Maalamaal (1988)
CAST & CREW
Produced By | Bipan K. Dewan |
Directed By | Kewal Sharma |
Music By | Annu Malik |
Starring | |
Naseeruddin Shah | Poonam Dhillon |
Aditya Pancholi | Mandakini |
Satish Shah | Amjad Khan |
Click HERE for a complete listing of Cast & Crew
PLOT SUMMARY
Raj Kumar Saxena aka Raja (Naseeruddin Shah) and Govind Sakharam Godbole aka Govind (Satish Shah) are friends who somehow survive in Mumbai living by their limited means until one day Raja gets to know that he is sole heir of a property worth 300 crores. However, Raja’s eccentric grandfather had put forth a condition following which Raja must spend 30 crore rupees in 30 days to inherit the entire sum. The conditions attached forbid him to make any property or buy anything for himself. He is also not allowed divulge the secret to anyone else including his best friend Govind. How he spends the entire sum until the last minute is what the film is all about.
MY TAKE
Every time that I watch this movie I wish for one such inheritance myself. I am sure today it is much easier to spend 1 crore a day as compared to when the movie made it to the theatres. Back then there were no malls selling international brands or gizmos or gadgets that we have today and sure 30 crores then was lot more money than it is today.
The chemistry between Naseeruddin Shah and Satish Shah is amazing. Together they lift an otherwise ordinary script to a position where it becomes an enjoyable watch. The humor is situation oriented and is definitely lot better than the slapstick affair that was so characteristic of the movies in the 80s.
The situational comedy is able to successfully keep a smile on one’s face throughout. Personally I like the sequence where Raja had just taken up the challenge of spending 30 crores in 30 days and he hires the security guard (Praveen Kumar aka Bheem of the TV serial Mahabharat) and changes his salary from 1500/- a month to 1500/- a day and then hires Dilip Tahil at 15000/- a day (Now that is good even by today’s standards, considering that he is assigned a post of being Raja’s personal photographer).
The fun part begins when he goes on to redesign the room of the hotel he is staying in and takes along all his friends from the slums (who go on to do the laundry at the hotel’s swimming pool), spends 10 lakh rupees on getting the special ‘Bidi’ from Gangu Bai (played by Lalita Pawar), plays cricket in the hotel suite (in turn breaking a chandelier among other articles, contesting an election and yes, playing a cricket match against Sunil Gavaskar’s XI. Oh yes, our dear Raja is the strike batsman of the local team Dharavi XI and nurtures a dream of breaking Gavaskar’s record. The match with Sunil Gavaskar is the surprise package in the film and the legendary batsman plays himself in the movie.
However, Poonam Dhillon had little to do and Aditya Pancholi was more like a situational prop (like many other of his films during that time). I still do not know why was Mandakini cast at all in this story. I guess with little more slick editing this movie could have been a major money spinner at the box office.
MUSIC
Annu Malik spills out the musical score for the movie. The songs are pretty ordinary otherwise. The title track kind of grows on you as it is repeated a couple of times in bits and pieces. There is another song which goes something like “Arra ra rura raara” sung by Alisha Chinoy which I found to be just OK. (Which means that you can listen to one stanza max and then shall have to search for the remote control to forward the rest).
OVERALL
The movie portrays a canvas which is larger than life and unrealistic and yet it does so in a fairly simple way. I guess if cinema inspires a moviegoer to dream, this movie is the dream that all people nurture in one way or the other.
Watch it for its sheer fun, some golden comic timing from Satish Shah and Naseeruddin Shah and well, for the dream of being ‘Maalamaal’ some day.
Enjoy!!
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