Masand: 'Golmaal 3' is pedestrian comedy

Cast: Ajay Devgan, Kareena Kapoor, Arshad Warsi, Tusshar Kapoor, Shreyas Talpade, Kunal Khemu, Mithun Chakraborty, Ratna Pathak-Shah

Director: Rohit Shetty

Well into the second half of Golmaal 3, there’s a scene in which two sets of step-brothers sitting across from each other, play a game of miming what they’d like to shove into each others’ backsides. From candles and fruits to big lamps and potted plants, this gag goes on for a few minutes, just long enough to amuse you. It’s the funniest scene in the film, because nobody says a word throughout, and because the expressions of the actors are priceless as they react to the pain that must come from being sodomized by foreign objects.

If you must, watch it for Mithun, who shows us he\'s still got his mojo!

Golmaal 3 has even less by way of plot than 2008’s Golmaal Returns. In this film, Ajay Devgan and Shreyas Talpade are brothers who constantly find themselves clashing with another set of Goa boys: Arshad Warsi, Tusshar Kapoor and Kunal Khemu, until both rival groups find themselves thrown together under the same roof when their single parents - Mithun Chakraborty and Ratna Pathak-Shah - decide to get married.

Following a pattern set by Golmaal Returns, this film is not so much about story or plot as it is about stretching a joke till breaking point. How many cars can be destroyed in a single set-piece? How many junior artistes can you beat up in a slo-mo action scene? How many hi-speed entries can Ajay Devgan have?

The few genuinely comic moments are provided by Mithun Chakraborty and his willingness to spoof his own popular 80s films. There’s a hilarious Disco Dancer back-story to his character, complete with snatches from Bappi Lahiri’s musical hits of the day.

The rest of the cast, including Kareena Kapoor who plays the neighborhood tomboy, spends the greater part of this film contorting their faces and delivering silly lines. The humor is strictly low-brow and slapstick, with repeated jokes about disability and speech impediments, and a running gag in which Ajay Devgan twists any finger that’s pointed in his face.

A few jokes are inevitably funny, but none are as smart or unpredictable as that spoof on Black by Arshad Warsi, or the retro love song between Paresh Rawal and Sushmita Mukherjee, both from the first Golmaal film.

Only Tusshar Kapoor appears to be having any fun with his character, returning as the mute Lucky who must be interpreted to be understood. However, the film’s single dramatic scene in which his character reveals a shocking secret he’s stumbled into, ends up being unintentionally comical instead of emotional.

I’m going with two out of five for director Rohit Shetty’s Golmaal 3. This is pedestrian comedy that evokes desperate laughs. If you must, watch it for Mithun, who shows us he’s still got his mojo!

Rating: 2 / 5

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