But this grossed-out thingy did prompt us to rewind to the ‘importance’ of drag acts in our movies. They are considered the next best thing to set off guffaws after slipping on a banana, or juggling a frisky dog in one’s trousers (Kya Kool Hai Hum). Crowd pleasing humour is like that only. What to do?
Salman Khan in ‘Jaaneman’
Salman Khan in ‘Jaaneman’
Strangely when heroines dress up as males, there’s no ROFTL laughter. Women do that in the movies, only under extreme circumstances. Like Padmini did in Mera Naam Joker. Or Rani Mukherjee in Dil Bole Hadippa to get a chance to play cricket, a variation on Barbra Streisand attempting to break into male domain in Yentl.
Drag acts are not exclusive to Bollywood, of course. On the contrary, they have been imported from Hollywood. They have lost something of the original’s humour in translation. Yet, it has to be said that two or three of them worked. Rishi Kapoor with the no-longer-visible Paintal made for likeable avatars of Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in Some Like it Hot. Kamal Haasan was more than likeable in Chachi 420, a rip-off from Robin Williams’ act in Mrs Doubtfire.
