Comedy Ka Maha Muqabla
Timings: Saturday-Sunday, 9.00 pm, Star Plus
Raveena Tandon does a Basanti and a sexy cop to draw the laughs. We don't know if it's a comedown for the mast mast actress or the lure of money and the desire to be in the spotlight that makes her go all out in Star Plus' comic offering. Arshad Warsi, after judging a dance show on the same channel, is now doing funny things with his 'punters' (read his team of comedians), Shreyas Talpade, in between his Golmaal sequels, attempts to tickle your funny bone with his mandali and last but not the least, is the botoxed (??) and considerably leaner Shekhar Suman, who after impressing Madhuri Dixit in vain in Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa, is completely at ease with his 'movers' on Comedy Ka Maha Muqabla.
A confession: we couldn't watch much of this show but having seen a little over an episode and some snatches here and there, we are sure, we haven't missed much. The quality of jokes ranges from the banal to the mildly amusing. The performers too range from expressionless and sometimes absolutely 'duh' (Arhaan Behl, Roshni Chopra and a couple of others who we forget) to the likeable (Sunil Grover, Sudesh Lahiri) to the absolutely overdone (Raju Srivastava). The show seems to be a free for all as participants walk in and out of the circus. The last we saw was full time singer and part-time mimic Sudesh Bhosle playing a lecherous Drithrashtra!
The captains too put their best joke forward and barring Suman and Warsi, the other two do not always impress. Interestingly, no one seems to be in awe of or enamoured by their co-judges as they don't mince words or reserve comment. For instance, when Raveena performed the cop act, all the three men were unanimous in panning her. Shreyas didn't think twice before calling her act a bit "under rehearsed" and though the ravishing Raveena was obviously a bit upset, she had no choice but to grin and bear it. Again, when Shreyas' team performed, she returned his kind words saying, "it was very childish, bachchon ko bahut achcha lagega" tongue firmly in cheek!
Then it's more or less left to Warsi and Suman –– probably the best in the comic business –– to put everything in the right perspective. We won't go into the details of the show. Suffice to say, everyone gets a chance to ham and there is some booty to win at the end and some comedy ka crown.
We have just two favourites: Supriya Pilgaonkar, who relishes every part she gets — whether she is playing the short kurta- jeans-clad news anchor (a la Barkha Dutt) or a Veena Kalik (a take-off on the controversial Veena Malik) or a Gujarati homemaker who mixes her garba with yoga and Shailesh Lodha, who extols pearls of wisdom about life, love and everything else with a generous dose of laughter.
Comedy is serious business and with Sony running multiple seasons of their brand show –– not that they have elevated the genre — this Comedy Ka Maha Muqabla comes across as a khichdi of sorts. The comedy is not always first rate and the laughs, well, most of it is canned.
Verdict: **
Watch it if you must!
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