Love him or hate him but Rohit Shetty’s movies prove that he has a knack for directing crowd-pleasing hits. If his Cop Universe gets a bit too loud, you can always watch his beloved Golmaal comedies. Spanning across four movies so far, the Golmaal franchise has often relied on the same acting ensemble (always led by Ajay Devgn, Arshad Warsi, and Tushar Kapoor) even if the premise and character backstories change significantly in each installment. Yet, Shetty’s brand of delivering over-the-top humour, gravity-defying action, and a slapstick comedy of errors make each Golmaal installment memorable.
With Golmaal parts one to four ranking among some of Rohit Shetty’s best movies to stream, the movies constitute Bollywood’s highest-grossing comedy franchise with possibly Housefull being the only franchise that can surpass it. While the Akshay Kumar-led Housefull movies have more than often stuck with raunchy adult humour, the Golmaal franchise has had interesting makeovers over the years. Here’s a look at what to expect from Golmaal and where to watch these comedies.
In what order should you watch the Golmaal movies?
As each of the four movies are disconnected from a central narrative and share only recurring characters, the Golmaal movies can be watched in any order. But to perhaps see how the franchise evolves in scale, you can watch the series in order of release date.
From Golmaal to Golmaal Again: The Evolution of the Franchise
The first movie Golmaal: Fun Unlimited flirted with raunchy humour while incorporating situational comedy as a gang of four good-for-nothing friends plan to dupe an aged, blind couple. The movie was an instant hit and paved the way for Rohit Shetty’s future filmography. He amped up the stakes in Golmaal Returns, a sequel only in name, with new additions to the cast like Kareena Kapoor Khan and Shreyas Talpade. The raunchiness increased with subplots of marital infidelity. With enough wire-suspended cars and motorcycles, Shetty could utilise the increased budget for some zany action sequences too.
But perhaps the zenith of the Golmaal franchise was reached in the third part Golmaal 3 with the narrative fully turning into a family drama. The ensemble is divided into two halves, with each group portraying estranged siblings who must come together for their separated parents to marry (hilariously portrayed by new additions Mithun Chakraborty and Ratna Pathak Shah). With its more family-oriented approach, Golmaal 3 was a major box office success and received better critical acclaim than its predecessor.
The movie boasted some of the most eccentrically funny characters from the series including the amnesiac mob boss Puppy Bhai, played to exaggerated perfection by comedy heavyweight Johnny Lever. Even the franchise’s recurring character Vasooli Bhai, the gullible moneylender, gets some of his best lines in Golmaal 3.
The Golmaal series went down a supernatural route with the fourth movie, Golmaal Again. Despite mixed critical reviews (as is the case with most of the Golmaal movies that you will watch), the movie emerged as one of the highest-grossing Bollywood movies of 2017. Set in the vicinity of a haunted house, the movie reunited returning cast members with new entrants like Tabu and Parineeti Chopra. The result was yet another commercial win for Rohit Shetty and leading men Ajay Devgn and Arshad Warsi.
Where can you watch the Golmaal movies?
Golmaal: Fun Unlimited can be streamed on multiple platforms ranging from Prime Video to to Lionsgate Play. Golmaal Returns can similarly be streamed on the aforementioned platforms along with ZEE5. You can watch Golmaal 3 on Jio Cinema and Eros Now while Golmaal Again can be streamed on Prime Video and Hotstar.
