Groovy baby
MINI ANTHIKAD-CHHIBBER
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`Ghoom' is the first Hindi spoof, but Hollywood has long mastered the art.
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LAUGH RIOT A poster of `Ghoom' with his psychedelic sixties wardrobe and vocabulary gets the laughs as Austin Powers.
Long ago in a galaxy far, far away... and so the scroll goes into the intergalactic highway till... wait a minute the last line reads `if you can read this, your eyesight is perfect!' Something is rotten in cyberspace for in place of the terrifying Darth Vader, he of the clanking breath, is Dark Helmet, who takes off his visor exclaiming, "I cannot breathe in this thing!" The repulsive Jabba the Hutt has been replaced by Pizza the hut, who eats himself to death! Ladies and gentlemen, we are talking about that glorious spoof of Star Wars from the King of Comedy Mel Brooks, Spaceballs. Parodies or spoofs are endemic to popular culture. In cinema, there is a natural progression. A film bursts on the collective unconscious and is eagerly lapped up by the audience, it attains cult/classic status and then there is nowhere to go but the spoof route. Think of cult movies like Sholay or Deewar and see the number of spoofs. Just that one line "mere paas maa hain" has appeared countless times in gazillion forms from the little spots on telly to references in films. Even the recent Shaadi Se Pehle has Akshaye Khanna's character saying: "Mere pass ma bhi nahin hain!" The recall as well as the laughs is immediate and infectious.
Sailesh Dave, who produced, developed and was creative coordinator of Ghoom, a spoof of Yash Raj's mega successful biker film Dhoom says: "I have noticed in my work on The Great Indian Comedy Show and Ghoom that anything with a reference point is more enjoyable."
Mike Meyers.
While spoofs are a separate and highly successful genre by themselves in Hollywood, in Hindi cinema, apart from Ajit Dewani's not particularly successful Ramgarh Ke Sholay (1991), where Amjad Khan reprised his role as Gabbar, Ghoom is the first full-length spoof. There are Hindi movies that have a parallel referential track like, Purani Haveli (1989) from the Ramsay stable had a pretty neat take on Sholay. .
Mike Meyers gave a new spin to James Bond films as Austin Powers with his hideous glasses, dental tombstones and abundant chest hair. Every aspect of the films from the megalomaniac villain (Dr Evil) to buxom belles (there were the fembots and who can forget Ivana Humpalot?) were was gleefully pressed into service. Ghoom is a good start with some smart jokes including filmy rain, which only pours on the heroine. Some of the humour is rather broad but goes with the whole concept of going with friends to enjoy a film. At one hour, it does not overstay its welcome and augurs well for the future of the spoof in mainstream films.
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Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
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Thiruvananthapuram
