Humour is not a dream: Abhijit Guha

There is a common belief that women lack a sense of humour and laughter shows must be aired at a time slot that will be men-friendly rather than women-friendly, says director Abhijit Guha. But director Sudeshna Roy doesn���������t quite agree.
20.00 PM Sudeshna Roy: Rana, we���������ve been asked by CT to give our take on humour on the small screen.
20.01 PM Abhijit Guha: I���������m not Rana to my admirers.I���������m Abhijit. As for humour on a small screen, you sitting on it will evoke enough humour.
20.02 PM Sudeshna: Don���������t be crass, be serious.
20.03 PM Abhijit: Is humour, for you, very serious?
20.04 PM Sudeshna: Not to me. But, it���������s a serious chat about humour that we have to present to the press...
20.05 PM Abhijit: That itself is a funny thought. Jokes apart, I think humour on television must be a blend of slapstick, situation and grossness...
20.06 PM Sudeshna: No, I feel, grossness should be avoided because television is about family entertainment.
20.07 PM Abhijit: Come on, do you think families don���������t have gross elements? In any family, when someone passes wind or belches, there are humorous winks and comments.
20.08 PM Sudeshna: No. We always discouraged such habits in our family.
20.10 PM Abhijit: The problem with you, Sudeshna, is that you take things personally and bring it down to your family. There are other families too in this world. Families that have a more earthy sense of humour and for them you have to be earthy.
20.11 PM Sudeshna: Such grossness is for men. Women loathe it.
20.14 PM Abhijit: Perhaps, that���������s probably why there is a common belief that women lack a sense of humour and laughter shows and comedies must be aired at a time slot that will be men-friendly rather than women-friendly.
20.15 PM Sudeshna: I don���������t agree completely. Women do have a sense of humour. But they are not fond of things that are gross and obnoxious. They are into subtleties of life, into situations.
20.17 PM Abhijit: Maybe, but, they are more into tears, gossip and family politics.
20.19 PM Sudeshna: Perhaps. But there too, you can find humour. We did so in Labonnyor Sansar and got good results too.
20.21 PM Abhijit: Yes. I must admit LS to some extent was a success in situational humour. But it did not reach the TRP pinnacle as the dose of grossness was missing.
20.22 PM Sudeshna: But even today people talk about LS. It had a high rating in the afternoon slot at 1 pm as well as in the night at 11 pm. Men were also watching it. I remember the Pujas of 2005. I was waiting at a pandal when a middle-aged gentleman came and said, ���������Madam, I see you before going to bed each night,���������
20.23 PM Abhijit: I know you revelled at being the heartthrob of the middle-aged.
20.24 PM Sudeshna: Don���������t be mean. I was not the heartthrob. It���������s my acting.
20.25 PM Abhijit: There you go... no sense of humour. LS was a high point in our life. We got Tanimadi (Tanima Sen), Dwijenda (Dwijen Bandopadhyay), Gautamda (Gautam De), Sumit (Sumit Sammader), Surojit (Surojit Banerjee), Sarbari (Sarbari Mukherjee), Bhaskar (Bhaskar Banerjee), Chandreyi, Joyjit and Swaralipi in a humourous basket. The scripts too were inspired by our daily life and Sumit, Surojit and, to some extent, Tanimadi helped in creating fun on screen.
20.26 PM Sudeshna: Rana, you���������ve conveniently blacked me out.
20.27 PM Abhijit: I have not mentioned myself either. We are the directors and we mustn���������t project ourselves. We are creators.
20.29 PM Sudeshna: You are right. We are the dreamers.
20.30 PM Abhijit: There you go, humour is not a dream. It���������s based on harsh reality, whether on small or big screen. It���������s the best and the most difficult mode of entertainment. There���������s nothing more demeaning than a joke falling flat.
20.31 PM Sudeshna: That���������s why the canned laughter in comedy scenes or programmes is used, somewhat like the drums being beaten at war to scare the enemy and inspire the poor soldiers about to die. However, humour on the idiot box does have takers. I feel depending on the time of telecast, the jokes and spoofs vary. Stand-up comedies have a market but not as much as song and dance, but a light-hearted serial with a comic dose, along with family sentiments.
20.32 PM Abhijit: You are a typical Bengali though you deride us of being that. You keep talking of subtle humour, situational and sentimental comedy. But does it work?
20.33 PM Sudeshna: It worked in LS.
20.34 PM Abhijit: It worked then, but don���������t fool yourself that it will work again...
20.35 PM Sudeshna: How do you know if you have not tried it?
20.37 PM Abhijit: We tried but Shashuri Zindabad did not work.
20.38 PM Sudeshna: True, but did we try hard enough? Though people talk of their sense of humour, what really works according to TRPs is inane comedies.
20.40 PM Abhijit: Say, for instance, in stand-up comedies, certain vulgar jokes, slapstick presentation, ridiculous costumes seem to get ratings.
20.40 PM Sudeshna: Judges too are probably forced to laugh. If not, the canned laughter goes louder. The problem is that the funnybone in various people lies in different places. For some, it���������s in the mind. For others, it���������s in the eye, ear or in the stomach. So, you have to know who to tickle where...
20.41 PM Abhijit: You can���������t force people to laugh with you. Either you make them laugh or you don���������t. Just trying won���������t help. You���������ve got to tickle the humour bone sometimes subtly, sometimes really hard. Success lies in getting the dosage right!
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