"The Tragedy of Comedy"

There is something inherently common in these two classic genres. They seem so far apart that they are yoked as good to evil and light to darkness. Sometimes the tragedies grow to such immense proportions that they lose their meaning and then what comes out of them is laughter because it is the most immediate relief. Surf through the Pakistani comic stage and TV shows on youtube from where most of the comic punches are lifted for hindi comedy shows and you will realize how good they are at making fun of everything and most of their own. I find the roots of that profound sense of comedy in the bigger tragedy of Pakistan.

                                                 Intense hunger and destitution experienced by Sir Charlie Chaplin made him the artist he was, not to mention his talent. Johny Lever, the most visible comic face of Hindi cinema until few years ago had a childhood marred by hardships and sadness. To me it seems that the comedy either starts with tragedy or it ends with tragedy. The two people aforementioned started with tragedy and lived almost happy lives as the state of happiness is always almost and never complete. There are other artists who had happy beginnings, entertained people with their mastery over comics, attained success and popularity before grief took over them drying their source and rendering them to the fall. When people waited for more from them to shake their bellies with heartfelt laughter, tragedy drew the curtain. Micke Dubois, the Swedish comedian, Tony Hancock who was famous for BBC’s Hancock’s Half Hour, Richard Jeni who is named amongst the greatest stand up comedians of all them; they all took their lives. Even in the era before motion pictures came in to existence when Theatre companies used to travel the hinterlands of England, there were many stage comedians who committed suicide. Robin Williams, one of the most gifted comedians of our times took his life when he ruled the hearts of millions of people.  If everyone is entitled to his or her share of tragedy, how much one wishes that grief could strike early so that endings are happy. 

Curious case of "Haider Meer"

When was the last time you experienced silent melancholic frames in a Hindi movie or an assembly of great artists, each performing to the best of their abilities? If you are having a hard time scratching your heads then forget about the rest. By rest I mean a Director attempting one of the most complicated pieces of Shakespeare, each character having its layers demanding our attention and still leaving us guessing about the right and wrong, putting forth the tragedy of not only Haider Meer but also of human frailty, commonness of common man(and woman), our institutions and troubled times. If this is heavy then we can entirely forget about Oedipus, the tragic king of Thebes whose traces can be found in the subtext. We can find them if our craving for junk has not made us forget what a subtext means.  Haider could have been the third crown for Vishal Bhardaj after Maqbool and Omkara but sadly it is not so. It tries to set comics in motion when tragedy is at its peak and that makes it falter. Irony of our times is that standing on the heap of jingle bells and gift packets, Haider is still a classic because it is not a commodity but an idea that most of the movies should be. Tabu, Irfaan, Kay Kay, Rajat (young Tigmanshu from Gangs of Wasseypur), Vidyatrthi are there, still Shahid and Shraddha stand out. Every character has it place, space and time. Kashmiri Pandits are almost left out but that is for other daring makers to explore as it is a story of one Haider Meer. Those who think that the image of Indian army is maligned in the movie can only be pitied upon because this is the tragedy of one Haider Meer.  

"O Master Chetan Bhagat"

O master Chetan Bhagat

o keeper of the herds,

you wizard of many wonders

pray, not English words

for classics made them cry

you ended their plight,

they cheered that night at call center

even mistakes of your life

from northern southern quarters

you brought us two states,

let them say what they may

devil showed some grace

their palms to the heaven

plates were dripping plenty,

possessed by selling spirits

you tossed a revolution twenty

those pictures make you grin

you hit the golden spoon,

now columns and half girlfriends

we swoon swoon swoon…..

Varun Mayaram Sihag

Ha Ha Ha

The deputy Prime Minister of Turkey says that it is not right of women to laugh aloud in public. The Women of Turkey protested by posting their grinning pictures on social media sites. Let’s come out of Turkey. Laughter clubs are all around. Laughing Buddhas in every house with their hands uplifted, grinning at the main doors. There have been hardly any comedy shows which failed to make money, even those stereotypical satires on the sub TV keeps our family members busy from Monday to Friday. When almost everybody is trying to have an American (not Latin) sense of humor, stand up comedians are increasingly giving a good time in dinning bars. Jokes on Arvind Kejriwal, santa-banta and wives do the rounds on wassup with replies in form of hahaha or hehehe. Rajneesh’s discourses are full of anecdotes of Mulla Nasruddin. Hearty laughter is good for blood pressure the doctors say and that is why the green patches of our housing societies are full of sad looking middle age men and women trying very hard to throw their guts out laughing when in fact they have nothing funny early in the morning.

                                                    Indian Mythological Demons (Rakshasas) who have the focus and ability to meditate for long years before Shiva appears to empower them as they desire, go mad laughing once they are empowered and there is no one to appreciate them or their sense of humor. On the other hand the seriousness of lord Rama is celebrated. I wonder why did the earliest writers and directors of television Ramayana thought that the Rakshashas would laugh all the time. It is absurd to see a scholar like Raavan (not RA 1) laughing because some arrow he shot has done some magic when all his sons and brothers lie dead and his army is on the verge of extinction. May be the television Directors picked it from our folklores where Ramayana is religiously played in every village and town mostly by the people from the margins of society. So, even the earliest actors, writers and directors of these dramatized versions thought that there was something sinister about laughter and this the reason every demon would be in fits of laughter right in the middle of a battle when there are dead bodies all around. May be the poor actor just forgot his lines and could not come up with something else or there is something really profound they are trying to convey when our attempts are more demonic in defense of our Gods and prophets. Let’s not take offense at everything, lets have a sense of humor.

"Difficulty of reading a Big Short Story Book"

It would just not end. Unlike fat novels where a singular narrative could assist you in reading two hundred or more pages at one go, these fat short story books would give you a different setting with different characters after every few pages which will require special effort to first absorb it all and then point out the main premise of the story. It becomes like space travel where you are left in a small town or locality to explore it and just when you are beginning the exploration, it ends abruptly and you are dropped in some other part of the country to start it all over. It is like meeting people in buses and trains who would speak a word or two just when their destination is close and they are leaving their seats to get off. How many of the stories could one internalize and enjoy the beauty? My guess is five to six a day would be enough if one is reading ‘Guy De Maupassant’ or ‘O Henry’. ‘Manto’ and ‘Jhumpa Lahiri’ may give some freedom of fast reading but what will be the point of that?? 

SMOKING THRILLS

What is with smoking that all those horrendous images on the cigarette packets combining with the anti tobacco movie messages on our TV and cinema screens are not able to stop millions from inhaling the supposed poison and exhaling the orphic circles of smoke. What is with the American glamour of Marlboro men and cultural significance of Filipino cheroots or Cuban cigars? Why that is an image of a woman smoking a cigarette without being conscious is freedom personified for so many creative artists and a challenge for conservative folks? Caffeine and alcohol are the best formulas for conversations but what would a lonely being do? He or she would walk to the window of his drawing room and light a smoke. At the tea tapris of Jaipur, on the sea facing rocks of Mumbai and in the open spaces of Jawahar Lal Nehru University of Delhi; a loner would sit silently on a stone and light his brand. Inhaling deep, staring in zero, in that momentary gap between a puff and another, one would think of oneself as if he or she were Socrates, Dante, Manto, Chekhov or Amrita Preetam. Let them live the glory, let them smoke….Smoking Thrills. 

Why Saleem Javed Matter!!

Writers, especially film writers are a rare breed. Unlike novelists their work does not get translated to different languages so they do not have admirers showering accolades on them across the globe. Their intellectual properties i.e. scripts they pen down do not insure a constant influx of money either for them or their families. Instead of literate publishing houses the novelists deal with, they have to go about their business with hawkish money making tendencies of ruthless corporate and individual motion picture producers. The last and the most terrible thing, they need to focus more on public relations than their writing because who needs a good writer when movies are sailing on dance numbers and the star power.

                                                            An idea may be the seed of theories, doctrines, revolutions, novels, short stories, a poem or a movie, that is the beauty of an idea. But a film writer knows the dangers of an idea better than anybody else. Why? Because anybody can have an idea; from an executive producer or the CEO of the company to a distant relative of a veteran cinematographer can have his or her own idea about which they are very excited. The trouble is they expect a film writer to develop this wonderful idea of theirs in to an equally wonderful screenplay without an advance pay cheque. The poor film writer is left contemplating either to gamble a minimum period of a month during which he would be borrowing money to put it in someone else’s ‘idea’ or to simply say ‘no’ on the peril of ruining his relationship with the people. They famously say in Mumbai “never say no to anybody”.  

                                                        Problems of the film writers magnify many folds when the context is Indian. Though the Film Writers’ Association is coming up, they are still nowhere close to the organizations such as the Writers’ Guild of America in their ferocity in protecting the rights of fellow writers.  So the intellectual copyrights of a film writer are not guarded as stringently as they should be. The guess is they are not going to be for a very long time because film writers are supposed to comply at the smallest gesture and start throwing their ideas on the coffee tables of Baristas’, Costa’s or Café coffee days. They do not have agents to promote their talent so that they can go back to their comfortable spaces and work in peace. They need to be on the walking distance may be a phone call away, always. No money! So where is the question of settling down? Trapped in their emotional and financial insecurities they become timid, depressed and coward which leads them to agree to work on any condition even if it means cutting the throats of their own fellow writers.  

                                                     But the picture has not always been this gloomy. The brightest and the most promising example of hope has been the duo of “Salim-Javed”. For the 23 Hindi movie scripts they penned down together during a decade and half of their alliance, they changed the way the writers were perceived. Their doggedness to fight for their rights was unparallel. Who but they could go around riding a rikshaw and paint their names on the film posters they had written and thus creating a brand name for themselves which at the time glistened brighter than the stars. Never before or after has anybody seen screen writers demanding a share in the profit of the movies they wrote. It was the confidence in their work and the ethics they attached to their demands for what they deserved that can be the shining post for thousands who are tackling their ghosts of creativity sitting solitarily and diving deeper into their sub conscious so that they can write well and the movie viewers could be served well. Let them not demand a share in the profit but they deserve dignity, respect and a pay cheque if they are good at what they do.