There’s no accounting for taste. And that does end up yielding extremely unpleasant surprises at the Bollywood box-office counters. Latest case in point: the thoroughly execrable comedy, Grand Masti. It was panned by the reviewers but has been lapped up by the audience, largely comprising of college students, who rolled with laughter in the aisles at the vulgar and anti-women jokes and lame gags.
Produced by Ashok Thakeria with his regular partner, director Indra Kumar, Grand Masti is a sequel to their equally risible Masti released nine years ago.
In between, the duo had hit fluctuating fortunes with the forgettable laugh-raisers Dhamaal and its sequel. Quite obviously, they went for the kill this time to titillate the audience by reviving the Masti franchise, crammed with sexist, mutton-headed dialogue, besides reducing its three female leads into subservient marionettes. Disturbingly, the censors had no qualms about clearing the film, which even makes light of physical violence on women at a time when the nation is besieged with several such despicable crimes.
Thakeria and Indra Kumar, who had once confected Dil, Beta and Raja, which earned Aamir Khan, Madhuri Dixit and Anil Kapoor their most successful romantic entertainers, are guffawing all the way to the bank. So who cares about the critics, as well as the naysayers who had sought a clampdown on Grand Masti as soon as its asinine trailers went viral on the Internet? Initially, a ban was ordered in the states of Haryana and Punjab, but subsequently a stay on the film’s release was vacated.
The plotline, if it can be called that, features three married men who meet up at a college reunion, and paint the town crimson red. Enacted by Viveik Oberoi, Riteish Deshmukh and Aftab Shivdasani, none of the three are likely to extend their reputation as actors of any substance, despite the comedy’s commercial success. Both Viveik Oberoi, who’s been facing a rough patch in his career, and Riteish Deshmukh, who’s been stereotyping himself as a poker-faced comedian, appear to have thrown caution to the winds.
After such mindless outings, they aren’t likely to score on the acting meter. They overact outrageously in the company of the near-forgotten Aftab Shivdasani, and don’t seem to have exercised any control in the prurient material assigned to them. A desperate measure to catch the public eye, maybe.
In fact, you feel sorry most of all for the Deshmukh scion. He was severely criticised for having participated in Ekta Kapoor’s toilet humour comedy Kya Kool Hai Hum, which reportedly had even offended his father, the late political leader Vilasrao Deshmukh. Nevertheless, Riteish jumped into the Kya Kool Hai Hum sequel, besides becoming a staple in the so-called ‘adult rib-ticklers’ like Masti, Dhamaal and Sajid Khan’s House Full series. Would the actor like to be remembered for these films? Or for Rann, Naach and Bluffmaster!, in which he had revealed latent sparks of talent as an actor who uses his brain instead of just going bawdy?
Honestly, it’s not prudishness which compels a distaste for exploitative comedies. More to the point, they are derivatives of Hollywood’s Porky’s and American Pie series. Second, they are no more than a concatenation of sick jokes and indulgence in women-bashing.
And, they are unredeemed by any technical finesse since they are made on a slapdash budget.
Of course, it could be argued that you have a choice — you don’t have to see these below-the-belt comedies. Sure, but when their excerpts pop up on television and when the sheer quality of popular Bollywood entertainment is debased, the Mastis and the Kya Kools can’t be ignored, can they?
Clearly, comedy at the movies is going extinct, because of such febrile attempts at humour. Earlier, David Dhawan did considerable damage to the genre with his double entendre-stuffed Sarkailo Khatiya songs and chauvinistic males lording it over their Biwi No 1.
If Hindi language cinema can still boast of a collection of excellent comedies, it is from the archives. Among the most treasured ones, count the Kishore Kumar sparkler Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Golmaal and Chupke Chupke, Gulzar’s Angoor, Basu Chatterji’s Chhoti Si Baat, Kundan Shah’s Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, Sai Paranjpye’s Chashme Buddoor, Rajkumar Santoshi’s Andaz Apna Apna and Priyadarshan’s Hera Pheri.
Unarguably, re-watching any one of these golden oldies on DVD is a far better option than a Masti, grand or ghastly.
- See more at: http://www.khaleejtimes.com/wknd/wknd_article.asp?xfile=/data/wkndentertainment/2013/September/wkndentertainment_September7.xml§ion=wkndentertainment#sthash.0uPhz1eC.dpuf
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