Contemporary Tamil Comedy- Guilty Pleasures
I am currently in Chennai. There is now a new TV channel called ‘Adithya’ which screens clips of many comic scenes in contemporary Tamil movies.
‘It’s time pass’, says mum.
I think it’s a huge symbolic victory for the current comic track in many Tamil movies. I remember when the trend started with Janakaraj, Senthil and Goundamani with their physical comedy couple of decades ago, Tam Brahms like my Mom declared unambiguous revulsion towards such scenes and remembered fondly the days of Nagesh in movies when comedy was comedy.
Many of you will recognize this clip. The Hindi movie had Mehmood and Om Prakash in this scene.
But after a couple of decades the now omnipresent comedy track in Tamil movies has seeped into the popular consciousness.
‘It’s time pass’, says mum.
Now wait a second. I have never been against these guys. I have always, well…mostly, well…more often than not, found them entertaining and have partaken of the guilty pleasure which comes with the territory.
The formula is pretty much straightforward. The comedian is in a position where either he or another person (could be another comedian) makes an Uproariously Funny and Self-Righteous Argument (UFASRA). The other side would briefly try and explain matters within reason till they lose patience and the first guy gets ‘beat’. There could be slight variations from the main theme but this is pretty much it.
But beyond the brickbats they receive within and without the movie, there are some aspects which never get highlighted enough.
Acting talent- They possess it. Sometimes they overshadow the ‘hero’ and anybody else around them in the scene. All of them excel in the most important few expressions-
The ‘What the fuck?! ‘ look- This look is mostly seen when they are faced with an UFASRA made by either another comedian or by someone ‘who is about to get beat’.
The ‘In Deep Shit’ look- This look is seen when the comedian who has made the UFASRA realizes that his case doesn’t hold water and that he is going to get ‘beat’.
The Melodramatic Spoof- In this typically the comedian has an inspirational or a melodramatic speech a la made by past and present superstars. Except the reaction in most cases involves him getting ‘beat’.
Stereotyped- It’s very tough for these comedians to move into authentic supporting actor roles. As they became popular, they have become the victims of their own success and continue doing the same thing again and again. As an artiste, I am sure there would be some levels of frustration in not being taken seriously for meatier roles. In that respect, their case in not dissimilar from the many three song + three scene ‘heroines’ in many south Indian movies.
Trend- There are other matters to think about. Why is this trend restricted to Tamil and Telugu movies only? I am not sure of Malayalam and Kannada movies but the separate comedy track in Hindi movies is now rarely seen.
Social Relevance- What are the social undercurrents which lie in the root of this basic premise? Is it because in today’s age when everybody is trying to get ahead, we are always envious of our neighbors, friends and relatives who move ahead in life and we would probably like nothing better in our fantasies than to bring them down to our level and give them a ‘Ek Do Haath? Is that what is represented in an exaggerated manner which causes us enough merriment? The ‘oversmart’ guy is always the one to get ‘beat’. How dare he?!
The clip below showcases Vadivelu, who is one of the top comedians now in Tamil movies. The scene starts with a crowd chasing to beat him up. A sympathetic hero stops them and asks for a justification. That is when Vadivelu makes his UFASRA helped by cues from the chasing party. A couple of delightful puns later, realization dawns on the sympathetic hero who gives Vadivelu the ‘What the fuck’ look. Watch out for the ‘In Deep Shit’ look by Vadivelu. Soon the inevitable happens. Also to note here that the joke is on the ‘brahmin mami’ who is a very popular ridiculing figure from a social perspective.
The clip below showcases the very famous or infamous (depending on which side you are on) Senthil and Goundamani. The sequence starts with the Melodramatic Spoof; Goundamani making a passionate speech till it is revealed that his audience is a herd of donkeys. Senthil then proceeds to make an UFASRA which leaves Goundamani dumbstruck. He tries to extricate himself from the situation but Senthil is persistent. The inevitable follows.
The clip below is a very interesting variant. It features Vivek who is also one of the top comedians and typically represents the urban wannabe character. The clip starts with him making fun of a traditional ritual of a truck driver. As the truck driver responds, Vivek launches into the UFASRA which causes much merriment even to the truck driver’s helper. In impotent anger the truck driver stabs his helper. Vivek suddenly realizes that he is In Deep Shit and mortal danger and slinks away.
Funny, not funny? You decide.
Tags: Comedy, Goundamani, Nagesh, Senthil, Tamil, Vadivelu, Vivek
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Nice compilation and write up – however I am skeptical that you can sum up a phenomenon like goundamani and sendhil into such a package. The ‘track’ for comedy has been there even in nagesh days. My cousin and myself used to collect vigorously the ’sound tracks’(just audio) of popular thamizh comedy tracks of Thangavelu in Kalyana parisu and other golden tracks including the ‘Banana’ track in Karagaattakkaaran. Then we proceeded to train our mimicry cells in brain so much that many people forgot what our real voices were. This trend we found out later is not some affliction of just us – an entire generation has been mesmerised by these awesome comedy tracks (in many movies they are the only segments worth watching) that there are programs like ‘Kalakka povadhu yaaru’ in Vijay TV with people who made it a profession out of what we used to do for fun in a family get together.
@ D&C- the clips you’ve choosen are good.But I think the phenomenon has been there to be seen & believed for ages.Be it Goundamani-Senthil days or the current Vivek-Vadivelu period, appreciation & dedicated set of fans have always been there.I am not mentioning Thangavelu,Nagesh,Chandrababu,Surlirajan,Thengai Srinivasan etc here because the sensisbilities in those days was quite different.If Nagesh could become a hero then, Vivek or Vadivelu are doing it now.And all tamil channels including Sun TV & Kalaignar TV the 2 leading channels dedicate a lot of airtime to such comedy scenes.Yes the trend is more or less a phenomenon restricted to Tamil & Telugu and to some extent Malayalam.What I like about Telugu & Malayalam is that you can see almost the entire set of comedians ( Telugu notably- Brahmanandam,Venu Madhav,Ali,Sunil,M.S.Narayana,Dharmavarapu etc and Malayalam- Jagathy,Salim Kumar,Harisree Ashokan,Indrans etc) in a single movie if required.Sadly Vivek & Vadivelu due to their egos cannot work with each other anymore,sad but true.
Is Vadivelu the same guy who has been receiving death threats by actor Vijay??
I might’ve got it wrong, but I read something like that…
Jai- I know the comedy track has existed for ages.In fact earlier it used be more frequent in Hindi movies as well. I have tried to draw a distinction between the comedy of earlier ages to the formulaic comedy of today, obviously focussing a lot more on the recent trends.
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Sethu- I think the reals stars are the writers behind their jokes. It’s sad that Vadivelu and Vivek can’t work together because they wouldn’t be much without their lines. Do they write their own comedy by any chance?
Comedy in Tamil cinema often comes under criticism for not gelling with the narrative, for being obtrusive. I hate the bloody concept of a separate comedy track but the mass audiences seem to love it. In a lot of places in the world, we don’t necessarily take too kindly to the concept of relief. We want intensity maintained in our cinema. But in commercial Tamil cinema, a story can only remain intense to a certain point. And thats where comedy comes in. It’s like a variety show. Call it the commercial break, as if you’re watching a movie on TV.
These comedians make more money than most heroes, especially the top guns, many of whom charge anywhere between Rs. 5-8 lakhs per day of shooting. They have their own writing team, who have a good grasp of what audiences expect from them, and write accordingly. The director often sits aside during the filming of these scenes, and the comedian’s team takes over. They even supervise the editing and dubbing of the scenes. Some comedians are notorious for changing entire lines, jokes etc during dubbing, if they feel the humor isnt working, not giving a shit about sync or logic.
While some filmmakers like to blend the comedy into the narrative, try to do combinations with the movie’s cast etc, top comedians are often against it. If the hero is a big star, they may accept. If not, they demand their own separate track that has NOTHING to do with the story.
Comedy in Tamil cinema is the bane of a lot of contemporary filmmakers’ existence. Commercial pressures force them to include it, often ruining the class of their films.
But you cannot dispute the popularity of these comedic tracks. There are TV channels dedicated to playing these things 24/7.
Steve- Yes Vadivelu is the guy.But the threat is actually from the supporters of Vijaykanth & not Vijay.Vijaykanth is now also into politics these days
D&C- I’m not sure about Vadivelu but Vivek certainly used to write his own lines earlier for movies like Vaali.Actually it was this aspect which helped him come into prominence.Nowadays both Vadivelu & Vivek are known to employ teams of writers & as Vijay pointed out these guys are usually highly paid ( mostly on a daily basis).
@Vijay – Good directors like Bala never had the need for a comedy track anyways.
However you cannot deny the fact that in many of the movies, comedy tracks are the only salvagable assets and hence a minimum guarantee from a producer’s POV
Some of the tracks are absolutely rip roaring and I wonder what would happen if the tracks were made as a short film by itself. It is another thing that a comedy short film is not ‘distributable’ in the conventional manner.
Some times when the main movie is good, the comedy track sits up like a sore thumb like the early Mani ratnam movies and Vasanth’s Keladi Kanmani – The tracks by themselves were funny and good – yet they kinda made a mess of the main movie.
Vijay- So I guess no separate comedy track in your movie…?!
D&C- Crazy Mohan is the writer of Vijay’s movie.So obviously it must be a light entertainer & won’t have a seperate comedy track.
Vijay- correct me if I’m wrong.
the last movie had a horrendous separate comedy track by Karunas. Of course we chopped it off including a song for the festival cut, which was how we wanted it anyway.
the new one titled “Kola Kolaya Mundhirika” is an out and out comedy, so no separate track or anything. No logic, only magic.
Is Johnny Lever out of work?
@ bad- why this question about Johny Lever here when we are discussing comedy in Tamil cinema here?anyways to answer your question Johny Lever was recently seen in a good role in Dhoondte Reh Jaoge !!!
These comedy clips are shown on most the Tamil channels these days. The ones you’ve put here are brief and bearable ones as compared to most which are double entendre n such insinuation types…Nagesh was in a different league but the Goundamani Senthil track often borders on vulgar jokes and @ the Social Releve as you’ve rightly put in…At times these are too much to bear…
One of the funniest comedy tracks in Tamil cinema, is from Thiruvilayadal. That AP Nagarajan and Nagesh could incorporate comedy in such a film while staying true to the film is a testament to their brilliance.
Goundamani and sendhil comedy are not for everyone. With the right context Goundamani’s loud mouthed out bursts carry deeper philosophical meanings and extreme hip pain producing laughters.
“deeper philosophical meanings?? Goundamani? Senthil?? What are you smoking bro? You should always share!
“hip pain producing laughters”…to each his own on that one. The only movie where I found Goundamani and Senthil genuinely funny was Gentleman.
bad- Good point. I guess Johnny Lever is probably the last surviving comedian in Hindi Cinema who has his own ‘track’ in movies sometimes.
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Arthi- I agree with you. Yes, I wanted to keep the clips short in this post so that people don’t lose patience watching them. Why don’t you do a YouTube search and show us one which you found vulgar and disgusting? Am sure not a very attractive assignment for you but purely for analytical purpose…
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Ravi K- Do share the url of the comedy scene from the movie if you find it online.
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Jaiganesh- Share the urls of the clip which you found to contain ‘deeper philosophical meanings’!
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Vijay- Am sure Arthi here would have found the Gentlemen comedy track vulgar…remember Tikilona?!
Dont forget couplings!
It was vulgar throughout but funny. Nowadays, the tracks are just vulgar. The comedy is nowhere to be seen.