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melodrama-and-bouffant-blog · 7 years ago

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Queens that made us ROFL: A flashback

Be it horror, melodrama or musical; comedy has remained a sub-genre within every genre. Providing a comic relief to the audiences in the midst of a suspense thriller or an emotional outbreak is a task that has always been assigned to the men. Comedy, typically and strangely, has never been the genre for women. Even today, we have no female actors to match with the likes of Akshay Kumar, Arshad Warsi and Varun Dhawan. Interestingly, many summers back, Bollywood saw a wave of comediennes who captured the funny bones of their audiences, made them roll on the floor with laughter and have left an indelible impression in their hearts. We bring to you a list of some of the most loved and popular Queens of Comedy!

Tun Tun

Image source: Medium

Uma Devi Khatri is hailed as the first comedienne of Hindi cinema. Actor Dilip Kumar renamed her as Tun Tun, which became her screen name. Born in Uttar Pradesh, music fascinated her. A few years later, she ran away from her home to Mumbai to pursue her dream of making it big as a playback singer. Naushad Ali launched her voice in Wamiq Azra in 1946. Due to intense competition, she moved to acting on the recommendation of Ali. She claimed to be a big fan of Dilip Kumar and told Ali that she would act only if her big break came in a film with Kumar. Finally, she made her debut in Dilip Kumar-Nargis starrer Babul in 1950. Soon, a comic legend was born. She came to be known for her effervescent personality, myriad forms of facial expressions and impeccable comic timing. She was famous for shedding off her real life persona and effectively slipping under the skin of any character she took up without being conscious of her image. Despite sharing screen space with Madhubala in Mr. and Mrs. 55 (1955) and Amitabh Bachchan in Namak Halal (1982), she managed to create a noteworthy frame for herself. In a career spanning several decades, she worked with other comic actors such as Johnny Walker, Bhagwan Dada and Keshto Mukherjee and established herself equal to her male peers. The 60s and the 70s belonged to Tun Tun who became a permanent comic relief in Hindi films. Her performance in films like Aabroo (1968, as Whiskey Rani), Pandit Aur Pathan (1977, as Champakali), Coolie (1983, as the mother to seven babies) and Shehzaade (1989, as Hitler’s bride) were praised and remembered to this day. She broke norms and set a new trend that was taken ahead by Sri Devi and Hema Malini.

Manorama

Image source: Desimartini

Remember Champa from Ek Phool Do Maali (1969), or the more popular tyrannical Chachi from Seeta Aur Geeta (1972)? Yes, that is Manorama for you. Born as Erin Isaac Daniel, she started her career as a leading lady in the 40s. She came to be known as Manorama, which became her screen name, after she played a character of the same name in the 1941 pre-partition blockbuster Khazanchi. Thereafter, she shifted to comic and antagonistic roles. When asked the reason for the shift, she said in an interview with BBC in 2015 - “If I had chosen to act only as a heroine then I would have disappeared from the scene long ago.” She carved a niche for herself as a woman with superb comic timing and her idiosyncrasies such as exaggerated expressions, angry rants, iconic frown, eloquent eye movements and dramatic eye-lashes. Subsequently, she became famous as the stubborn wife with a henpecked husband. She made her own mark and held on her own despite sharing the same frame with acclaimed actors like Kishore Kumar, Madhubala, Sunil Dutt, Waheeda Rahman and Rajesh Khanna in films like Half Ticket (1962), Mujhe Jeeno Do (1963) and Mehboob Ki Mehendi (1971). Bombay To Goa (1971) achieved a cult status and became a very significant part of Manorama’s oeuvre as she shared screen space with some of the best comic actors of her times – Keshto Mukherjee, Mehmood, Sukhri, Sunder, Asit Sen and Oscar.

Preeti Ganguly

Image source: OshoNews

Actor Ashok Kumar’s younger daughter Preeti Ganguly rose to eminence as a comic actress in the 70s and 80s. She became popular for her role in Basu Chatterjee’s Khatta Meetha (1978) as Freni Sethna, a big Amitabh Bachchan fan. In a career spanning 14 years, she appeared in 30 films as a comic relief. She, predominantly, played frumpy characters that made her a favourite among audiences. She featured in most of her films as an overly healthy woman. This was the sole criteria of being and making it big as a comic artist back in the day. When she began to shed some weight, she stopped getting film offers. She is remembered for her roles in films like Dillagi (1978), Chor Ke Ghar Chor (1978), Damaad (1978) and Jhoota Kahin Ka (1979).

#Bollywood #Comedy #TunTun #'Manorama #PreetiGanguly #SeetaAurGeeta #Flashback #Madhubala #KishoreKumar #AmitabhBachchan #BombayToGoa

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