Eena Meena Deeka

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 beginnings 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, a single-realer 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, Kukri’s playing-to-the-gallery, the list is endless! The icing on the comic cake was, of course, Kishore Kumar who sacrificed his comic talent to emerge as a star-singer and the inimitable Mehmood whose penchant for the bitter-sweet has made him an unforgettable icon. Thought the 1970s and 80s had its comic stars in Asrani and Paintal, these were the decades when the director reigned supreme. The book takes a close look at the urban middle-class comedies of Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Basu Chatterji as also those of the New Wave comedies by directors like Kundan Shah and Pradip Krishan. This was also when the comedian took a backseat to the leading man who was romancer-villain-comedian all rolled into one! The hero-playing-comedian is a trend as old as cinema-Motilal, Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor, Dilip Kumar and finally, Amitabh Bachchan. The fading years of the century saw the emergence of the star as comedian when the hero-from Salman Khan to Sunjay Dutt to Govinda-preferred to play the fool under the direction of David Dhawan. Nonetheless, an original talent like Johnny Lever emerged as a top comedian in spite of such stiff competition. Eena Meena Deeka takes a panoramic look at all these players, the films and their directors who made it possible for us to hold on to our sanity in this world on the brink of extinction.