I just watched Coolie No. 1 on youtube, without subtitles, and at triple speed. So I pretty much know everything, I think. I’ll just have to rely on you to fill in the little things like “who is that second hero?”
Knowing the basic set up (coolie manual laborer tricks a rich girl into marrying him), and watching this super fast without subtitles, I think I still actually got a lot of it!
Govinda is a coolie, good at his job, proud of his job, to the point of saving the life of a customer who is about to be crushed. He is also looking to get married but keeps getting rejected because of his job (I think). He has a relative who is a sleazy marriage broker. He finds a good prospect for a client and is rejected and humiliated because the client wants someone even richer. In anger, he decides to take the two men (the real prospect and the poor coolie) to the house, but with the real prospect pretending to just be a driver and Govinda pretending to be rich.
IMPORTANT POINT. On the way to the house, the two sisters (Karisma and someone else) meet the two men (Govinda and the other dude) and the couples fall in love at first sight immediately. From then on, all the tricks and so on happen with the understanding that Karisma really wants to marry Govinda and doesn’t care about money, and vice versa. It’s not about Govinda stealing her money, or Karisma wanting a rich husband, it is about the two of them trying to make this thing happen while everyone around them is thinking about money.
Anyway, Karisma’s family is convinced that Govinda is super rich and makes the marriage happen. Govinda and Karisma leave together and now somehow he has to explain to her that he is poor without wanting to make her think the whole relationship was fake. So Govinda goes to a mansion and fakes a fight with his fake rich father culminating in him declaring he doesn’t want anything from him. With the support of Karisma, Govinda goes off and gets a job as a Coolie and a small apartment (really the job he already had and place he already had). They are still super happy and in love together.
But then, new complication! Karisma’s family starts to get suspicious, and Govinda’s family wants him to end the marriage and take a pay out (I think). Anyway, Govinda then has to start a new con in order to stay happily married to Karisma. In the end, they prove their true devotion to each other and are left alone to be happily married with Govinda still working as a Coolie.
I know I missed a ton of stuff, please please fill me in on stuff!!!!
But I am really hoping that I am right on Govinda and Karisma falling in love at first sight, Karisma being happy after marriage even though Govinda has “lost his money”, and Govinda standing up for the marriage and not wanting to end it for a pay out. Because that’s the golden part of the story, that they are surrounded by all these people looking at the marriage as a money transaction, but the two of them are running all these cons so they can just get married, and who cares about the money!
If so, the remake could be something really fun. Let the heroine be even more involved this time, keep the idea that the hero wants to marry her because he is in love and doesn’t care at all about the money, and most of all keep the ending where they are still married and he is still working as a Coolie and happy.
dontcallitbollywood 
The second hero is Harish, he worked in one of the south industries and Karisma’s debut film was with him as the hero. I don’t remember all the details but he was Govinda’s friend from the beginning and not the real prospect (who never shows up again). I’m not sure whether you realized that Govinda pretends he has a twin brother who works as a coolie because Kader Khan sees him working at the bus station. Kader becomes determined to marry his other daughter (who’s in love with Harish) to the twin, so he can get two rich sons-in-law. That’s what causes all the confusion and mayhem in the later half. It ends with Govinda saving the life of his fake father, who in gratitude adopts Govinda as his son and leaves him his property. I’m surprised I remember all this!
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I’m surprised you remember all this too! But thank you, that twin thing is indeed a big twist and very important.
Am I right that Karisma is told Govinda lost all his money and is totally fine being the wife of a Coolie? So even though he lies to her a little bit (about ever having been rich), in the end she is happy with what he is?
On Thu, Dec 24, 2020 at 7:58 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yes, Karishma is generally happy through the movie…but doesn’t really have any dialogues so it’s kinda hard to really “know her”…she just seemed to be happy, giggling, and dancing throughout the movie…anything her father or Govinda said to her she was fine with it…
Oh, and there was the whole abortion bit as well….Karishma younger sister loves Govinda’s friend and she becomes pregnant…father wants the younger sister to marry the Govinda twin (who doesn’t exist!) so he takes the girl to get an abortion…Govinda shows up in the hospital in drag as a nurse and saves the girl and the baby….it was super bizarre but also really funny…and pretty progressive for a 90s movie to show premarital sex where the couple is not ashamed/guilty.
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Whoa! I wondered what that drag bit was! that’s insane
On Thu, Dec 24, 2020 at 9:03 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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This whole bit is true.
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What Shreyans said!
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Yes and then he pretends the twin brother is a goon or something? There’s a reason for the unbearable voice part. This is the part beyond the part I can sit through, so I am not sure.
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No, just that he became a coolie to spite their father. Well, they had to differentiate them and that’s the voice they went with 😀
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lol that voice choice is one of my few beefs with Govinda.
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I told you not to watch it without subtitles!
Okay so yes, Karisma doesn’t care who he is or what he does, she just loves him, and she doesn’t really care about living somewhere poor. I don’t think he really explains to her that he is poor though which is one of my beefs with the movie, but it’s not like she is a person in this movie so eh.
The second half is very ??? to me because I only managed to get through it once. What shreyans said is right, but I don’t remember the details of the twin brother plot. Like they pretend he is his own twin brother who is a coolie but also a goon? Or something? There’s a reason he has that voice I can’t stand and wears terrible shirts.
Anyway this is why I thought they can’t do a straight remake of it, because it’s too subversive. What did you think of it?
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Also, I really hope you watched the songs at normal speed at least. You can say a lot about this movie but the songs were good and also really, really influential, plus a good dance performance from both of them.
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I did watch the songs at normal speed!
On Thu, Dec 24, 2020 at 10:26 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Hooray!
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I couldn’t find it with subtitles!!!!! It’s on Eros Now Prime, but most of those don’t have subs and I wasn’t going to pay Prime any more money for something without subs. Outside of Prime, einthusan and youtube and everywhere just had it sub-less.
anywho, that’s why I have y’all! To tell me what I missed.
So far as I can tell from the promos, the whole second male and female lead thing is dropped. So I’m gonna guess they will streamline it to be just fake rich boy marries rich girl, then is a coolie, then lies to her father that he is his own twin to cover up his fake persona. And I would LOVE if the heroine is even more involved in the con than before. Keep the idea that the heroine is just in love and happy and doesn’t care, but make her more involved and aware in the plot.
On Thu, Dec 24, 2020 at 10:23 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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That seems like a good way to simplify it and also make it slightly less subversive. I wonder about the trick part and what they will do to that. They cut out a lot on the whole so what are they going to put instead of that?
(also boo the drag bit is one of the only good bits!)
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I mean, you can always find an excuse for Drag! Have Varun play his own sister or something, for comedy.
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You know, that would be a twist I would like. But I don’t think it will happen, because he does the voice I can’t stand too in the trailer.
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The trailer does show Varun in drag in the nurse costume…so they have kept that bit in!
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I saw Shikha Talsania in the trailer, pretty sure that means the second lead thing is there.
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Will you be watching AK vs AK?
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