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Comedy is certainly the flavour of the season in Bollywood with
every other comic caper making a killing at the turnstiles and
dime-a-dozen dream merchants scrambling over one another to board
the bandwagon. Among the recent to hit the box office is "Dhamaal".
No sooner was David Dhawan's pop-up comedy flick, "Partner",
declared a hit, another veteran of the genre, Indra Kumar, seems
poised to hit a homerun with his latest offering "Dhamaal", which
released Friday.
Initial reports of the film starring Sanjay Dutt, Riteish
Deshmukh, Arshad Warsi, Javed Jaffrey and Ashish Chaudhary are
pretty encouraging.
Unlike the recently released crass comedy "Budha Mar Gaya" and many
offerings that vend vulgarity in the name of humour, "Dhamaal" is
being appreciated by the gentry as a relatively clean, plot-driven
comedy.
In a year that has witnessed crumbling of a number of box-office
formulae including the embarrassing box-office drubbing awarded to
mega-budget Yash Raj Films-productions "Ta Ra Rum Pum" and "Jhoom
Barabar Jhoom", the industry has been iffy about what will work.
The films that have worked at the box-office this year have been
dramatically unlike the usual Bollywood potboilers.
The first blockbuster was Mani Ratnam's "Guru" loosely based on
the life of Indian industrialist Dhirubhai Ambani. Then came the
sleeper hit "Bheja Fry" that turned Hindi film industry's
economics on its head. And "Chak De! India" that is ruling the
marquees now is like nothing ever seen before in Bollywood
boulevard.
For the box-office, laughter has indeed proved to be the best
medicine and tickling the funny bone has become serious
money-spinning formula.
"Partner" reportedly made Rs.300 million in its opening week alone.
For Dhawan, the king of comedy, who returned to wielding the
megaphone after a two-year break adapting Hollywood's "Hitch" with
the perfect twosome of Salman Khan and Govinda, had paid off big
time.
The multiplexes and movie theatres have been chock-full of recent
comedy releases - "Bhagam Bhag", "Golmaal", "Hey Babyy" and "Bheja
Fry".
The most remarkable success story is that of "Bheja Fry" - made on
a modest budget of just Rs.5.5 million. The film with Vinay Pathak
and Rajat Kapoor in the lead grossed more that five times its cost
and has others hoping to repeat its success.
"We Indians have a herd mentality. If, for any reason, one
particular comedy movie works, everyone else will be eager to cash
in. The next thing you know is every director in Bollywood is
making a funny movie! Thus, the success of a particular genre plays
a big role. Besides, comedy is a great stress-buster," says "Bheja
Fry" producer Sunil Doshi.
Following closely on the heels of "Partner" was debutant director
Sajid Khan's "Heyy Babyy" with Akshay Kumar, Fardeen Khan, Riteish
Deshmukh and Vidya Balan providing comic relief.
Though the film did not put the cash registers on fire, it did do
reasonably good business.
"I am not sure if comedy is box-office medicine, but I can honestly
tell you that making people laugh is more fruitful than trying to
move them," Sajid aptly said in an interview before the film's
release.
The month of September has other comic capers in the pipeline.
Priyadarshan, who is credited for rewriting the roles of comedy in
Bollywood, will be presenting "Dhol" and "Bhul Bhulaiya" and Sanjay
Sharma will be bearing his "Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro".
All these films have actors who have proven their yen for comedy.
Starting from the veterans like Sanjay Dutt, Akshay, Arshad Warsi
and Javed Jaffrey, the newer crop of actors like Riteish, Ashish
Chaudhary and Tusshar Kapoor will be seen at their comic best
through the month.
Indu Mirani, trade analyst says that the only security blanket in a
flailing year is romantic-comedies, action or drama.
"People reject entertainment that doesn't entertain, which
literally means making them laugh. Last year's biggest hit was a
comedy ('Lage Raho Munnabhai')," he argues.
Interestingly, when it comes to comedy, the multiplex viewers are
less demanding. They continue to patronise slapstick comedies that
were made famous by Dhawan years ago. But when it comes to other
genres, audiences are becoming more and more discerning.
Speaking to a trade weekly, filmmaker Ram Madhwani said: "It's
quite a unique paradox. In a way the forerunners of the multiplex
boom are now showing to an audience that is missing in action.
Mass-produced cinema still sells."
Madhwani had made the offbeat "Let's Talk" last year and he
attributes the comic wave to the producers' business sense rather
than any special creative sense.
According to trade observer Taran Adarsh, comedy has gone more
slapstick than ever before. But the winds of change blowing over
Bollywood have not left this genre untouched.
Same week last year Vidhu Vinod Chopra's "Lage Raho Munnabhai" had
struck a chord with the elite, the yuppie crowd, the common man,
hoi polloi... all sections of moviegoers.
"Dhamaal" with its zero vulgar quotient is also a welcome change.
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"Dhamaal" will have some competition from "Heyy Babyy" which
belongs to the same genre and was released last week. The other
release of the last week, "Ramgopal Varma Ki Aag" will be no
competition for the two comic capers.
In fact, the much-hyped film said to be an adaptation of
Bollywood's most successful movie "Sholay" did not even manage a
good opening in spite of the presence of actors like Amitabh
Bachchan and Ajay Devgan.
By Priyanka Khanna
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