TO DO COMEDY IS HEROIC INDEED!
Recently SRK made a statement something to the effect ,on a news channel that a hero with a good comedy sense and comic timing makes him a complete actor. This may be interpreted as SRK’s hint of doing a comedy film in near future. It could also be interpreted as his back-handed kudos to himself for possessing such a comic timing. With his modest and self-deprecatory manner notwithstanding, it has to be admitted that he is one amongst many who can handle comedy quite well.
His remark set me thinking.How many of our heroes of past and present could fit this label of completeness.
In decades gone by when the trio of Dilip Kumar,Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand used to rule the marquee, though Dilip Kumar was crowned as the tragedy king, he had remarkable comic streak that shone through movies like Ram Aur Shyam,Bairaag and of late in Saudaagar where his scene on the river bed, babbling and blabbering about his friendship-gone-sour with Raaj Kumar is simply fantastic. Dev Anand was more of a lover boy,romantic hero and flamboyance personified. It was Raj Kapoor indeed who though not much appreciated for his histrionic skills, had made a career out of caricaturing and imitating Charlie Chaplin’s mannersims. Still I feel Raj Kapoor had remarkable facial flexibility to portray and perform any emotion.
Then there was the inimitable Kishore Kumar who was virtually a one-man army.He was supposed to be not only a king-of-comedy but a great comic in real life also. His pranks are legendary.Now these were heroes and not comedians who had a real funny bone. But one cannot overlook two comedians who did hero’s job also. Johnny Walker and his protege Mehmood. It is said that there was a time in sixties and seventies when audiences thronged the cinema halls just because of them(Johnny Walker, I doubt whether he came as a hero in any film but Mehmood certainly did).
And then we had Sanjeev Kumar who could essay any role with ease. His performances in Angoor and Pati,Patni aur Woh are treat to watch for his comic timing. Dharmendra is no less. From his garam-dharam image he really surprised his fans and audiences in general with his performances in Chupke-Chupke,Pratigaya and of course Sholay!
But in Chupke-Chupke itself sparks of a comic artiste-par-excellence Amitabh Bachchan were seen. He came into his own with a fantastic performance in Amar,Akbar,Anthony. From that time onwards there was no looking back. Thereafter, it became a trend to incorporate one drunkard scene in almost every film of Big B. Infact,Mehmood is said to have once jokingly remarked that Amitabh Bachchan killed comedians employment( unki rozi-roti pe laat maar di). Because in Bollywood masala movies one comedy track was generally incorporated(like Shakespeare’s clowns).It was basically to relieve the tedium and relax the audiences. This job Big B took on himself and what a job he did! He is still going great guns.
Of late the comedian has staged a comeback especially from mid-nineties where Johnny Lever became the leading mascot. Of course then there has been Shakti Kapoor who turned from villainy to buffoonery in most of his appearances in David Dhawan’s film. It is a commentary on the times gone by whereby audiences lapped up and enjoyed such crassness and crudity also. But I think audiences tolerated it because it was balanced by remarkable comic timing of Govinda. Yes in nineties he ruled the roost as a comic hero and could easily give Big B run for money..Watch Bade Miyan Chhote Miyan!
There have been few surprises as well. Akshay Kumar has improved a lot in his comic timing and no more jars while doing comedy. Another one is Sanjay Dutt. With his Munnabhai act he has tickled millions of hearts(though, in my opinion,to extract that kind of performance credit goes a lot to the characterisation and direction also). One hero who has very good comedy sense is Aamir Khan. With his Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin, Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke,Andaaz Apna Apna,Rangeela and Rang De Basanti acts he needs no validation.
Watching Andaaz Apna Apna,one can’t overlook Salman Khan. He may not be great in comedy but he is funny in his sweet and charming way. To an extent Saif Ali is quite cool with comedy. One hero who could not achieve star status but to me is few of complete actors is- Nasseeruddin Shah.
Now few questions to mull over. Does it really matter what SRK said about completeness of a hero. Is comedy so important an ingredient for a hero?What if Hero does not pass muster? What about our action heroes,dancing stars and heroes that excelled in drama and emotions? Can their contribution be mitigated just because they did not measure up to such a yardstick?
More than Bollywood, if one focuses a spotlight on Hollywood heroes,do they pass this test? From John Waynne, Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson,Sean Connery,Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwaznegger,Van Damme,Steven Segal to Mel Gibson Bruce Willis,Pierce Brosnan,Brad Pitt, Russel Crowe or Tom Cruise(to list few of them at random) are they less of heroes and actors just because they are not in the mould of say Charlie Chaplin,Marx Brothers, Jerry Lewis, Burt Reynolds, Peter Sellers et al?
Is it an unusual craving of Bollywood Heroes to be Harfanmoullahs(all-rounders)? Or do the masses in our country have this bizarre demand to be-all from their matinee-idols? Whatever it may, one thing is for sure- to make people laugh is no laughing matter indeed?
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
“One hero who could not achieve star status but to me is few of complete actors is- Nasseeruddin Shah.”
I think Boman irani also fits the bill
“Akshay Kumar has improved a lot in his comic timing”.
Akshay Kumar’s comic timing has always been good. To prove that watch his early comic roles for eg: Suhaag, Waqt Hamara hai, Aflatoon, Mr & Mrs Khiladi.
“He may not be great in comedy”
I like Salman Khan’s comedy also very much. He was great in all the David Dhawan movies he had acted in.
“One hero who could not achieve star status but to me is few of complete actors is- Nasseeruddin Shah”
Naseeruddin Shah was the superstar of parallel cinema. He achieved star status in commercial cinema through his comic roles in Tridev, Hero Hiralal, etc.
For me Sanjay Dutt’s best comedy film is Thanedaar.
Remember the dialogue Naseerudin Shah had said in “Tehelka”.
“Kya mein art ka hero jaise dikhta hun….. Mein commercial film ka hero banke dikhaunga”.
And he did it.
saif is also very good in comedy, his dances and comic timing are the two things which i liked most in his early days…
srk imitates and makes faces which i do not like much, but he is also fine
thr r many good comic actors in indian cinema, we can’t name them all..
but govinda is one hero who made comic hero roles popular in the 90’s
it’s because the “comedy track” went thru a phase of gradual elimination that talented people like johnny lever don’t do films anymore. that’s right.. i said “talented” and “johnny lever” in the same sentence. this guy is a comic genius, IMO.. whatever he did, he did with full heart and dedication. he was a director’s actor from the early days on. sure, he was typecasted, but that’s just how the industry operated in those days, and even now, he only comes out for an occasional priyadarshan-styled comedy like “phir hera pheri”. which is why i’m all the more glad that “johnny ala re” did so well on TV while it was on. this guy was one gem that just never got his due, unfortunately.
most of you have mentioned actors but actresses. i would like to see Ayeshia Takia do a proper comedy film – I think she would nail it. She was brilliantly funny in Socha Na Tha and Home Delivery without trying to be funny. :x
I havent seen any Hindi Actress with better comic timing than Juhi Chawla and yet not over-act….Konkona needs to do more of those to prove me wrong.
There are a few more missing would post it next month when I get hold of my notes :-) :
Aga
Ali Baba
Anup Kumar
Asit Sen
B B Bhalla (Bharat Bhooshan)
Babu Raze
Bhagwan
Bhuddo Adwani
Birju
Brahmachari
Brij Mohan
Chunnu Munnu
Dalda
Damu Anna Malwankar
Deepak
Deven Verma
Dhanna
Dhumal
Dilip Dutt
Dinkar Shantaram
Dnarvada Shankar
Etiquette Singh
Funny
Ganesh Solanki
Genius
Gopal Sehgal
Gope
Gopraj
Haarun
I S Johar
Indian Charlie
Indra Bansal
Irshad Panjtan
Jagdip
Jankidas
Jayant Shah
Jerry Joker
Johnny Walker
Johnny Whisky
Jugnu
Kamal Mehra
Kamar Amrohi
Kesari
Keshto Mukherji
Keval Mishra
Khairati
Kumud Tripathi
Lotan
Madhu Apte
Majnu
Manorama
Maruti
Mauji Singh
Mehmood
Mirajkar
Mirza Musharraf
Mohan Choti
Monto
Mukri
Munshi Munakka
Om Prakash
Paachhi
Paasha
Parshuram
Pitu Banerjee
Polson
Raj Kishore
Raja Gosavi
Raja Pandit
Rajdoot
Rajendranath
Ram Avtar
Ram Phani
Ram Raseela
Ramrikh Manhar
Rashid Khan
Ratan Gaurang
Ridku Ram
Saajan
Saiyyad
Savita Chatterjee
Shah
Shaikh
Shehzadi
Shubha Khote
Shyamlal
Sudeep Kumar
Sunder
Surendra Shah
Tuntun
V Gopal
Vanmala