EENA MEENA DEEKA : THE STORY OF HINDI FILM COMEDY

Eena Meena Deeka is a
fascinating glimpse into the world of Indian screen comedy, peopled by known,
as well as once-important but now-forgotten comedians, who helped evolve the
genre from its first slapstick beginning to the polite comedies of manners aimed
at the urban middle class. The comedian or ‘vidushak’ has always been an
indispensable aspect of the Indian dramatic tradition. Comedy or ‘hasya’ is
one of the nine ‘rasas’ as defined in Bharatmuni’s Natyashastra. It was,
therefore, natural for Indian cinema to readily imbibe this aspect of the
dramatic tradition, with the first Indian comedy, directed by Dadasaheb
Phalke, making its appearance as early as 1913.The book traces the evolution
of the genre from Dhirendranath Ganguly, the first recognized
‘filmmaker-comedian’ who made comedies on a regular basis to the true
‘godfather’ of the Indian comic art, Noor Mohammed ‘Charlie’, who, along with
his contemporaries Dixit, Ghory and Kesari, set the comic pace through much
of the 1930s and 40s and much of what was to follow.The 1950s and 60s were
truly the golden era of Indian film comedy-with Johnny Walker’s antics,
Jagdeep’s rolling eyes, Johar’s sardonic wit, Om Prakash’s miserliness,
Radhakrishen’s shrill high-pitched comebacks, Mukri’s playing-to-the-gallery.
The list is endless. The icing on the comic cake was, of course, Kishore
Kumar who eventually sacrificed his comic talent to emerge as a star singer
and the inimitable Mehmood whose penchant for the bittersweet has made him an
unforgettable icon.