Why the Alia Bhatt self-parody is beyond awesome.

by meeta | 2 comments | 10,812 views | Add comment

For the uninitiated, get yourself a quick background here.

If you know of the Alia Bhatt faux pas on Karan Johar's TV show, but haven't seen the self-parody, watch it here.

(When I watched it first, it had some 35,000+ views, it is now at 2.6 million and counting. More power to you girl!)


So, why is this self-parody beyond awesome?

Of course, she's an awesome sport, that's why. But, that is not the only reason, is it?

It's because she is laughing with you, while making fun of you when you laughed at her, while making fun of her.

It's because she is telling you, not asking you - "So what!" At the same time, she pointed the finger right back at us, "You want to laugh at me, here you go, let me give you a hand."

It's because she is representing a generation which can take a joke on themselves. No high horses. No hullaboo. Just pure fun. "We are like that only." In bold letters for you.

It's because it's an awesome PR strategy for her even if AIB took the idea to her. Here's how you capitalize on bad publicity.

But, most of all, it's because at the end of those 10 minutes, as I laughed out aloud, one question that glared at me was, "Why can't our films be like this?"

Why can't we have comedy like this in our feature length films? Why do we have to either have bad puns under the garb of #PJ (poor joke) or put someone else down (gay, obese, women, sardars, wives, a religion, a political ideology) for our filmy dose of laughter?

In fact, why can't everyday humor in our real lives be like this? Doesn't mean good humor is only the kind where you laugh at yourself and put yourself down. But it is a good start.

Sorry, I digress. Why can't our films be directed like this? If Karan Johar can act this well and have such a sense of humor, why can't this be brought to his films? Certainly, there are creative people out there who can come up with brilliant concepts and good writers to execute the idea. Then why is it not happening?

10 minutes is not the same as 100 minutes, you say. Oh come on, let us at least give it a shot!

Oh wait, films are commercial. 10-minute self-parody videos are not. Films are for "masses", viral videos are well for the more intelligent twitterati. Masses of course, are not intelligent, right? Isn't it ironical then, that this started with, "Alia Bhatt is so dumb that..."


Quick background: Alia Bhatt, is doing very well as an actor with films like Highway and whether or not you like the films, she has done a decent job with her characters in 2 States and Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania. In a talk show with Karan Johar as host, she blurted out the wrong answer for "Who is the president of India?" And of course, social media and whatsapp meme-d the life out of the incident. All India Bakchod proposed a self-parody to her out of this incident, which for lack of better words is plain and simple - brilliant.

- meeta, a part of the audience

Comments (2)

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neetish:

2 movies with good comedy were rated rather low by you :(
Pyar ka punchnama & vicky donor

meetu:

@neetish No, Vicky Donor has a good rating.

Yeah, Pyar Ka Punchnama was too one-sided and later got repetitive for me.

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