Bollywood is not ready for spoof comedy
Happy beginning, you would think watching Saif Ali Khan’s Happy Ending unfold on screen, seemingly defining Bollywood’s growing fetish for spoofs. We now have big stars endorsing story ideas that let them laugh with the audience at the very formulae that have over the decades made Hindi mainstream what it is.
Wait, there is a catch. Like almost any genre that Bollywood dabbles in, the spoof or satire had to fall prey to certain idiosyncrasies. No matter how different a scriptwriter’s thought process flows, the final product has to be in sync with what the larger audience deems entertainment, entertainment and entertainment.
So, Happy Ending, after abundant sly winks at all that has forever defined the Bollywood romantic comedy, inexplicably ends on a mundane note just as all other Hindi romcoms have always ended. Two hours of cocky jibes at the plastic romance later, the climax drowns under formulaic mess.
Funny, how this has been the story almost every time a Bollywood star ventures out trying to spoof stereotypes that the industry thrives on.
A notable instance has been the Ranbir Kapoor-starrer Besharam. Bollywood’s next big thing gallantly set out trying a few digs the current big things — the three Khans.
Grand idea except Besharam, botched up by bad writing and unimaginative treatment, landed nowhere. The film wallowed under cheap jokes that director Abhinav Kashyap seemed to have inserted to cover up the fact that his spoof quota ran thin as the reels rolled.
The scene has been slightly better in the crossover circuit. Earlier this year, Sai Kabir’s Revolver Rani created black comedy imagining Kangana Ranaut as a goon-politician soaked in machismo and cuss, who lets her gun do the talking and keeps a toy boy. The gender reversal about the classic anti-hero template spoofed the genre itself.
If Revolver Rani failed at the box-office despite being a sufficiently good entertainer, therein lay an irony. A hardcore spoof, despite generous commercial trappings, will not work just yet, the film’s fate proved, if it does not come with a box-office-friendly "happy ending".
A very different problem affected another wonky spoof attempt, Go Goa Gone. The film was billed as a zombie comedy, or zom-com — a horror sub-genre that spoofs the classic zombie horror flick — and one that is not quite common in Hindi films. Go Goa Gone failed to strike a chord because the audience seemed confused about the film’s intention. A horror film that makes you laugh can be quite an irony for unprepared audiences, and the spoof quotient about the effort was wholly lost out.
Perhaps Bollywood viewers, just like its filmmakers, are not fully prepared for outlandish spoof attempts just yet. Rather, the success of Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (HSKD) earlier this year shows the genre can work in small doses if packaged smartly as a traditional film.
The Karan Johar-produced romcom quietly spoofed Dilwaale Dulhania Le Jayenge by reversing every cliché of the Aditya Chopra pop classic, even as it paid glowing tributes to the original. Laughing at oneself is a big deal. Bollywood is learning how to go about it only now. Small doses would seem like a recommended start.