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With Hera Pheri (2000) turning the tide in favor of very successful comedies that were clean, Hindi cinema moved beyond the increasingly trope-driven, actor-driven and even double-entendre comedies, most of which tended to do lukewarm or poor business. Comedies were often blended with romance and crime, but these genres tended to become much more refined in the millennium. Horror (beginning with the 2007 Bhool Bhulaiyaa) and adult comedy (Masti in 2004) were add-on genres now mixed with laughter.
May 3 is World Laughter Day, created in 1998 by Dr. Madan Kataria from India, founder of the worldwide Laughter Yoga movement. The celebration is a positive manifestation for world peace and is intended to build up a global consciousness of brotherhood and friendship through laughter.
On the occasion, rather than celebrating the crème-de-la-crème (from the 1958 Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi to the 2024 Stree 2) in comedy, I would like to home in on some forgotten but worthwhile comedies. In random order.
Aaj Ki Taaza Khabar (1973). Directed by: Rajendra Bhatia
This marital laugh-riot was based on Mulraj Rajdan’s Gujarati play, Chakdol, whose core idea was later adapted by Rohit Shetty in Golmaal Returns (2008). A husband who is forced to spend the night stranded on a giant-wheel, cooks up the story of an old friend to his suspicious wife, and gives a fictitious address. To his complete befuddlement, a man of that name actually lives in a real address he has cooked up!
Kiran Kumar and Radha Saluja played the leads with Asrani as the ‘friend’ and a scene-stealing turn by I.S. Johar. In an ironic twist, Golmaal Returns, a multi-star film was a huge hit while this film capsized!
Teen Bahuraniyan (1968). Directed by: S.S. Vasan & S.S. Balan
The patriarch of a joint family (Prithviraj Kapoor), is troubled by his three spendthrift daughters-in-law, played by Sowkar Janaki, Kanchana and Jayanthi and his dominated sons (Agha, Rajendranath and Ramesh Deo). A film actress who becomes the family’s neighbor (Shashikala) finally takes on the mantle of teaching the errant women, who spent more than their men’s incomes, a lesson.
While this film was also serious in part, the humor remained clean—a rarity in those days, but it received only a tepid response, and is not taken in the same breath as the classic comedies of that era. It’s biggest hit song, Aamdani Atthanni Kharcha Rupaiya (translating into ‘Spending a rupee when the income is eight annas—the equivalent of half-a-rupee’!), composed by Kalyanji-Anandji and written by Anand Bakshi, was turned into a title for a 2000 flop remade from the same story, with Govinda and Tabu heading the cast.
Madgaon Express (2024). Directed by: Kunal Khemu
Yes, good comic films could still flop as late as 2024! This dark comedy with Divyenndu, Pratik Gandhi and Avinash Tiwary featuring as three friends on a trip to Goa and their enocunters with criminals involved in drugs. Hilarious, including in Kunal Khemu’s outrageous funny cameo, the film has superb repeat value, and Pratik Gandhi was mind-blowing funny. Nora Fatehi was in the female lead.
Honeymoon (1973). Directed by: Hiren Nag
Two besties agree on the ‘fact’ that men cannot be trusted, and dump their current boyfriends and marry someone else who meets with the approval of their parents. Later, on their honeymoons, they both encounter each other and cannot wait to meet the others’ spouse. What happens next is engagingly humorous. Leena Chandvarkar, Anil Dhawan (a top star then, and David Dhawan’s brother) and Nazima headed the cast. Usha Khanna’s hit music has stood the test of time, but the film was a box-office washout.
Ek Kunwari Ek Kunwara (1973). Directed by: Prakash Mehra
Deepak marries a village belle named Tara in secret and leaves her with a promise to return. When Tara finds out she is pregnant, she gets a stroke and loses her voice. Subsequently, a son is born, and she leaves for Mumbai to look for Deepak. Deepak will not have anything to do with her now, and Tara abandons the child in a cab, but the child ends up with Deepak’s sister, Neela. And chaos reigns as the child ends up with Deepak even though he keeps trying to get rid of it!
Leena Chandavarkar again and Rakesh Roshan headed the cast with Pran as Deepak. The film did not do well, but Kalyanji-Anandji’s music worked big.
Five Rifles (1974). Directed by: I.S. Johar
This remains simply the humblest, craziest and even corniest comedy I have ever seen! The plot was simple to the extreme: a princess (Johar’s daughter Ambika Johar making her debut) wants to free her land from the British! But it was a chuckle-fest of no mean measure.
Nothing was left undone by the laughter king of those days (Johar also wrote the film and played a key role): we had crazy chases, stock footage from some films, outlandish costumes, real monkeys, clones of Rajesh Khanna (actor Rakesh Khanna!) and Shashi Kapoor (Shahi Kapoor!) as male leads, a qawwali by the heroine in drag (Aziz Nazan’s introduction to Hindi cinema with his iconic Jhoom barabar jhoon sharabi) and a dig at Prohibition that was implemented then with the Kalyanji-Anandji hit Jab se sarkar ne nashabandi tod di.
Six Classic comedies of yore
- Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi / 1950-1959
- Pyar Kiye Jaa / 1960-1969
- Chupke Chupke / 1970-1979
- Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron / 1980-1989
- Andaz Apna Apna / 1990-1999
- Hera Pheri / 2000-2009
Six Ace Comic Directors
- Anees Bazmee
- Basu Chatterjee
- David Dhawan
- Hrishikesh Mukherjee
- Priyadarshan
- Rohit Shetty
Six comedians of note
- Asrani
- Deven Verma
- Johnny Walker
- Mehmood
- Om Prakash
- Rajendranath
Six Comic Lead Actors
- Ajay Devgn
- Akshay Kumar
- Arshad Warsi
- Govinda
- Kishore Kumar
- Ritiesh Deshmukh
