'Making people laugh is like social service'
Thursday June 8 2006 17:09 IST

Baradwaj Rangan

Chup Chup Ke is a Priyadarshan film. And if the filmmaker had had the time, Phir Hera Pheri — the sequel to one of his most popular comedies — would have been a Priyadarshan film too. (It's now directed by Neeraj Vohra, who scripted the earlier movie.) There's already been a Priyadarshan film this year — the surprise superhit Malamaal Weekly. And just last Diwali, we saw the simultaneous release of two Priyadarshan films, Kyon Ki and Garam Masala. In the time other filmmakers would take to announce a project, Priyadarshan manages to complete a film and roll over to the next one, likely a remake of one of his tried-and-tested Malayalam hits. How — short of being made of metal and chip inside — does someone manage such startling productivity?

The director of Hera Pheri, Hulchul and Hungama — would that be his "H" trilogy? — is quick to dismiss any notions of a secret formula. "There is nothing to it, really. In Kerala, people would hardly be talking about such things. I think everybody has to start with Malayalam cinema, where we have shoestring budgets and limited time, and are always trying to make the best possible product under the circumstances. After being trained in that manner, that method of working is now in my system, so I work the same way in Bollywood too."

And that's how this 49-year-old director has quickly run up a total of 61 films (including Chup Chup Ke), mainly in Malayalam, Hindi and Tamil. And his 62nd will be a drama in Tamil about Kancheepuram silk workers, starring Srinivasan. Priyadarshan does this from time to time, throwing in — among the comedies — a Virasat here, a Gardish there. "I don't have to make the same kind of movies all the time," he shrugs. "I enjoy all kinds of cinema. So whatever I enjoy watching, I would like to make."

But his audiences, of late, seem to be enjoying only the comedies. The funny Garam Masala, for instance, scored over the serious Kyon Ki. Could it be that he's become a victim of the success of his "H" trilogy? He doesn't think so, and he remarks rather cryptically, "I never planned anything; serious movies, comedies, they all just happened. As they say, if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans."

At least, he's more forthcoming about how it all began. "When I made my first film in 1983 — Poochakkoru Mookkuthi (which became Hungama) — all the newcomer directors were starting their careers with a love story." But Priyadarshan was always fascinated by humour. In his childhood, he was a huge fan of comics, Charlie Chaplin, and Laurel and Hardy — not necessarily in that order. "So I used to think why we couldn't make similar movies — because making people laugh is the most difficult thing, and if you can do it, it's like social service in today's world."

So when he got the opportunity to write a film, he tried a bit of humour. "This was when I was doing screenplays, before becoming a director. I found that in my scripts — Kuyiline Thedi, Engine Nee Marakkum — the humour was working in a big way." These were romantic films, but Priyadarshan added slapstick to the mix, and the results convinced him that his first effort as director should be a comedy. "At the time, people believed that a full-length comedy would never work. And the same mindset was there in Hindi cinema too. Till Hera Pheri came along, nobody thought that comedies could become big hits."

Priyadarshan believes that the humour should come from the writing, rather than the performances. "Basically, I only think of one situation — the main situation that carries the story forward. The twists and turns that happen around that basic situation are what I base my screenplay on." In Hera Pheri, for instance, it was the situation of a kidnapping and the cross-connection phone calls. Then, around this nucleus came the slapstick, the dialogue, "because I don't think that writing comical dialogue (in isolation) ever helps. If you do justice to the situation, if you write dialogues according to the situation, it automatically becomes humorous."

Sometimes, it also becomes a trend. The success of Poochakkoru Mookkuthi made screwball comedy the box-office flavour of Malayalam cinema in the eighties. Priyadarshan may have set the ball rolling, but he is quick to acknowledge the efforts of his colleagues. "I was lucky that when I started my career, there were writer-directors like Srinivasan and Sathyan Anthikkad who thought like me. So I was in good company."

These were filmmakers influenced by, among other things, the middle-class comedies of Basu Chaterji and Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Says Priyadarshan, "More than Basu Chaterji's cinema, I love the films of Hrishi-da, films like Golmaal. The biggest compliment I ever got was when someone told me what Hrishi-da had told them after seeing Hungama, that if this kind of cinema was being accepted, he could begin making films again."

By arrangement with Man's world

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