I was in deep thoughts, thinking what could possibly the best topic/post to start a blog with. I was confused, but soon after I saw a link, which one of my friend shared over Facebook; rooted the idea to start with something different. That link was about the epic movie, titled “Andaaz Apna Apna“. I went through the post and got inspired to write a blog post on legendary character of our Indian cinema, “Crime Master Gogo“.
Though, Gogoji didn’t portray a big role in the movie, However, he took his character miles ahead from the protagonists of the movie. In my perception, Gogoji is one of the best characters our Bollywood script writers have ever produced.
Few Observations on Gogoji:
1) Gogoji has a special costume, which sometimes resembles the combined outfit of Hollywood superheroes viz. Batman and Superman. His dress is very appealing and sometimes deceives the beholder; specially his cloak. I still recall when Gogoji figures out Amar-Prem as intruder in his underground castle and ask them to surrender. While taking them as hostages, he trembles and Amar says to him “Gogoji aapka GHAGHARA“. Amar get deceived by the cloak Gogoji wears and perceives it as Ghaghra (Skirt – a Woman outfit). The colour of Gogoji’s costume is some sort of Metallic Black and Hot Red. The out of the box features are, his cloak is bullet proof, even the Tommy Gun cannot break into it also the cloak can bear up to 680 Fahrenheit temperature.
Gogoji is a very humurous person, when he takes Amar-Prem as hostages, Amar-Prem greets “Namastey bhaisaab” to his crew members, gogoji says, “Kya Namastey-Namastey!! Dawat mein aaye ho kya?”
Sometimes it is even said that, he was born with that outfit, just like the ancient Warrior of Indian mythology “Danveer Karna“. Gogoji’s costume does not require any kind of wash; it doesn’t require hand wash, not even machine wash, nothing !! The fiber is so flexible that it could stretch to miles like Mr. Fantastic (The stretchable leader of Fantastic Four).
2) Gogoji has blood relations with the greatest antagonist of Indian Cinema, Mogambo AKA Amrish Puri. Gogoji can be found claiming himself “Mogambo ka Bhatija, Gogo” [Nephew of Mogambo] in “Andaaz Apna Apna“. But the same cannot be testified as Mogambo sir is not with us anymore. Even though there is no track record of Gogoji being a shoplifter, very often he can be found saying, “Khandani Chor hun, aaya hun to kuchh leke hi jaunga” [I must steal something, since I’ve come. It is my family business].
3) Gogoji is a notorious gangster, he is a counterpart of “Gabbar Singh”. This is because Amar openly accepted when he was confined by Gogoji, “<Amar to Prem>Pata hai Prem! Jab mein chhota bachha tha aur mein rota tha to meri maa kya kehti thi? <Gogoji interrupts and asks> Kya Kehti thi tumhari maa? <Amar> Meri maa kehti thi ki soja Amar beta soja, nahin to Gogo aa jayega” [Amar narrates: “When I was Kid my mother used to tell me, I better sleep, else Gogo will come”].
After being praised, gogoji reaches on seventh heaven and tells his crew, “Aaaaaahhhhaaaaahhhhaaaaahhaaaaa……..Suna aap logo ne, jab koi bachha ni sota to uski maa kehti hai ki, beta sojaa… sojjaaa..sojjjaaaaa.. Nahin to Gogo aa jayega”, he became so happy that he asks Amar “Aur sunao, aur sunao“. Not even kids, he was a sign of terror among other villains too. In Andaaz Apna Apna, many occasions, “Robert and Bhalla” easily gets terrified because of his presence.
4) Crime Master Gogo can defy time and dimension. He generally comes out of nowhere, steal something and go. He has no functional vehicle neither he needs them, but just for the sake of being in a character, he steals the cycle of “Robert & Bhalla” and goes away.
5) Crime Master Gogo has a very unique dialogue delivery, He has the capability to transform crucial situations into entertaining ones. There was a situation when Raveena-Karishma, Amar-Prem were hostages and Gogoji was in immense pressure to get the Diamonds from Amar-Prem. And all the people were confused deciding who is real Teja (Paresh Rawal).
Gogoji makes this situation very entertaining saying, “Ye Teja-Teja kya hai, Ye Teja-Teja“.
Gogoji is very easy to please personality. Amar easily pleased him by saying, “Gogoji aap budhhiman hain, shaktimaan hain, Gyani hain, Bahut bade swami hain… Dayalu hain, Mayalu hain.. Balki mein to yahan tak kahunga ki aap Purush hi nahin hain… errrr Mahapurush hain, Mahapurush“. But on the other hand, he is clever man, he understands the line (“Balki mein to Purush hi nahin hun“) and come to know that he is being tricked by Amar, he point the revolver on Amar, and asks him to hand over the Diamonds, to get the access to girls [Gogoji to Prem: “Tum jante ho meri maa kya kehti thi, wo kehti thi ki beta Gogo, pehle maal le.. fir maal de… Pehle Heere lunga, fir ladkiyan dunga“].
It seems that Hollywood blockbuster Matrix, followed Gogoji style. The way he and Prem fights in “Andaaz apna apna“, inspired many Hollywood movies to do so.
Gogoji has delivered many legendary speeches, and few of them are more popular than Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech. At the end when, Amir was flaunting his style (“Yaaa Jhakkkkaaaassss, Shabash mere cheete, shabasshhh!!!”) and wasted the last bullet of Gogoji’s revolver, Gogoji deliveres the legendery line, “Thakki tiki, Thakki tiki, Thakki tiki, Thakki tiki, Thakki tiki, Thakki tiki…. Thaaaan…. Ismein ek hi goli thi”, when he says “Ismein ek hi goli thi“, see his attitude. The way he raises his eyebrows, he took the attitude miles ahead from “The Rock – Dwyane Johnson” or “Rihana” in “Love the way you lie” song.
The Best speech he has ever delivered is, “Ankhein nikal ke goti khelunga.. Goti…” [I will play marbles with your eyeballs].
5) Gogoji is an opponent of Teja, because Teja never returned the 36,000 INR he has asked from him. Bad luck never left Gogoji. When all the crew members were busy looting the “fake” diamonds, we can find him saying to his crew, “mujhe mat maro, mein tumhara boss hun Gogo” plus he can be seen in very frustrating situation when he says “Aaaaaaaaannnn….sab mujhe maar rahe hain..“. In the end when after Teja > Bhalla > and Robert (Galti se mistake ho gaya fame), Gogo gets access to the diamonds, police raids and seize them. But even in this crushing situation Gogoji seems in no tension and delivers the superb speech, “Hath ko aaya, muh na laga“. Moreover, he can be found asking favor from the cop saying, “Tiwari, mere doobe hue 36 hazaar Rupaye to dilwa de” [Tiwari! please help me getting back my 36,000 Rs. from Teja].
So this was my observation on Gogoji, although his legendary character cannot be described totally in such a small post, I tried my level best the way I see him.
Birds Eye View 