Surfeit of silliness

While many out-and-out comic romps have clicked at the boxoffice, in the mad rush to cash in on the mood of the market, quality has often been a casualty, writes Saibal Chatterjee

Humour pays. Hence comedy is one Bollywood genre that has kept the box office buzzing of late. In the wake of the super success of Rajkumar Virani’s Munnabhai M.B.B.S., a film that struck a fine balance between hilarity and emotional depth, many out and out comic romps have pulled the crowds in.

There is, however, a flip side to the seemingly happy tale. In the mad rush to cash in on the mood of the market, quality has inevitably been the biggest casualty. From the entertaining Munnabhai to the insufferable Pyare Mohan, the genre has got mutilated beyond recognition.

Genuine comic romps, no matter how goofy they are, certainly aren’t always easy to make, but they do have a way of sending everyone home in a happy frame of mind. Should that be the only reason for every Tom, Dick and Harry in Bollywood to give the act of tickling the funny bone a shot?

Priyadarshan, a past master at the comic game, has a track record, as does the irrepressible David Dhawan. As for the rest, the Indra Kumars of the world, the less said the better.

It sure is getting crowded out there. Priyadarshan’s Malamaal Weekly is still running in certain sectors. Dhawan’s Shaadi No 1 and Satish Kaushik’s first-ever all-out comedy, Shaadi Se Pehle, haven’t done quite as well though.

Indra Kumar’s Pyare Mohan, starring Viveik Oberoi and Fardeen Khan, and Deepak Tijori’s Tom Dick and Harry have also been released.

With numerous other comedies in the pipeline, Bollywood is flirting with the danger of being swamped by an excess of lunacy. In the bid to make audience roll over in laughter, some producers are pushing too far and too fast for their own good. Any good idea has a shelf life. If it is overdone, it can only boomerang on the perpetrators.

Comedy is no longer the preserve of the likes of David Dhawan and Priyadarshan and the genre is poised to move into the big budget space. None other than Subhash Ghai has thrown his weight behind Kaushik, who is known primarily for his emotional and romantic sags. Ghai is, incidentally, also bankrolling Sangeeth Sivan’s Apna Sapna Money Money, a comic film that is expected to hit the screen later this year.

No doubt comedies have enjoyed a great run at the box office lately. With films like Masti, Hungama, Hulchul, Kya Kool Hai Hum, Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya, Mujhse Shaadi Karogi and No Entry having hit the bull’s eye, the urge to make the most of a formula is understandably strong. But the latest comedy to make it to the theatres, Pyare Mohan, is a pale shadow of the comic romps that have gone before. It is pretty clear that the genre is running out of steam.

For one, Indra Kumar’s film does the unpardonable: it seeks to derive fun out of physical disability. One of the film’s heroes is blind, the other is stone deaf. If that makes anybody laugh, it can only be a sad reflection on the audience.

What’s worse, the upcoming Tom Dick and Harry is also about three physically challenged male protagonists. While any judgement on the quality of the film would have to be reserved until its release, the tendency to palm off disability as a source of mirth is rather reprehensible.

For a movie industry that for several decades steadfastly eschewed the purely comic genre, concentrating instead on romantic films, family dramas and action-packed thrillers, the sudden spurt is surprising. It was the success of the David Dhawan-Govinda combination that revived comedies in Bollywood in the 1990s. Even after Govinda went into sharp decline, Dhawan and Priyadarshan continued to churn out laugh riots that were as absurd as they were entertaining.

But of late these two filmmakers have been skating on thin ice. Dhawan’s Shaadi No 1 and Priyadarshan’s Garam Masala did not make much headway. The reason: they lacked the spontaneity of their past films. That is a fact that has been reinforced by the success of Priyadarshan’s subsequent film, Malamaal Weekly. Although the film does not have stars in the conventional sense – the cast is headed by the likes of Om Puri, Paresh Rawal and Rajpal Yadav – it did bumper business.

What Malamaal Weekly proved beyond an iota of doubt is that stars don’t make a comedy. The situations count. Lesser actors tend to ham their way through comedies and that invariably proves counterproductive. There is a world of difference between Paresh Rawal and Fardeen Khan. While the former raises laughs effortlessly, the latter has to struggle to elicit a mild chuckle.

"Group comedies", a genre that is well entrenched in Bollywood today, has outlived its utility. Films like Masti and No Entry, which deal with a bunch of married men seeking to have a bit of fun on the side, are at best laboured comedies that might work once or twice. It’s time Bollywood’s peddlers of comedy saw the writing on the wall before the joke is on them.

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