Rohit Shetty can never have it easy as a maker of comedies. Being humoured, unlike other states of mind such as outrage, idiocy and the recently discovered poverty (Poverty IS a WHAT?),
is a tricky affair to understand and there is no science to it. Making a
joke is a difficult art, because your joke has varying standards set
against it before it is dispensed and it is nearly impossible to cater
to your recipients' myriad tastes.
Imagine the perils of being a stand-up comic, for instance. Firstly, there are far more people who want to stand up and deliver comedy than those willing to sit down and receive it. Not more than a tenth of these comics probably read into their audience's psyche before making a joke. Secondly, the audience's psyche is way too complex to make sense of it, which is why a whole lot of jokes fall flat much to the teller's embarrassment. Admit it. Your childhood has most certainly been riddled by that one birthday party where your mother coaxed you into telling "that chutkula" and the only trickle of claps that followed were from your mother.
Being successfully funny is subject to various factors such as socio-cultural sensitivities, tone modulation and the innate human desperation to run down anyone who has found a podium to showcase his talent. The kind of adverse reactions one has to often face from one's audiences arguably explains why the best of comedians have seldom smiled in their personal lives - prime examples include Ben Stiller, Charlie Chaplin, Paresh Rawal, Sreesanth, etc. Of course, some comedians are to blame too, for they carry the same joke wherever they go. Consider the "How do you put a giraffe into a fridge" gag. It might work with Indians. Europeans will find it bizarre. The Chinese might run away mid-narration in search of a camera so they can photograph the giraffe. The Americans won't get to hear your joke because you will likely be detained at an airport because of your fetish for placing suspicious objects in fridges.
Maybe, as many an expert might argue, the safest option for a comedy is to be topical and relevant to existing issues. And maybe Rohit Shetty could consider paying heed to such a suggestion.After all we have so many hot subjects to choose from daily: Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi, #Feku, #NaMo, #RahulBaba...But Rohit Shetty knows better. He defines his genre, opens it to you for acknowledgement, and does so pretty successfully more often than not. He plays to his strength, which is pure, low-brow entertainment at the cost of logic. With Chennai Express, he goes an edge gutsier by bringing in Shahrukh Khan who is your average Joe's favourite punching bag (dissing whom is never going out of vogue). So, yes, he gives you a car that can be somersaulted by a human fist. He can get a blind man to read you the time. Diwali is spelt 'DDLJ' in his world. You are free to enter or stay off limits.
The world is pissed off. It needs to be made to laugh. If you are looking for polished humour, there are enough artists playing to your gallery. For many others, there is Rohit Shetty. Neither can grudge the other his choices.
Imagine the perils of being a stand-up comic, for instance. Firstly, there are far more people who want to stand up and deliver comedy than those willing to sit down and receive it. Not more than a tenth of these comics probably read into their audience's psyche before making a joke. Secondly, the audience's psyche is way too complex to make sense of it, which is why a whole lot of jokes fall flat much to the teller's embarrassment. Admit it. Your childhood has most certainly been riddled by that one birthday party where your mother coaxed you into telling "that chutkula" and the only trickle of claps that followed were from your mother.
Being successfully funny is subject to various factors such as socio-cultural sensitivities, tone modulation and the innate human desperation to run down anyone who has found a podium to showcase his talent. The kind of adverse reactions one has to often face from one's audiences arguably explains why the best of comedians have seldom smiled in their personal lives - prime examples include Ben Stiller, Charlie Chaplin, Paresh Rawal, Sreesanth, etc. Of course, some comedians are to blame too, for they carry the same joke wherever they go. Consider the "How do you put a giraffe into a fridge" gag. It might work with Indians. Europeans will find it bizarre. The Chinese might run away mid-narration in search of a camera so they can photograph the giraffe. The Americans won't get to hear your joke because you will likely be detained at an airport because of your fetish for placing suspicious objects in fridges.
The world is pissed off. It needs to be made to laugh. If you are looking for polished humour, there are enough artists playing to your gallery. For many others, there is Rohit Shetty. Neither can grudge the other his choices.
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