Golmaal Returns

Golmaal Returns is a 2008 Indian Hindi-language comedy film directed by Rohit Shetty. The film is a remake of the 1989 Marathi film Pheka Pheki, which itself was inspired by the 1973 Hindi film Aaj Ki Taaza Khabar,   it serves as the second installment in the Golmaal film series. The film stars Ajay Devgn, Arshad Warsi, Tusshar Kapoor, Shreyas Talpade, Kareena Kapoor, Celina Jaitley and Amrita Arora. It was one of the highest-grossing Hindi films of 2008.

Plot
Gopal lives with his wife Ekta, who is addicted to watching Indian dramas and soap operas. He also lives with his sister Esha and Ekta's mute brother, his brother in law Lucky. Lucky is in love with a deaf girl named Daisy. Investigating Officer Madhav, Esha's boyfriend, who believes that Gopal's company, Golden Fisheries, secretly does drug-smuggling, does not get along with Gopal.

One night, while returning from his office, Gopal saves an attractive young woman named Meera from some dreadful goons. Due to circumstances, both of them decide to stay the night at Gopal's friend's yacht. When he arrives home the next day, an over-suspicious Ekta suspects Gopal of flirting around with his female employees and having an affair with his secretary. Knowing how difficult it is to convince her with the truth, he invents a story about spending the night with a fictitious friend named Anthony Gonsalves. Ekta becomes suspicious and does not believe his story as she knows that he never had a friend by that name, and hence, she decides to write to Anthony to visit her and to confirm Gopal was telling the truth. Later, Gopal meets Laxman Prasad, who has come to interview for a position in his office. He is Meera's boyfriend, which is not known to Gopal. Gopal asks him to pretend to be Anthony, and meet and convince Ekta that he was indeed telling the truth, in return for a job. Laxman agrees to do so, and everything goes according to plan until the address on which Ekta had written a letter to Anthony as well as his name turns out to be real. The real Anthony shows up at Gopal's house but he is scared off in a comical way by Gopal, Lucky and Laxman. Gopal warns the real Anthony not to show up around his residence ever again.

Meanwhile, Gopal finds out that a dead body was found at the same location where he saved Meera from the goons. Madhav finds out that Gopal was missing from his home that very night and that the dead person was Gopal's colleague whom he had threatened to kill over a spat. Madhav soon finds out that Laxman is not the real Anthony and arrests him. He gives Gopal a three-day deadline to get the girl to the police station to prove that Gopal had been with her and did not murder his employee. After three days and a lot of attempts, they still are not able to find the girl. In panic, Laxman and Lucky hire a woman called Munni, who needs money to get her boyfriend Vasooli out of jail, but Munni is kidnapped by the murderer. Unable to prove his innocence, Gopal is arrested. Lucky and Laxman are chased by the cops but they are rescued by Meera. Meera questions Laxman about his involvement in some shady activities. Laxman then reveals that he had to cover up that night's incident for Gopal. However Meera reveals that the girl whom Gopal saved that night is none other than her. Laxman is shocked and distraught over this news as he believes that Gopal and her are having an affair behind his back but Meera gets angry on Laxman for not trusting her. He apologizes and the trio go to the police station. However, Vasooli finds out that Munni has been kidnapped and kidnaps Meera as leverage in anger.

Gopal is later bailed out by Sawant, who is going along with him to the Lover's Point, with Madhav, Esha, Lucky and Laxman following them in pursuit, and Ekta, Vasooli and Meera arriving later. Munni is found tied up in the back of the murderer's jeep and is freed by the group. Gopal learns that this was a plot concocted by Sawant to frame him for the murder, as his illegal drug trade was about to be exposed, confirming Madhav's suspicions. The drama grows, as everyone attempts suicide (except Madhav and Lucky), much to Sawant's anger, until he is driven crazy from this and tries to kill himself.

Ekta and Gopal get back together, Madhav and Gopal also shake hands in the end. Lucky, meanwhile, marries the daughter of the president of Gopal's company, who happens to be Daisy, and becomes the new boss, giving a shock to the others. Gopal and Laxman are declared the junior bosses, while Madhav is declared a 24-hour guard for Lucky.

Cast

 * Ajay Devgn as Gopal Kumar Santoshi
 * Arshad Warsi as Inspector Madhav Singh Ghai
 * Kareena Kapoor as Ekta Gill Santoshi
 * Tusshar Kapoor as Lucky Gill
 * Shreyas Talpade as Laxman Prasad Apte / Anthony Gonsalves
 * Celina Jaitly as Meera Iyer
 * Amrita Arora as Esha Santoshi
 * Murali Sharma as Vinay Sawant
 * Ashwini Kalsekar as Munni Devi
 * Anjana Sukhani as Daisy Kapoor
 * Sajid Samji as Constable Pinky
 * Mukesh Tiwari as Vasooli
 * Sharat Saxena as Babloo Kapoor
 * Vrajesh Hirjee as Anthony Gonsalves / Aatmaram
 * Rakhee Tandon as Julie Gonsalves
 * Sanjay Mishra as Subodh Mehra
 * Shereveer Vakil as Vinay's aide
 * Robin Bhatt as Gopal's neighbor
 * Upasana Singh as Lucky's customer
 * Sharman Joshi as Laxman Prasad (archive footage in photo)
 * Siddarth Jadhav as Lucky's assistant
 * Ashish R. Mohan as Hiren
 * Gulshan Sharma
 * Ram Kapoor (cameo appearance)
 * Preeti Bhutani as a female employee in Golden Fisheries

Production
Ajay Devgn is paired opposite Kareena Kapoor. Amongst the rest of the multi-starrer cast, actress Amrita Arora is the love interest of Arshad Warsi whilst Celina Jaitly and Anjana Sukhani are paired opposite Shreyas Talpade and Tusshar Kapoor, respectively.

Originally expected to commence shooting for the film in Dubai on a forty-day schedule, the cast shot for the film in Goa on a twenty-day schedule. Shooting later continued in places like the Filmistan Studios in Mumbai, South Africa and Bangkok.

Music
The soundtrack was released on 24 September 2008 by director Rohit Shetty and actors Ajay Devgn, Tusshar Kapoor & Shreyas Talpade on the musical show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2009. While the film's soundtrack contains six new songs composed by Pritam for the sequel, the album also consists of songs from the first film. Lyrics have been penned by Sameer.

The music video of the song "Tha Kar Ke" cost ₹3.5 crore, making it the most expensive Bollywood music video up until that time. Its choreography and picturisation was reportedly inspired by the Sivaji song "Athiradee".

Joginder Tuteja from IndiaFM gave the film's soundtrack 3 out of 5 stars and noted, that "Golmaal Returns is yet another winner from Pritam who delivers what is expected from a soundtrack for a film belonging to action-comedy genre. No one attempts to do anything exceptional or different from routine but walk the path which has been successful in the months gone by. The music may not go the Race (2008) way but does well enough to ensure immense awareness about the film due to its fast paced approach." According to the Indian trade website Box Office India, with around 14,00,000 units sold, this film's soundtrack album was the year's tenth highest-selling.

Box office
Golmaal Returns was considered financially successful. It grossed between ₹420–450 million in the first five days.

Home media
The film was released on DVD on 10 December 2010. The release included a single disc edition with the film and special features being the making of the film, and three songs: "Golmaal Remix", "Meeoow", and "Tu Saala". On the Moser Baer release, it is one disc plus a bonus disc of Golmaal.

Controversies
In 2008, Shakuntala Bhatia, wife of director Rajendra Bhatia filed a complaint against Shree Asthavinayak Cine Vision Ltd., accusing them of directly copying the story of her husband's film Aaj Ki Taaza Khabar (1973).

Sequel
A sequel Golmaal 3 was released in 2010.