Golmaal hai bhai sab golmaal hai
Posted on: April 17, 2012
It is often said that Hindi movie stories have little resemblance with real life, because real life stories always differ from the reel life depicted in movies. Still there are occasions when some occurrences in one’s real life may remind you of some movie.
For instance, I have been reminded of the movie “Golmaal” (1979) ever since I was told this real life tale by my wife that happened a couple of days ago.
People who are aware of “Golmaal” (1979) may remember that this movie was a laugh riot. In this movie, Amol Palekar needs a job and for that he poses as a serious old fashioned young man called Ram. This old fashioned disguise impresses Utpal Dutt and Amol Palekar gets hired by Utpal Dutt. A few days later Utpal Dutt goes to a footbal stadium to watch a football match. There he is shocked to find Amol Palekar behaving in a manner entirely different from the well cultivated manner that Amol Palekar had presented before Utpal Dutt during the job interview. Next day, when Utpal Dutt confronts Amol Palekar, Amol Palekar does a quick damage control exercise and tells Utpal Dutt that the person at the football match was his twin brother called Laxman. Utpal Dutt, still dubious asks him to send Laxman to him so that he could confirm it personally. Amol Palekar then goes out and comes back in the disguise of Laxman. He manages to fool Utpal Dutt and he also manages to win over Bindiya Goswami, Utpal Dutt’s daughter. The entire movie is about how Amol Palekar tries to juggle his twin identities in the movie.
Now let me come to what happened a couple of days ago. My wife went to the kitchen early morning. She saw a cat hiding from her. My wife assumed that it was nuppy. She asked the cat to come out. But instead of coming out, the cat slinked away to another room. My wife went to the room and called nuppy to come out, but the cat went into another room. My wife assumed that nuppy had ate some goodies without permission and so he was hiding from her. She assured the cat that she was not angry with him. But the cat continued to hide from her. It was quite unusual behaviur because eating without permission was regarded by nuppy as his birthright. Unlike dogs, who patiently waited to be handed over their goodies, nuppy tended to raid the kitchen and other places on his own without permission and thought nothing of it. And on watching my wife, she would not hide, but go up to her and demand to be fed.
The cat was behaving in an entirely different and hostile manner. My wife suspected that it was some strange cat who had intruded inside the home. She decided to teach the cat a lesson.
Chhote was tied with a chain and Bhhole was outside. My wife asked our daughter to bring Bhhole in and opened Chhote too. Now the two dogs and the two humans launched an all out attack on the intruder. This kind of attack is nomally launched against a mouse, but here it was lauched on a cat. The cat was bashed up like a Hindi movie baddie in the last reel of a Hindi movie. The cat did not know how and where to escape. Finally the rear door was opened and it was allowed to escape.
The job done, now my wife wondered about Nuppy. Where is Nuppy ? She called out for him. No response ! Is he sleeping somewhere. How can he sleep in all this commotion. Nuppy could not be found. Then my wife began to have doubts. Did they thrash Nuppy by mistake, regarding him as a stranger. Did the dogs, otherwise so friendly with nuppy decided to let their natural instincts come to the fore, forgetting all the friendship with nuppy. She looked around. But she could not locate nuppy. And then she saw a piece of wool lying on the ground. Unlike dogs, who wore proper belts round their necks, wool was wrapped round nuppy’s neck that served as his makeshift belt. The wool was lying there so my wife assumed that the cat was nuppy and all the thrashing received by him caused the wool to fall down. She began to feel bad. Now we had lost nuppy for ever. He is unlikely to return back again, she felt.
Just then, she saw a cat coming from outside. He entered inside the house non chalantly, even though the two dogs were free. Bhhole went to him, smelled his rear, and gave his go ahead- yes, it is our nuppy. That is the normal method by which the dogs would frisk nuppy and certify him to be genuine and not an imposter. and nuppy straighaway entered the kitchen, as was his wont, demanding to be fed. My wife lifted nuppy and examined him, trying to see if it was the same cat that they had thrashed half an hour back. It could not have been that cat, because no cat can be such a great actor that he would come back non chalantly after receiving such a treatment. And the dogs with their good smelling ability could not be fooled. And the clinching proof that it was some other cat and not nuppy was there on the neck of nuppy- the makeshift woolen belt was very much intact on his neck. So it meant that the piece of wool lying on the ground was some other piece of wool. My wife heaved a huge sigh of relief.
In the afternoon, the dogs as well as the cat took their naps, and the cat was sound asleep without a care in the world, even though the two dogs and two humans were close by.
So this tale was similar to Golmaal, but with a slight variation. Here there were actually two cats, and not one. The stranger cat, unlike the well behaved nuppy was quite wild and hostile in appearance even though it had a similar colour. With benefit of hindsight, my wife recalled that the stranger cat was slightly lighter in complexion. There was one cat that was bullying nuppy a couple of days back, My daughter rationalised (or maybe she was right) that it was that bullying cat who had entered the home in order to bully nuppy. But how had the cat entered ? It may have entered from the opening in the roof in the rear of the house that nuppy would often use to come in, or perhaps this cat had just fallen down from that opening. If it was the same bully, then the cat was taught a lesson and he was unlikely to come back again to bully nuppy. Or who knows. Nuppy was oblivious to all that happened when he had gone out of the home.
After all the discussion about mistaken identities of cats, here is the title song cum theme song from “Golmaal”. This song in fact is the movie opening song of the movie. The song plays as credits roll on the screen. The song is sung by R D Burman and Sapan Chakraborty. Gulzar is the lyricist. Music is composed by R D Burman.
The picturisation shows Amol Palekar and his friends seated in the drawing room of his house and singing this song, surrounded my musical instruments. The items kept in the room makes for an interesting observation. One can see a radio, and one can see a B& W TV also, which used to be a status symbol for Indians those days.
Here is this nice song from “Golmaal”(1979) which will now always remind me of Nuppy, who in reality was not even involved in this episode. 🙂
Audio
Video
Song-Golmaal hai bhai sab golmaal hai (Golmaal)(1979) Singer-R D Burman, Sapan Chakraborty, Lyrics-Gulzar, MD-R D Burman
golmaal hai bhai sab golmaal hai
har seedhe raste ki ye tedhi chaal hai
seedhe raste ki ye tedhi chaal hai
golmaal hai bhai sab golmaal hai
golmaal
golmaal
golmaal hai sab golmaal hai
bhookh roti ki ho to paisaa kamaaiye
paisaa kamaane ke liye bhi paisaa chaahiye
maange se naa miley to paseenaa bahaaiye
behtaa hai jab paseenaa to roomaal chaahiye
ho golmaal hai bhai sab golmaal hai
golmaal golmaal hai
golmaal hai bhai sab golmaal hai
har seedhe raste ki ye tedhi chaal hai
seedhe raste ki ye tedhi chaal hai
golmaal hai bhai sab gol maal hai
golmaal
golmaal hai
golmaal hai sab golmaal hai
roomaal ban gayaa bhi gar kameez phaad kar
kameez ke liye bhi to phir kapdaa chaahiye
arre kapdaa kisi ne daan hi mein de diyaa chalo
darzi ke paas jaa ke wo pehle silaaiye
ho golmaal hai bhai sab golmaal hai
golmaal
golmaal hai
golmaal hai bhai sab golmaal hai
he he he he
har seedhe raste ki ye tedhi chaal hai
seedhe raste ki ye tedhi chaal hai
golmaal hai bhai sab golmaal hai
golmaal golmaal golmaal gol
golmaal hai sab golmaal hai
bin sili kameez pe to kuchh nahin liyaa
sili hui kameez pe silaai chaahiye
silaai dene ke liye phir paisaa chaahiye
paisaa kamaane ke liye phir paisaa chaahiye
ho golmaal hai bhai sab golmaal hai
golmaal
golmaal
golmaal hai bhai sab golmaal hai
he he he he
har seedhe raste ki ye tedhi chaal hai
seedhe raste ki ye tedhi chaal hai
golmaal hai bhai sab golmaal hai
golmaal maalgol gol gol gol
golmaal hai sab golmaal hai
gol
maal
8 Responses to "Golmaal hai bhai sab golmaal hai"
April 17, 2012 at 6:07 pm
Ha ha, awesome story! I was laughing like crazy about the mistaken identity issues involving nuppy. Just like Golmaal indeed. So finally your nuppy returned home, demanding to be fed while another poor cat got the scare of his/her life? It is funny how the mind works – when you think it is nuppy, you being to think that piece of wool is the string round her neck because your mind plays games with you, it makes you want to find evidence to prove what you are thinking.
At least, all’s well that ends well. I hope that other cat is ok too. Although it is not likely it will come anywhere near your place in a hurry. 🙂
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April 17, 2012 at 6:13 pm
THat other cat was bullying nuppy just a few days back. When my daughter went to shoo the cat away, it refused to walk away. It took the might of our two dogs and a neighbourhood dog to chase that cat away. It was a hardened cat and it had perhaps entered the home in search of nuppy.
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April 27, 2012 at 11:32 pm
Cats and dogs apart, let us have some discussion on the song. Did you notice how the song is used to introduce the theme of the film. There are many films that use a song as backgrond for credits and there are others which start with a song as the credits end — PYASR KIYE JAA. It would be intersting to start a new tag Credit title song.
Another interseting point. Anand is among the assistant directors. So he had aspirations to become a director. Did he succeed? Will you please find out for me, Arunji.?
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April 27, 2012 at 11:43 pm
“Title song ” and “Theme song” tags are already there, as is the “movie opening song” tag.
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
April 17, 2012 at 6:01 pm
Atul ji,
Cats and Dogs have different sets of behavioural rules set by them.
While Dogs are disciplined and follow ,generally,the rules the owners set for them,the Cats have their own thinking.Nothing matters more than their own comforts and needs.If it coincides with the owner’s,well and good,otherwise their ways are different,always.
I remember a nice quotation in this regard.
Dog thinks-my owner takes so much care of me,feeds me,protects me,loves me-he must be a GOD !
Cat thinks-my owner takes so much care of me,feeds me,protects me,loves me-I must be a GOD !
-AD
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April 17, 2012 at 6:06 pm
That is a nice quotation !
Nuppy no doubt has food in his mind all the time, but he is quite caring and gentle. When very young, he behaved like how wild cats behave, but now he has mellowed down and has become a domesticated cat.
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