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Journalism of Courage
A man walks down the street holding up a newspaper. Unknowingly,he steps on a discarded banana peel and falls down,his feet flailing. Someone watching this can either sympathise with him or laugh. But a comedian would create the latter scenario,and nobody did it better than Charlie Chaplin. The immortal tramp of the silent motion pictures lampooned the evils of society through his cinema. Such was the aura of this comic actor that Bollywood too embraced the Chaplin way of filmmaking.
The enduring appeal of Chaplin isnt new to Bollywood. Raj Kapoor,famously known as the Charlie Chaplin of Indian cinema,paid many an ode to the comedian through his films Shree 420,Awaara and Mera Naam Joker. In the 1990s,filmmaker Aziz Mirza paid a tribute to Chaplin in his own way through his film Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman. My favourite inspiration of Chaplin in Bollywood has been Aziz Mirzas Raju. The tragicomic hero of the film exuded all emotions that a Chaplin film would do, says film critic Indu Mirani. The trend continues to this day when directors such as Bhavna Talwar,Raaghav Dar and Kundan Shah are making sure that the great comedian isnt forgotten.
Comedy in Bollywood has gone through many phases. Soon after Raj Kapoor brought in Chaplinesque genre,it was Kishore Kumars over-the-top dialogues and physical humour that took over. In the Seventies,comedy came in through the working-class hero in Hrishikesh Mukherjee,Sai Paranjape and Basu Chatterjee classics. The duty of making the audiences laugh was then taken over by David Dhawan,Priyadarshan and Anees Bazmee through slapstick comedy. While subtle humour worked in the Eighties,it was slapstick and loud comedy in the Nineties, says Mirani. However,the return of the Chaplinesque genre proves that filmmakers and audiences now want some intelligent comedy, says Mirani.
For Dar,Chaplin is an institution and aping him would be dishonouring his art. Each one of us wants to pay him a tribute and we do it by borrowing his style, he says. There is an influence of Chaplins mannerisms in Michael Pintos character,and at the script level,Dar has ensured that subtle humour underlines the main storyline.
Chaplins influence can be seen in Kundan Shahs films as well,who is an ardent fan of Chaplins spontaneity and timing. Physical comedy,unlike verbal comedy,is tougher to execute because it has to be choreographed well,especially during the silent era where they had to depend on actions alone, says Shah. His films Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron and Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa were comic and sad at the same time because they dealt with the subject of survival. I believe pathos is quintessential because audience demands catharsis.
His upcoming short film,Hero,is a story of a cheerful young man with a spring in his step,sauntering towards a railway station,before being almost washed away by a sea of humanity surging out of a train.
Despite the adulation Chaplin enjoys amid Bollywood filmmakers,his brand of humour hasnt been a favourite with directors known for their comedies. Thats because it lacks pan-Indian appeal, feels Mirani.
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