A Lever on laughter

SHALINI SAKSENA catches up with the cast of Sony SAB’s new show Partners which went on air from November 28. A report on the show with plenty of laughs

People love to laugh, more so when it is through TV shows. No wonder then shows likeBhabhiji Ghar Par Hain and Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah have been in business for years. Inspired by such comic successes, show makers are coming out with new comedies, the latest one to join the bandwagon being Partners on Sony SAB.

Written and directed by Paritosh Painter, the show is extra special as it marks the return of comedian Johnny Lever to the small screen after a 10-year gap.

“Painter is a good friend and we worked in the film Paying Guest together. When he came to me I had to say yes. He is a writer who has good knowledge of what comedy is all about. When a person writes well, one feels nice to be part of his work,” says Lever who plays a police commissioner in the show and has a special bond with the men in uniform.

Another surprise? Lever plays a double role here. What the other role is all about is being kept under wraps till the show goes on air.

What make him laugh are not things that are funny but the tragedy he sees around him. “The expressions on people’s faces when they are stressed and in tension make me laugh. I observe them and they become my inspiration for the various characters that I play,” Lever shares.

For him, comedy is serious business. “There are very many challenges. The writer and the actor have to work hard to get the laugh quotient right. Some people are born to make people laugh. And then there are directors who are born to get that kind of work out of people like us,” Lever tells you.

Painter agrees. “It is difficult to make people laugh. There are things that you may find hilarious but not the audience. But I have been lucky due to my theatre background which helps me connect with my audience directly with a one-on-one response. I understand what works with the audience. The audience varies from place to place. What a north Indian audience will enjoy need not necessarily excite the south Indians. Comedy shouldn’t look forced as it disconnects audiences,” Painter says. He zeroed in on Johnny Lever and Kiku Sharda because he wanted to make comedy work and for that he needed great actors.

“It is very difficult to make a comedy work with average artists, as the most important thing is the delivery and timing of dialogues and reactions. No camera angle or treatment can save you or make a punch line work if the dialogue delivery or the reaction is not timed right. Who better than Johnny sir and Kiku to give you that,” Painter asks.

To make a comedy work, one needs to work on the characters and the world they are set in. It also depends on what kind of comedy it is — subtle, over the top or dark. “One has to create a world and characters accordingly. Some ‘dips’ in the narrative are crucial to let the audience relax and garner energy for the next big roar,” Painter says,  who has written for films like Dhamaal and Poster Boys and been a screenplay and dialogue writer for Tenali Ram, among others.

To make a show where the police are not shown in bad light and yet make it funny is a challenge. But Painter says that all professions have varied people — good, bad, funny, serious, quirky, etc. “As long as you make fun using their characteristics or the situation they get caught in, it’s not a problem. I think the problem arises when you make fun of the profession itself. In our show we have varied characters and to bring out comedy by emphasizing on their funnier side without disrespecting the profession and the values they stand for,” he shares.

Kiku Sharda, who plays Manav Desai, a goofy police officer, tells you that his character becomes a cop after passing an exam. “He is also related to the DGP who is stressed out to have this person around him all the time so Desai is transferred to a place where Johnny Lever is the commissioner. The idea to give him a ‘partner’ is to ensure that Desai is retrained. But his partner, played by Vipul Roy, is not too happy to have this person with him,” Sharda says who has a long history of playing a cop.

What makes this role different for Sharda is that here, Desai, despite being goofy has good intentions when it comes to fighting crime and catching the bad guys.

“We are not trying to show the police in a bad light. We have largely played on the fact that Desai is just goofy, he is not corrupt or does wrong things,” Sharda tells you, adding that people have seen cute cops for seven-eight years in the serial FIR.

To play a cop again has been great for Sharda. Not that he feels that he has become a real cop, he is happy he can make viewers laugh.

“Being the mad guy, being the guy who messes up things and others get hassled due to this, is fun. It creates a situation where people can have a laugh and that is our endeavour in the end,” Sharda says.