Comedy in Indian movies was usually loud, extremely physical , sometimes absolutely racial ( thats why however funny Mahmood was in Padosan playing a Tamil teacher it was poor taste) . There was plain energetic buffoonery by Kishore Kumar in the 50s in half ticket and chalti ka naam gadi that was a saving grace. Shammi Kapoor in his own way was the first hero to pull off a version of the comic hero at times through stupid expressions. Dilip Kumar tried it in Gopi.
It took a while for Indian cinema to find humour in situations, in everyday life and through the idiosyncrasies of characters rather than the characters of a linguistic stereotype. The director who stood tall in doing this was Hrishikesh Mukherji and hence my first post on the comedy mini series is the movie that brought this genre to life. These were movies where you saw the actor and not the star , you saw the family and you wanted to be on that table having a cup of tea like the actor David who was mandatory like a sugar cube.
Chupke Chupke needs no introduction. An all time Indian comedy classic viewable multiple times over.
Steeped in the Hrishikesh Mukherji style film making focused on simple families with lovable characters and confusions due to mistaken or false identities , Chupke chupke leveraged the comic timing of many actors like Om Prakash , Asrani , Dharmendra and Amitabh bachchan . Dharmendra steals the show with a meaty role as the guy who loves the daughter of a wealthy man who loves to speak put Hindi and enters their house as the driver. Amitabh Bachchan is hilarious in the second half as the confused friend , showing how Hrishikesh Mukherji could focus on scenes and not the stars. Dharmendra is really one of those actors who never got his due although he was super versatile. This movie shows what an endearing actor he is. The reason why its top on my list is also because one of the movies tenets is ' Koi bhi bhaasha ka mazaak udana uska apmaan hota hai' ( making fun of a language is also insulting it). It was almost anti- Mahmood and his antics by design.
It took a while for Indian cinema to find humour in situations, in everyday life and through the idiosyncrasies of characters rather than the characters of a linguistic stereotype. The director who stood tall in doing this was Hrishikesh Mukherji and hence my first post on the comedy mini series is the movie that brought this genre to life. These were movies where you saw the actor and not the star , you saw the family and you wanted to be on that table having a cup of tea like the actor David who was mandatory like a sugar cube.
Chupke Chupke needs no introduction. An all time Indian comedy classic viewable multiple times over.
Steeped in the Hrishikesh Mukherji style film making focused on simple families with lovable characters and confusions due to mistaken or false identities , Chupke chupke leveraged the comic timing of many actors like Om Prakash , Asrani , Dharmendra and Amitabh bachchan . Dharmendra steals the show with a meaty role as the guy who loves the daughter of a wealthy man who loves to speak put Hindi and enters their house as the driver. Amitabh Bachchan is hilarious in the second half as the confused friend , showing how Hrishikesh Mukherji could focus on scenes and not the stars. Dharmendra is really one of those actors who never got his due although he was super versatile. This movie shows what an endearing actor he is. The reason why its top on my list is also because one of the movies tenets is ' Koi bhi bhaasha ka mazaak udana uska apmaan hota hai' ( making fun of a language is also insulting it). It was almost anti- Mahmood and his antics by design.
Om Prakash loves speaking 'shuddh' pure Hindi and doesnt like mixing English words with Hindi. He is sent a driver ( who actually is his new brother in law in disguise) who outdoes him in this. There is frustration in the family that the girl is having an affair with a driver although she is married to a botany professor. Enter Amitabh as the fake botany professor to further add confusion into mistaken identities resulting in this hilarious climax.
As a bonus to enjoy Dharmendra and OmPrakash , this is another one.
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