Golmaal Again movie review: Rohit Shetty, Ajay Devgn's 'horror' comedy a 'mindless' laugh riot

Rohit Shetty, who has been entertaining audience with Golmaal series for over a decade now, has come up with the perfect Diwali gift for the audience.

The ace-filmmaker has finally brought the fourth instalment of the Golmaal franchise - Golmaal Again.

Starring Ajay Devgn, Arshad Warsi, Kunal Kemmu, Tusshar Kapoor, Parineeti Chopra and Tabu in key role, the movie has been one of the much awaited releases of the year.

While Shetty has brought its previous cast together for Golmaal Again, he has twisted the story with a blend of horror and melodrama.

So if you are planning to grab you tickets for this Diwali dhamaka movie, we bring you what the leading dailies have to say about Golmaal Again:

India Today - Continuing with the men-who-are-upto-no-good narrative, this time around the ensemble for all its machismo is easily spooked by the presence of a ghost in what's an eyesore of a haunted mansion.

The biggest phattu of the five is the temperamental Gopal who needs his lisping buddy, Laxman (Shreyas Talpade), to calm him down with a lullaby.

The first half is all about Madhav, Laxman and Lucky constantly arguing and fighting with Gopal and Laxman resulting in slapstick gags with a few bizarre ones involving Nana Patekar's voice.

It's one of the few consistently rewarding tropes used ending with the Patekar in a brief cameo.

The second is far removed from the first as Shetty throws in greed, murder, revenge and melodrama in what's essentially meant to be a laugh riot.

NDTV - The film is a wild, wacky ride in which grown-up men revel in behaving like a bunch of delinquents, but the core of the plot hinges on emotions that stem from the bonding that five orphan boys develop with an infant girl they find on the streets and then are separated from when it is time for them to move out of their shelter.

Golmaal Again stretches credulity, what with its ghosts, spirits and apparitions. Yunus Sajawal's screenplay puts all its eggs in a bottomless basket filled to the brim with mindless mumbo-jumbo. Most of the gags that the film stages - many of them are protracted beyond comprehension - simply disappear into a void.

The Hindu - Being a franchise, the filmmaker had to at some point explore the genesis of the main characters and trace back their relationship with each other.

The fourth part Golmaal Again is all about that, except the back stories are not only painfully unoriginal but also overly saccharine.

It has all the lazy cliches intended to make the film appear manipulatively family friendly and endearing: from an orphanage under attack to evil tycoons to a friendly ghost. Ask for a story line and you will get some more hackneyed ideas presented in a glittering and gaudy gift wrap.

There’s a point in the film when the evil industrialist, who is eyeing the orphanage where the characters grew up, says, “Mujhe sirf ek achche plot se matlab hai (I am only concerned with a good plot)”. If only Shetty mistook that for a plot line.

Hindustan Times - The supernatural element in the story adds freshness to the narrative and it is interesting to watch Tabu in a different role – she pulls punches with a straight face and talks to spirits. She also manipulates almost half the events in the story.

Interestingly, before we see the ghosts, Arshad Warsi, Tusshar and Kunal Kemmu are shown using technology to make people believe their houses are haunted. They work as goons-for-hire for real estate agents and tycoons.

Ajay seems overburdened with the weight of his own films: There are references to Singham – both the film and the famous dialogue (Ata maajhi satakli). The romantic angle between Ajay and Parineeti is offensive. It has elements of peadophilia and the filmmakers want us to laugh at the hint of paedophilic relationship!

Times Of India - Golmaal is the screwball comedy franchise that has been kept alive for the last eleven years. Reruns on satellite channels always make you chuckle, no matter from which point you catch the film.

Like its previous instalments, this one too has moments of unadulterated fun.

The gags alternate between being truly funny and averagely routine but you find yourself laughing uncontrollably because each of the actors here is a delight to watch.

Whether it's the lisping Lakshman (Shreyas) or the bully Gopal, who is petrified of ghosts, everyone is so proficient, you can't help but smile at their antics. The dialogue is pedestrian but witty.