From Padosan to Andaz Apna Apna: 12 game-changing comedies from Bollywood

Kunal Kemmu, who made his debut 31 years ago in the comedy Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke as a child artiste and moved on to become a hero, has turned writer and director with Madgaon Express, a crazy caper that releases on March 22. The film mixes elements of dark comedy, crime and complete craziness, and compels us to rewind to the treasury of Hindi cinema’s pioneering laugh-riots.

Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi / Director: Satyen Bose This 1958 comedy was the first to succeed big time—it was the second-highest grosser of that year and, inflation-adjusted, would have crossed Rs. 400 crore today! It featured all three Ganguly brothers—Ashok Kumar, Kishore Kumar and Anoop Kumar—with Kishore’s future wife Madhubala as his love interest. In this screwball caper, a jalopy was actually a character, billed in the credit titles as “Introducing ‘Champion’ car, model 1928!” The film had three brothers running a garage and was about their love lives.

What’s more, the evergreen songs by S.D. Burman and Majrooh Sultanpuri were a major draw adding to its success and timelessness. And let’s not forget the final comic irony: Kishore (who never included himself among playback singers in the credit-titles as he sang for himself!) is said to have produced the film to save on income-tax because he was sure that it would flop. When it became a whopper hit, he immediately gave all production rights to his secretary Anoop Sharma!

Pyar Kiye Jaa / Director: C.V. Sridhar In 1966, we got Hindi cinema’s first ensemble-cast romantic comedy with three heroes—Kishore Kumar, Shashi Kapoor and Mehmood—and three heroines, Kalpana, Rajashri (South) and Mumtaz. It was also our first total (and situational) comedy with zero elements of crime or melodrama. The music by Laxmikant-Pyarelal also made a comic mark.

The film about a widower wanting rich husbands for his daughters was a remake of the Kannada hit, Kathalikka Neramillai. What’s more, this evergreen subject has since been remade in Kannada, Telugu and Marathi and rehashed in Hindi with the 1999 David Dhawan mishmash Haseena Maan Jaayegi, all thanks to its timeless plot.

Padosan / Director: Jyoti Swaroop This 1968 film did decent business but could not recover its high investment, and producer Mehmood had to make a small-budget quickie—Sadhu Aur Shaitan—with multiple star cameos to make good the losses of his distributors. That became probably Hindi cinema’s first dark comedy revolving around a corpse in a cab!

But over time, Padosan emerged as a cult comedy. Kishore Kumar, Sunil Dutt and Mehmood with Saira Banu made for a terrific quartet, and R.D. Burman’s music was tremendous.

Chupke Chupke / Director: Hrishikesh Mukherjee A 1975 remake of a Bengali hit, Chupke Chupke is the first Indian comedy with four big stars. It is also said that Dharmendra bettered the sterling performance of Uttam Kumar, no less, in the original as the Botany professor posing as a driver. This is the first (and best) of director Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s trilogy on eccentric old people being taught a lesson—the others being Gol Maal and Khubsoorat later.

Pati Patni Aur Woh / Director: B.R. Chopra With this, the socially committed filmmaker B.R. Chopra did the unthinkable: he not only delved into a funfest but also, back in conservative 1978, made a comedy on extramarital affairs. The original plot matched any similar Hollywood film at that time and the end was again exceptional for Hindi cinema. And Sanjeev Kumar was magnificent as the straying husband.

Andaz Apna Apna / Director: Rajkumar Santoshi A film that flopped in 1994 for mysterious reasons (Was it again budget as in Padosan?), the breezy multi-star (four leads and two cameos) laugh-riot by Rajkumar Santoshi to showcase his versatility (after Ghayal and Damini) remains a top favourite today. Ever since its release all of 30 years ago, talks have been surfacing, vanishing and resurfacing periodically about sequels or remakes of this Aamir Khan-Salman Khan film, as both the heroes are still strong at the box-office, even if nearing 60!

Hera Pheri / Director: Priyadarshan This timeless 2000 caper crime comedy can be said to be the supreme game-changer in the business of laughs in cinema. A remake of the 1989 Malayalam hit, Ramoji Rao Speaking, its director Priyadarshan and writer Neeraj Vora gave it a refreshing pan-Indian spin. We thus got immortal characters in Raju (Akshay Kumar), Shyam (Suniel Shetty) and, above all, Baburao (Paresh Rawal). Technically, it can also be described as the first Hindi ‘dark comedy’ to prove a definitive hit (something that Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron failed to achieve in its year of release, and Bheja Fry, Malamaal Weekly and many films later succeeded to varied extents). With this film, all the three artistes got a sea-change in their action and villainous (Rawal) images, and comedies with big-name heroes became a norm.

Dil Chahta Hai / Director: Farhan Akhtar Cinema as a whole (including its characters and the music) underwent a sea-change with this 2001 debut of writer-director Farhan Akhtar and breakthrough film of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. Humour was a consistent undercurrent even in the film’s dramatic or emotional sequences. The dialogues and situations were surpassingly life-like. The film did not do well then, excepting in Mumbai and Delhi, but has since become a blueprint in cinematic grammar for innumerable movies.

Munna Bhai MBBS / Director: Rajkumar Hirani In 2003, Hindi cinema ventured for the first time into the by-lanes of ‘medical comedies’, as popular in British and American films. Rajkumar Hirani’s smash-hit debut remains a milestone in every way: as a maelstrom of laughter, a biting social and a romantic saga between a doctor and a street-smart wastrel. Arguably, Sanjay Dutt’s Munna and Arshad Warsi’s Circuit remain the top favourite characters from Hindi cinema of the millennium, and just one sequel, Lage Raho Munna Bhai, has left viewers thirsting for more!

No Entry / Director: Anees Bazmee Anees Bazmee’s crowning glory as writer-director has been to present an adult (extramarital) story as a ‘Universal” (including the censor certification!) movie that can be watched with family, friends and kids! Its aces were situations that were hilarious, including a crazy climax, and a string undercurrent of relatable emotions that kept pace with the madness. Talks of a funnier sequel are said to be finally becoming a reality.

Bhool Bhulaiyaa / Director: Priyadarshan Priyadarshan’s 2007 horror comedy is now spawning a third film in what has become a franchise after a hit sequel, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, in 2022. This is perhaps the most iconic film ever made in this combination genre, and its characters as well as music (Pritam) remain favourites 17 years down the line.

Go Goa Gone / Director: Raj & DK The 2013 film is likely to have been the point d’appui for Kunal Kemmu to have fashioned Madgaon Express, for Goa and drugs as a combination for a manic mix of mirth, mayhem and drugs cannot be just a coincidence. Go Goa Gone remains an exemplary film in its standard of uproarious comedy. Its one-liners were killers as potent as the Russian zombie-hunter (co-producer Saif Ali Khan) and the zombies themselves, along with three youngsters (including Kemmu) out to have a blast with booze and babes!

Also Read: From Shah Rukh Khan to Fawad Khan: Bollywood’s obsession with the name ‘Vikram Rathore’

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