Priyadarshan's birthday special: Dissecting recurring features of filmmaker's classic comedies
The modern-day master of comedy, prolific director Priyadarshan has enriched the landscape of Hindi cinema like very few have. Bhagam Bhag, Hungama, Hera Pheri, among many more, Priyadarshan's films are the salve you need if you wish to disappear into a different world for a few hours on a distressing day. On his 67th birthday, let's revisit the striking features of his comedies.
Ensemble casts where one complements the other
The hallmark of his comedies is ensemble casts; he has a way of setting them all together in a way that one doesn't eat up the scenes or runtime of the other. Priyadarshan's frequent collaborators Akshay Kumar, Rajpal Yadav, and Paresh Rawal, among others, spotlessly glisten in such films, and there's no way we could get tired of his characters playfully nagging each other.
Extreme chaos and pandemonium, usually in the climax
What's a Priyadarshan film without a memorable climax that leaves you in stitches? Take, for instance, the climax of Hungama where the entire cast comes together (with most of them getting electric shocks) to that of De Dana Dan where all the characters find themselves about to be submerged in water—Priyadarshan's climaxes are a masterclass in writing a fitting film end.
A soft, tender, non-distracting romantic sub-plot
Often, romantic sub-plots take away from the movie's cynosure and needlessly add to the project's runtime, but that's never the case with Priyadarshan's films. From Anuradha-Shyam's short-lived but tender, sentimental love (Hera Pheri) to Anjali-Nandu's love-hate and eventually love-love relationship (Hungama) to Jai-Anjali's love that goes from being pretentious to passionate (Hulchul), Priyadarshan's films shed the right amount of spotlight on romantic plots.
Likeable heroes we could sympathize with
Take Raju from Hera Pheri—a product of his grim circumstances that lead him to speak harmless lies or Baburao from the same film—Priyadarshan's comedies often teem with characters that have a relatable past, which makes it easy for us to sympathize and connect with them. Malamaal Weekly is moist with such people—an entire village scraping by at the mercy of the scheming "Thakurani" Karamkali.
