Mehmood is rarely given his due, despite being a highly prolific star. Now, think of the stars who lent their heft to Hindi comedies. вЂњIf THIS film is being seen as the ultimate satire in Hindi cinema,вЂќ he told Jai Arjun Singh, author of a book on JBDY, вЂњall it tells me is that Hindi cinema hasnвЂ™t achieved much.вЂќ We had to wait for years before ShahвЂ™s lunatic satire was declared a cult classic, as a piece of filmmaking thatвЂ™s as meaningful as it is mad. But Shah punctured the filmвЂ™s off-screen myths when he said the making was вЂњa bloody nightmare.вЂќ In the decades since, JBDYвЂ™s inspired lunacy has been unrepeatable, a situation that provoked a sigh of disapproval from the JBDY circusвЂ™ ringmaster, the late Kundan Shah. Never before have such an incredible bunch of gifted heavyweights (to be fair, they were lightweights back then) вЂ“ Kundan Shah, Om Puri, Pankaj Kapur, Bhakti Barve, Ravi Baswani, Naseeruddin Shah and Satish Shah to name a few вЂ“ have come together in the making of a Bollywood comedy. Take 1983вЂ™s Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, a madhouse of talent. So, Kishoreda showed up on the sets with half head and half moustache shaved off and half intact! Moral of the story: he is fun to see on screen, not so fun to work with. One popular and peculiar story goes that a producer had paid him only half his due.

But Half TicketвЂ™s loveable delinquent was, by most accounts, a rather difficult and eccentric person who kicked up a fuss when his payment failed to arrive. Ask anyone and they will vouch for Kishore KumarвЂ™s vaudevillian genius. But in many cases, we do know that it was not all play and party on the sets. Thinking of Half Ticket, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro or Andaz Apna Apna, one often wonders if the cast and crew had as much fun making them as we had watching them. When Hindi cinema is at its inspired high watermark madness, it can be a lot of fun вЂ“ both for the audience and filmmakers and crew behind the making of the film. It is high time comedies are accorded the respectability they deserve or at least an acknowledgement that funny is a serious business.Д¬omedy is a communal hug вЂ“ a вЂњjaadu ki jhappiвЂќ as Raju HiraniвЂ™s Munnabhai would have it вЂ“ that Bollywood has churned out in the best of times and bleakest of times.

Comedy bollywood movies