Golmal/ Golmaal meaning

Golmaal means a deceptive situation, with generally some amount of confusion involved.

The title song of Hrishikesh Mukerjee's Golmaal, 'Golmaal hai bhai sab golmaal hai,' would make it easier to understand as it says in the very second line: 'seedhe raste ki ye tedhi hi chaal hai' meaning it's a straight looking path but it works quite zigzag.