Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Unshutdownable - Part 2 (Comedies)

Unshutdownable - Part 1 is here.

Comedies have been the flavor of Bollywood in the last couple of years, with many of them like Singh is King, Welcome, Hey Baby, Golmaal, Kya Kool Hain Hum etc. doing well at the Box Office.
Here is a list of my favorite comedy films. None of the films in this list are either lewd or cheap. Perhaps that is why they are regarded as classics.

5. Padosan (1968) - I feel it was Kishore Kumar, in arguably his best screen performance, who elevated this film from a regular run-of-the-mill Mahmood comic flick (like "Bombay to Goa") to classic status. This film also deserves a place in this list as it contains the most hilarious song in the history of Indian Cinema "Ek Chatur Naar".

4. Hera Pheri (2000) - This is one of the very few genuinely comedies to come out in the last two decades, which have been littered with cheap Govinda style or lewd humor. This film established Paresh Rawal and Akshay Kumar's status as leading funny men in the industry, and they continue to entertain us with their comic roles till date. On the flip side though, I feel the second half of the movie was not half as funny as the first, and the songs were completely out of place.

3. Gol-Maal (1979) - Probably Hrishikesh Mukherjee's finest comedy, the movie exemplifies the fact that you dont need stupid histrionics to be funny. Unadulterated Nirmal Anand.

2. Andaaz Apna Apna (1994) - It is extremely rare to see a movie where almost character is as funny as the others. Though most of the goings-on in the film appear stupid, the comic timing of the actors and the simple yet funny dialogues (like "Yeh Teja Teja kya hai? Yeh Teja Teja?") make it an all time classic.

1. Jane Bhi Do Yaroon (1983) - The best political and social satire of all times. Period.

P.S.:- Since I have tried to put together a list of "pure" comedies here, I have not included a lot of other funny classics like Lagey Raho Munna Bhai and Dil Chahta Hai in this list.

No comments: