Saturday, May 24, 2008

The Great Indian Nostalgia


At the creative discussion for concepts, an assistant producer claimed to successfully manage and produce a spoof show. While I was giving him gyaan oh how difficult it is to do comedy shows, I could not stop myself from thinking about "The Great Indian Comedy Show", which I had the honour of working for once. One thing led to another and after countless stories on the show I pulled out the following mail sent by Varun Grover (one of the writers and a good friend) and I thought that I should put the article here for immortality in cyber space.

So here goes, as well as successive replies & musings by the other writers...


End of an era - Varun Grover

My first impression was – It’s an arrogant show! Calling oneself ‘Great’ even before its launch was not a very Indian thing to do…a marketing ploy which read every bit American tabloid. So, almost conclusively, I thought that it’s going to bomb.

Skipped the first few weeks, more due to lack of resources (a cable connection!) than interest…but one fine day, watched something where a Shahrukh Khan kind of a guy sitting in a truck, alongside a Makrand Deshpande kind of a guy (beat that!), was shaking to the Swades song and eliciting rotten eggs, combs and other household items from Mak’s unruly hair. I was amused in an intelligent sort of a way and…the show had begun for me!

Over the next few months, the awe grew; the gags struck a regular chord and some of the standups, especially by Ranvir and Vinay sounded a welcome-bell for elitist setup-punch routines on Indian television. Kukurmati ki Kahaani, Cow-Mundas (“Meri life da horse two seater nahin, one-seater hai Shabbo” and “Howdy oye!”), Office Supplies (Kiku in drags, for the first time I guess, in what was to be a series of alternate clothing for him on the show), Ramesh and the mill-worker’s dialogues, and many more yet-unseen situations and interpretations became the hallmark of the show.

During the initial 6-months or so, it looked more like an underground show, with taboo themes, niche clientele and a wackiness of its own defining. Educated working class, the new India of Bangalore and Gurgaon was raving about it. (I doubt the Channel ever came to know of it!) It was the kind of show which gave lots to discuss over a coffee or sutta during office hour breaks and hence, in a very targeted way, it did become the ‘talk of the town’ pretty soon.

Then, sometime in July 2005, the word ‘massy’ entered our lingo. (Plain incidental – me and Rahul joined the show in July, same day as Shekhar Suman did.) Shekhar Suman tried to bridge that gap, the gap between massy and classy, and I reckon, he did a good job for some months. The gags were still not too ‘easy’ or ‘dumbed-down’ but the Standups became more ‘Hindi’. Some of the software guys in India and America (yes, the show was a big hit on American peer sites and later at youtube) felt cheated but still, the gags were a joy to watch. During this 7-month period, Mangal Pandey, Black, Dus and Tarantino’s Kill Bill were spoofed and goofed at. For a brief period, around November-December, the magic balance seemed to be close-at-hand. Diwali standup, Children’s day standup, New Year’s week special standups (with special focus on Sports, Movies, Politics and Society) complimented the gags amazingly.

Shekhar left, amidst some celebrations from some quarters (with some good reason too) but what followed was even more set-away from the original ‘target’ (or it seemed like) of the show. The Great Indian Laughter Challenge (‘Phool, jo bann gaya Angaara’) gave us a tough branding competition, and (no) thanks to its mass-approach, we were constantly losing ground since late 2005. And in February 2006, they came over.

Last one year of TGICS is really tough to document…such a turbulent phase it was. It was almost like a whole class at a college nearing its graduation. Lots of job opportunities, planning for future, students interning outside campus, Professors looking on glum, nostalgia evoking restlessness and changing schedules of classes owing to administrative confusion. The original ‘arrogant’ tint was gone. It was no more called ‘Great’ or even ‘Indian’, and it had an added sound-effect in its name. TCS - Ha Ha Ha was another attempt at bringing in those who we euphemistically call TRPs.

And surprisingly, or should I say ‘not surprisingly’, the show retained its charm, insight, and irreverent streak against the high-and-mighty all through its run. There were very few days while watching the show when being associated with it didn’t feel like a blessing. The quality provided by the production team, actors and directors makes it a genius-gone-less-noticed. Having a team of writers like RD (our KBC insider!), Mahesh, Arshad, Amit Masurkar, and Dushant and creative heads like Sailesh, Rajesh Devraj, and now Sudarshan gave the show its own course, after every course-distraction by the forces.

It does give a Gurudutt-ish pleasure to know that your masterpiece didn’t get the appreciation or ‘rockstar’ status even after surpassing the benchmark a thousand times; it does, in a twisted-intelligent kind of way, prove that you belong to that less-than-5-percent bracket of intellectuals who can laugh on themselves, their country, their society, their heroes…anybody who is fallible. But then, as the curtains fall, it does hurt too. What could have been a really GREAT INDIAN COMEDY SHOW fell just short on numbers!

Thanks for making me understand the arrogance….and thanks for making this show a memory of a lifetime.



Arshad Sayeed's Reply



vonderfully vell vritten Varun!...
Read your take and got ''pressurized' into writing something....

But seriously(if there is such a word in these Star News times), I really dont know what to write about. So many memories man!...so many..... as hilarious as the stuff on our show..and most of it came from the channel .:

Like the mail we got from the channel when we started out which said that we cannot insult Mr. George Bush because he has an 'integral association' with Rupert Murdoch who owns Star which owns us..... Basically we were told not to be Namak Haraams!

" Please Dont Spoof Mr Bachchan... (Wait a minute... he's not doing the third season of KBC??.. Damn him! ) Ya go ahead and take his pants off!! Like you do with other stars( What??..SRK is the new face??.And RD is writing???) ..except Shahrukh Khan....and Karan Johar..and Simi Garewal!!...

TV spoofs??...Sure!!!!.... Great idea!... But dont spoof any show on Star.. We dont want to make fun of our shows. And also dont spoof any show which is NOT on Star. We dont want to promote them un nessarily.. Apart from this...go and kill everything on TV! (DD Podigha anyone??)

Do not take celeb names!! They may sue us.. (A gag mentioned Kim Sharma. The EPs brought it up before Sameer Nair and just as he was being explained how its not a good thing to take the names of stars like Kim Sharma, he turned around and asked "Er...ya but...who's Kim Sharma??")

And how about this one? When I did Kukurmati...it was supposed to run five times a week.....(During our five day run).... But Ekta saw it and got offended. Result??..Paanch ke badle haftey mein teen baar.!!.... Which basically meant its ok to piss her off three times a week but not five times! Go figure. Strange are the ways of the Channel!

But guys...Despite all the battles and frustrations....and the 0.5 ratings.....(.Which basically means that India as a whole doesnt acknowledge your show...they'd rather watch Ba blow candles on her 420th birthday cake followed by a five episode arti), a channel which well....treated us as an idiot kid yelling for attention who should best be ignored (which was good) or periodicaly be shown how to grow up by the LC boys (Which was not so good).., or the whole TV industry with its comments like : Achcha hai.....Par niche hai... Massy nahin hai...madness ke badle masti hona chahiye..... (Yes KSandeep Sikand! That means you!!) , I feel we made our mark.

We've created a whole new kind of humor. Even if its the 0.5 variety. The impact has been made. And its there to be seen during coffee table conversations, ads on TV and even movies. Vinay's character in Bheja Fry was almost straight out of one our gags!...And the film is a hit!. We have made a difference and we all deserve a pat on our back for it. (Including a huge bonus cheque of fifty lakhs from Abhimanyu) .

Duniya maane ya na maane, we believe in what we've done. Guys...lets keep this brand of humor banner flying high, in whatever we do... (and hopefully some of it will we will all do together. Har raat ke baad subah types...) ....

Yes. We are amongst the Five percent Varun talks about. And to think that we will influence/change the way the remaining 95 percent thinks, is as impossible as Celina Jaitley winning a national award (This one might happen though!).... The divide will remain...we'll continue to be low raters in what we do...(All except RD who will go onto write KBC four for Hrithik!).... But do not despair!!!... Hopefully one day God will finally GET one of our gags and work a miracle and good television shall prevail!

I end with a Ghalib quote which sort of sums it up for me.

"De Aur Bhi Dil Unko.....Jo Na De Mujhko Zubaan Aur" (rather than give us more wit...give them the bloody sense to understand it!)
"Kehte Hain Ki TGICS Ka Hai (Tha?) Andaaze Bayaan Aur"

Cheers!! Keep in tuch!!...and please please please take good care of yourselves!!!

One show that I am very proud of... cant help feeling happy (being a part of it), sad (not being a part of it anymore), sorry (the show coming to an end) all at the same time. I guess this is how you define nostalgia.

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