Brave Black Comedies That Steered Clear of Cliches May 09, 2021, 11:38 IST
Black comedy is not a preferred genre in Hindi cinema where slapstick humour is usually chosen over a funny take on dark realities. Our pick of five films made the audience squirm in their seats, think, and laugh out aloud.
Kaalakaandi: This 2018 black comedy by Akshat Verma stars Saif Ali Khan in his element, Akshay Oberoi, Deepak Dobriyal, Vijay Raaz, Isha Talwar and Sobhita Dhulipala. At the core of the convoluted story are random events that change the course of many lives. The protagonist Rileen (Saif) is an oddball who has been diagnosed with stomach cancer, and is now hell bent upon living his repressed dreams. He gets high on LSD and wants to check all the boxes of his strange bucket list. There are multiple characters on their own trajectory and driven by greed, lust and mindlessness, they collide, are caught in accidents, raids, shootouts and improbable encounters. The mind
Brij Mohan Amar Rahe: Arjun Mathur, the poster boy of complex masculinity goes into unfamiliar territory in this Yoodlee production and plays Brij, the frustrated owner of a hosiery store. He has a messy personal life and is also being crushed by debt. Unable to cope, he cooks up a bizarre scheme to fake his own death and even ends up orchestrating a murder. What adds a comic element to this grim scenario is that there are no heroes in this tale and every character is flawed , morally corrupt , greedy, unscrupulous and scampering to implicate the other. This Nikhil Bhat directorial dark comedy also stars Nidhi Singh, Sheetal Thakur, Manav Vij, Sunny Hinduja, Vijayant Kohli and Yogendra Tikku. Mathurâs performance, the milieu, the sudden twists and the writing all come together to create a black comedy worthy of both laughter and shock.