Laughter is the Best Medicine
So they say and films with a humorous plot normally do well. I say normally since it all depends on how the director has handled the actors, and even more important, whether the humour is really tickling the mind or the body.
The early history of cinema is full of “funny films” what with Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy riding the crest of the wave. With talkies, came the Marx Brothers and slapstick moved on to a different level. Grucho with his appearance and delivery tone still raises a laugh, one good reason why Nights at the Opera is still a hit.
Discussing Chaplin and his contemporaries would be meaningless as they are the immortals and there is nothing one can add to their performances.
The question is what kind of humour works: Intelligent humour? Intellectual humour or plain body tickle? And how dependent are we on the director or the actor – may be even the script writer, to generate that laugh. But before that, is comedy only to do with laughter? Or a feel good? Or the happy appreciation? It is said that some actors, and I am taking a few contemporary examples, are good comedians without being labeled as a comedian. Actors like Abhishek Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan and Ritesh Deshmukh. On the other hand, Mukri, Johnny Walker, Mehmood were comedians, at least they were cast perpetually in a comic role. Many of these “funny” actors were way beyond just being “comedians”. The perfect example we have is Utpal Dutt. True many Hindi film lovers know him for a laugh a minute in Golmaal and similar films and I wonder how would they have reacted if they saw the very same Utpal Dutt on stage!
Peter Sellers could create hilarious moments with a straight face, often appearing to be idiotic and create a laugh riot as he did in the Pink Panther series. Every time Inspector Clouseau appeared on the screen the audience got ready to fall off the seat.
Mr Bachchan too, they say has a great timing sense and has made us roll in the theatre hall. Sober and drunk!
Rowland Atkinson appears to be a perpetual idiot who keeps making blunders and refuses to stop even when his audiences can’t take it anymore. Atkinson is a Fellow of The Queen’s College, Oxford, a political activist and a car enthusiast. His thesis for his Masters in Electrical Engineering was all about application of self tuning control.
However, it is the mind of the director which matters and you will notice that great comedians also perform better when under the supervision of people like Sai Paranjpe ( Saeed Jaffrey in Chasme Buddoor, for instance) and Basu Chatterjee, who had mastered the craft of making light hearted films.We recently lost Rishi Kapoor and Irfan Khan, both of whom were versatile and could make you tickle with a straight face. Notice, all their “comic” films had a strong director.
What is the state of comedy today? Not many English films come to my mind, and Hindi cinema is more dependent on the local environment. Anu Kapur in Vicky Donor is a good example, ordering roadside snacks while Punjabi life in Delhi is a constant source of hilarity.
My personal choice: Tulsi Chakravarty. Never mind if you have not heard of him. As Satyajit Ray had opined about him that if he was born in any other country, he would have won the Oscar! He deserves a blog devoted to him. Maybe someday.
Courtesy : Artpickles