Movie montage – Malamaal Weekly

Cast: Paresh Rawal, Om Puri, Rajpal Yadav
Music: Anu Malik
Direction: Priyadarshan

Another laugh riot

The Priyadarshan laughing-gas strikes again, and how! The story starts in a small Uttar Pradesh village called Lahola. The rains are constantly failing and the villagers are all in debts especially to the richest lady of the village (Sudha Chandan). Lilaram (Rawal) earns his living by selling lottery tickets and one day he realises one of the tickets he’s sold has won the bumper prize of Rs. 1 crore! But when he finally discovers Antony, the drunkard who has won, the latter is already dead with the excitement.

The story revolves around how Lilaram tries to keep the jackpot a secret and take all the lottery money himself, but whole of Lahola comes to know about it in someway or the other! And all the people want their share in the prize if they’re going to keep mum from the inspector (Arbaaz Khan) who’ll come to verify the details of the winner. Finally… do they get the money? You’ll have to watch the film to know that.

Several rib-tickling sub-plots add to this hilarious film making it all the better. Paresh Rawal (look out for his false teeth!) is brilliant as usual, and so is veteran Om Puri as the village milkman. Asrani with his pet elephant Mangal, is also a sight and Rajpal Yadav as the bad guy is super-funny. Anu Malik’s music fails to impress and there are minor factual flaws in the film but these can easily be overlooked.

Overall Malamaal Weekly is a splendid family entertainer. Priyadarshan has proved his genius yet again. Go and watch the film if you want to have a good laugh!

-Published in The Statesman Voices on March 30, 2006

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