For a few laughs more!

Now think about this scenario that could be commonplace in most homes. The husband has just returned home after a stressful day at work. The wife has slaved and slogged the entire day and the kids have had an equally grueling day in school. It’s TV time. And after all of them have fought over which channel to watch they settle down for a prime time show. The lead actor has lost his job, the lead actress is fighting over water at the community tap and the kids are crying as their school fees haven’t been paid. The audience family is experiencing some kind of déj? vu! There is a pressing need for good humour now - more than ever before. Depression and stress is all around us so TV entertainers should take the responsibility to lighten audience mood. Strangely when life was easier, calmer and less stressful the entire family sat around the b/w TV and watched light shows like Yeh jo hai zindagi, Dekh bhai dekh, Wagle ki Duniya, Nukkad and Idhar Udhar to name a few. In recent times, it was Sarabhai V/S Sarabhai. Life was so much simpler, less stressful and hassle free. And all of us who saw these shows will recall that after it was over we had this big grin on our faces! Can we say it of any of our daily soaps today? In fact most of them do the reverse. After the 30 minute watch we end up feeling more disturbed and very often even depressed. I think it’s about time the doctors prescribe shows as an antidote to uplift our moods. Just think of this no need to pop mood elevating drugs… just watch a nice fun filled show. But where are such shows now? For a long time despite big success stories, comedy still remained a neglected area on television. Despite such a glorious start, comic shows could never create an enviable position for its genre on television. A comedy show requires an intelligent script and the lack of capable writers is one of the important reasons why comedy has failed to create a mark for itself. The lifeline of a good comedy show is its script. Even big stars fail if the script is not up to the mark. Zee TVs Johny Ala Re with Johny Lever and Sahara’s Malini Iyer with Sridevi in the lead, failed to create magic despite the presence of big names. Tu-Tu Main-Main and Hum Paanch were extremely popular when they first appeared but failed to re-create the magic in their second innings. A poor script was the reason for this. The situation, however, is slightly changing. The success of shows like The Great Indian Laughter Challenge and Comedy Circus is encouraging channels to take comedy more seriously. The credit for the success of a channel like Sab TV goes to comedy. Sab TV didn’t hesitate in projecting itself as an all out comedy channel. And Tarak Mehta ka ooltah chashmah, Shahbuddin Rathod’s Papad Pol which are shown in their adapted versions are bringing in the much needed TRPs. There has been an upswing in the number of comedy shows on television. What is best is they are getting tremendous approval from the public, which is making them commercially viable as well. But we still have to go a long way in cracking the comedy formula. So I make a public appeal to all creative people to put their heads together and give the aam junta some happy times. And the day this happens psychologists, psychiatrists may find themselves out of business. Because if you're not laughing, you're not living! Read more...