Sets Gol Maal Apart

Bhawani Shankar loves the boy. If you’ve seen Bol Bachchan you would know what follows.

What really puts Hrishida’s Gol Maal leagues ahead of the humour extended into Bol Bachchan is the aura of innocence that pervades the comedy of errors. No one means any real harm. Not even Ramprasad’s fictitious twin Laxman, who appears as the music teacher for Bhawani Shankar’s daughter Urmila, played by Bindiya Goswami.

In Bol Bachchan, this music teacher is reimagined as an effeminate dance instructor, and most characters in the remake screamed for attention. In Gol Maal the humour was generated from a sense of smothered outrage rather than its loud and overt manifestation. Hrishida shot the whole comedy as one stretch of humour emanating from the invention of a double to appease a boss who is almost tyrannical in his beliefs.

The spoilsport disciplinarian was a  favourite Hrishida character.Tarun Bose in Anupama,Veena in Aashirwad, Dharmendra in Satayam, Dina Pathak in Khubsoorat, Om Prakash in Chupke Chupke …they all tried to play the party-pooper. But did that stop the other characters from having fun!

The thing about inventing one’s own imaginary twin is  that it provides endless comic possibilities. Even if Hrishida’s characters pulled out all stops, he never got carried away. In Gol Maal Amol Palekar’s relationships are  defined purely by his interaction with Utpal Dutt. The two are inseparable in their interactive energy. And it’s hard to imagine the film without Utpal bossing over the timid Amol in a  way that would in today’s work space by defined as harassment.

The film’s success was also strengthened by its memorable music. RD Burman’s compositions, paired with lyrics by Gulzar, added emotional depth to the comedy. Songs like Aane Wala Pal Jaane Wala Hai, sung by Kishore Kumar, along with the film’s lively title track composed by RD Burman and Sapan Chakraborty, became enduring chartbusters.

More than four decades later, Gol Maal continues to stand as a masterclass in gentle, intelligent comedy, a proof that humour rooted in innocence can remain timeless.

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