How about getting up in the morning early and taking a bath only to recall that today is sunday? Or rather making notes of the toughest chapter but the teacher deletes it from the syllabus the next day? These are incidents we all go through in our everyday life and they add taste and adventure to our rather monotonous and smooth life! But they also somewhat make us feel depressed. Being low on energy, we all look for some light hearted, comedy movie to make us forget all our misadventures.But the current scenario showcases the lack of genuine comedy movies which attracts the unalterable laugh of the audience. We have all laughed our heads off at the miseries and ambiguities of Baburao Ganpatrao in ‘Phir Hera Pheri’ or the hilarious dialogue delivery by Rajpal Yadav in ‘Chup Chup ke’.
However there are also movies which were made the best in their former parts but have failed to entertain the audience by their sequels. For instance, the Golmaal movie when first released in 2006 was such a delight to watch! However its subsequent sequels have not just killed the essence of the movie but have also extracted its soul.The usage of the similar plot and exaggeration beyond measure has made sure that the sequels of successful bollywood movies continue to trace their share of recognition. Moreover, the audience of the 21st century is way more wise and intelligent to decide the future of the movie and is up for genuine content only.
It is also an observation worth drawing that the difference between the movies and their sequels is not so magnanimous and practically there is no point watching similar movies! Second example of dying comedy in Bollywood is the Housefull series.
First released in 2010 and known for the interesting characters in the movie like Aakhri Pasta and the hilarious banter brought to life by Ritesh Deshmukh and Akshay Kumar. It was this one movie that played on loop on the television connections every weekend back in those days.
Both the first and the second parts of the movie were equally interesting and therefore Bollywood gave us something that could be universally viewed by people of every age group and with equal amounts of fun. However the later and the unnecessary sequels of the movie were like killing the trademark set by the first two parts. The last part of the movie which released in 2019 was simply like doing anything and everything irrelevant in the movie. It felt like the murder of “COMEDY” as a genre due to overwhelming dialogues and inept delivery of those dialogues.
The reasons for inefficient comedy movies could be attributed to various factors like “not understanding the needs of the viewer” or simply the “overacting by the leads” or maybe “the repetitive jokes”. All these factors more or less combined together drive away the gist of movies in general and also comedy movies in particular. One significant thought which brings one to the consequence of flopped comedy movies of bollywood in the contemporary times is that the audience today has a variety! This variety is in terms of stories, languages, platforms and everything more. They can view whatever genre they like, in plenty and that too for numerous times. The never- ending content on the OTT platforms has not just increased the reach of the audience but has also proved to be economical and time saving. The audience would prefer a successful comedy movie from Hollywood or something from any other part of the world rather than watching something as cringe as the concept of re-births which is actually very disgusting to watch.
The other relevant aspect about comedy as a genre is its changing nature in Bollywood. The comedy movies in the earlier times of bollywood were known for their Authenticity and first hand Humour. But, in today’s times it’s more of a “COPY+PASTE” kind of a culture wherein movies are relentlessly being made by stealing content and essence of originality.
Comedy, as a genre, is depreciating in its content and below the belt jokes which don’t go well with the modern audience. Unlike the previous times, wherein technology in India was not at its best and people could not voice their opinions out, in today’s times people put their concerns to words and the movie makers also get to know about their shortcomings. Moreover, Sequels to comedy movies are a proven disaster and are something that today can’t be tolerated by the vigilant audience of this generation.
It is also felt that the actors who are more capable of carrying out comedy movies are ignored. For Instance, Sharman Joshi, in 3 Idiots was like icing on the cake. As a conclusion, we will always want watchful comedy movies made around us and those which can bring back the essence that seems lost.Lastly, the comedy genre makes us escape from our lives for a while which is very important for us as humans and we will always yearn for it to save us from our own hassles.
Celluloid: The Film Society of Miranda House 