Golmaal Returns/Aaj Ki...

Golmaal Returns (by Rohit Shetty), picks its plot from Rajendra Bhatia's 1973 film Aaj Ki Taaza Khabar, one of those underrated comedies, which may have slipped through the cracks of moviegoers's memory, but the name of a character in it-- Champak Boomia, is unforgettable.

The original, written by S Khalil from Mulraj Rajda's story, sounds suspiciously like a Hollywood screwball comedy. And this one did not need gay gags and crude butt jokes to raise laughter, like Golmaal Returns does. The film had a fresh cast—mostly graduates from the Film and Television Institute (Pune)—maybe if it had big stars then, it might have done much better than it did. In one those bizarre things that happen only in films, Sunil Mehta (Kiran Kumar), is stuck all night in a giant wheel with a young woman (Arpana Choudhary).

When he gets home the next day and is confronted with a very suspicious wife Geeta (Radha Saluja), he looks at the paper, and comes up with Champak Boomia as the name of the friend he was with all night. The wife is not convinced, she writes a letter to Champak at the fake address Sunil gives her, to come and meet her. In a panic Sunil asks his friend Amit (Asrani) to pose as Champak and meet his wife. Matters would have been resolved, had there not been a real Champak Boomia (Paintal), who gets the letter and comes to meet Geeta in a flirtatious mood, thus setting off a spate of confusion and also bringing is own doubting wife (Padma Khanna) into the picture. Asrani's real life wife Manju played his wife in the film. Aaj Ki Taaza Khabar had comic actors like Mehmood and IS Johar in the cast, but Asrani and Paintal, both young and energetic then, created a laugh riot in the film—probably contributing to their future careers as comedians. Asrani won the Filmfare Award for Best Comedian for his role in this film.

The film was also was also nominated for Best Director, Best Film and Best Story, but didn't stand a chance with Zanjeer, Bobby, Koshish, Anurag in the running, it didn't stand a chance. Shankar-Jaikishen's music had the big Kishore Kumar hit, Mujhe meri biwi se bachao, along with Khitla hua shabab hai, Yeh mard bade bedardi hain, and Raat hai baat hai.