No country for funny women: Comediennes vanishing from our films isn't a laughing matter

A few days ago, a tweet from this writer with a few images of Manorama to mark her birth anniversary led to people sharing their favourite memories of the iconic yesteryear comedienne. Looking back at the manner in which a Manorama or a Tun Tun would just roll their eyes or sneer and later, a Shobha Khote or an Aruna Irani, who were mostly seen as boisterous characters when it came to comedy, one can’t help wonder how women comedians have been robbed of a half-decent shot at greater glory. Since the 1960s, there have been more than a handful of male comedians who have transcended the boundaries of being ‘character artists’ and some such as Mehmood, Johnny Walker, Deven Verma, Kader Khan and Johny Lever even went on to attain a near leading man-like status. The comedians got meaty roles in gems like Angoor or the middle cinema of Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Basu Chatterjee of the period or even the second wave of Parallel Cinema that gave us the peerless Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, but even these didn’t offer women comedians roles that would justify their talent. Save Mehmood, Johnny Walker and Deven Verma, most of the other male comedians were a victim of this: Rajendra Nath, Agha, Dhumal, Mohan Choti, Mukhri or later, a Ram Sethi — who was ‘Pyarelalji’ the eternal sidekick of Amitabh Bachchan in films like Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Lawaaris, Namak Halaal and Yaarana.