No laughing matter

Derek Bose checks out why not a single rib-tickler has made its mark this year

THE way comedies are bombing at the box office is not funny. While way-out mindless action dramas like Race and Jannat are turning out surprise hits, not a single rib-tickler has made its mark this year. Even serious, issue-based films like Black and White, Shaurya and now, Aamir are finding eager audiences. But nobody seems to notice, let alone remember the names of comedies that are being released, week after week, with unfailing regularity.

The last big hits in this genre were Priyadarshan’s Bhool Bhulaiya and Anees Bazmi’s Welcome, both released in 2007 and powered by Akshay Kumar. So was Sajid Khan’s Heyy Baby, released earlier in the year. But the last real non-star comedy hit was Bheja Fry, a delightful adaptation of the French film Le Diner de cons which had Rajat Kapoor, Vinay Pathak and Ranvir Shorey bumbling about like nobody’s business. That was in April 2007.

Today, all those who took films like Munnabhai MBBS, Golmaal and Hera Pheri as precursors to a ‘new comedy wave’ in Hindi cinema, are wondering what went wrong. It is not as though we lack the talent. From the tried and tested Paresh Rawal and Satish Kaushik to relatively new but competent specialists like Pathak, Rajpal Yadav, Arshad Warsi and Ritesh Deshmukh, there are more full-time funny men around than ever before. Then why is everybody bemoaning the death of comedy in Hindi cinema? Is it too much of a good thing gone bad?

A look at some films released recently would help understand the tragedy that has beset comedies:

Krazzy 4: In this bizarre rip-off from The Dream Team, Irrfan Khan, Rajpal Yadav, Arshad Warsi and Suresh Menon play a motley group of loonies on a mission to rescue their kidnapped doctor (Juhi Chawla) who unwittingly gets drawn into a political power game. From nowhere, Shah Rukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan pop out to perform item numbers (as does Rakhi Sawant) which eventually prove to be film’s main attractions.

Don Muthuswamy: Mithun Chakraborty returns with his famous ‘Krishna Iyer M.A. Narialpaniwala’ act from Agnipath, only that he is now an ageing goon out to reform himself. While he grapples with his Tamilian-Hindi, his daughter (Hrishita Bhatt) is caught between two lovers played by Mohit Rana and Rohit Roy. Enter another girl and what is supposed to be a laugh riot, becomes a completely convoluted exercise in crudity.

Hastey Hastey: Here it is the guy (Jimmy Shergill) who is caught between two girls — one, good (Nisha Rawal) and the other (Monishka), as bad as they come. This so-called romcom has neither romance nor comedy. But the scene-stealer here is Rajpal Yadav who has a triple role here, all as sidekicks of varying ages. If only the director Ramanjit Juneja paid some attention to his job.

Quick Gun Murugun: With characters like Rice Plate Reddy, Gun Powder and Mango Dolly, this is Shashanka Ghosh’s spoof of a Hollywood Western with a South Indian bumpkin (Rajendra Prasad) waging an epic battle on behalf of cows. The adversary is a world conquering restaurant owner wanting to start a chain of outlets serving McDosa with beef stuffing. The larger issue is about vegetarians versus carnivores.

Mere Baap Pehle Aap: This Priyadarshan film takes its title from a young man (Akshaye Khanna) who insists on playing matchmaker for his father (Paresh Rawal), a widower. There is another old man (Om Puri), an inveterate skirt chaser. A young lady (Genelia D’Souza) shows up from London and her guardian (Shobana) turns out to be an old flame of the old widower. The inevitable happens.

This is a sampling of five recent films made in the best tradition of comedies in Indian cinema. Each one is high-spirited and hyper-nutty, bristling with raunchy numbers, visual gags and double entendres, intended to raise a few laughs. In the past, the irreverence of it all struck a chord with the audience. But today, the humour has become so jaded, repetitive and predictable that they do not extract even a chuckle.

The other effect of prolonged exposure to such films is that audiences have learnt to not only differentiate between various sub-genres of comedies (such as slapstick, burlesque, parody, lampoon and deadpan), they can identify comedy hybrids — romantic comedies, comedy thrillers, musical comedies and so on. They have become more mature and discerning.

Comedy is, indeed, serious business. Traditionally, filmmakers counted on two distinct streams — comedian-led (with well-timed gags, jokes and sketches) and situation-led (with strong narrative support). We have had a host of boisterous funsters over the years, from Noor Mohammed Charlie and Gope Kamlani to Rajendranath and Johhny Walker to Kishore Kumar and Mehmood to Johnny Lever. Their sense of timing and quicksilver act provided dramatic relief to serious plot situations and more importantly, sustained a genre of hilarity and good fun in cinema for close to a century.

Amitabh Bachchan upset the applecart when he started playing the monkey in some of his films. Gradually, the good old funsters were edged out and situation-led comedies took over. Before long, every hero came up with (often irritating and unnecessary) comic capers and some like Govinda and Akshay Kumar began concentrating on playing the comic hero with astonishing success.

The current trend of screwball comedies is an extension of that phase with all actors — be it Sanjay Dutt or Salman Khan, Ajay Devgan or Saif Ali Khan — expected to match their histrionic skills with a sense of comic timing. Some like Paresh Rawal and Om Puri changed tracks from villainy to comedy. And then, there is always the new generation of specialist comedians like Rajpal Yadav, Vijay Raaz, Vinay Pathak, Arshad Warsi, Suresh Menon.

All this has put scriptwriters under tremendous pressure. For a while everybody took the easy way out by flogging sexually-loaded jokes and erotic fantasies in the guise of comedies. It suited frothy entertainers and skin flicks like Masti, Neal ‘n’ Nikki and No Entry, which were low on costs and high on returns. But for how long can you keep regurgitating the same old stuff? Audiences want variety. And when it does not come, they look elsewhere. Sadly, this is the truth about comedies that no filmmaker or scriptwriter, is prepared to acknowledge. They will not admit to running out of steam. They would rather blame the public for lacking a sense of humour.

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