Lost Humor

Filmfare awards (The biggest awards in Hindi Film Industry, because of its legacy) did away with few traditional categories of awards this year. ‘Best Actor in a Comic Role’ was one such category. Surprised? I was! Because last year saw release of some big comic capers (Welcome), romantic comedies (Jab We Met) and no brainers (Dhol, Dhamaal) and most of them were fairly successful too.

So what happened? I am trying to unravel the reasons which seem most plausible to me right now. I believe there has been a change in way movies are written these days. In movies of yore, there was always a comic track running parallel to the main plot of the story. This was done because main plot was generally hackneyed and actors were so wooden that they felt comfortable emoting pain and hurt only or doing action sequences using body doubles. (Of course this is not true for miniscule good movies which released in 80’s and 90’s). Also main story line was generally boring, so film makers used to add some entertainment by injecting these comic tracks. The actors in these comic tracks were generally considered non hero material, though some of them have actually become legends. Who can forget Mehmood, whose on screen antics were much more watchable than the movie itself? People would flock to watch his movies and not really the hero. I have read somewhere that he was paid more than heroes too. I think the last famous comedian to be part of such comic tracks was Johnny Lever. His acts in movies like Baazigar are still remembered fondly.

But with better and original stories being written, this genre of comic tracks died its natural death. Also emerged good looking comic actors like Akshay Kumar and even Govinda was liked by masses. And full fledged genre of comedies also became commercially viable. So every hero wanted his share of pie. I sometimes feel that Amol Palekar and Farooque Shaikh were born in a wrong era. If they were to do the roles they did in their times, today, they would have been billionaires. Now these add on comic tracks have become an oddity and audiences generally don’t warm up to them. Few years back Filmfare started giving best actor in comic role awards to heroes of the movies. Govinda won one of those. Instead of accepting it as a sign of appreciation, they thought it was some kind of slur on their career or may be they were scared of being typecast. But I don’t see any comedy’s hero getting a best actor award in near future, which is easily possible in Academy Awards. This is because, we Indians consider emotional and weepy; loud and over the top performances as real acting. We think comedy is for wannabes! Sanjay Leela Bhansali would never make one! But I consider David Dhawan as great a film maker as SLB. What if his movies don’t go to Cannes? They made us laugh….

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