Caricatures

In Hindi films, one of the best caricatures has been that of a South Indian played by Mehmood. I am of course, referring to the movie Padosan, known for its chartbusting songs by R.D. Burman too. The film is held together by the Mehmood character, who is an innocent dance and music teacher. What brought great delight to the audience was the politically incorrect but hilarious Tamil accent he brought to the role, a landmark caricature.

The common man caricature, was done well by Amol Palekar in several movies. The drunkard, by Keshto Mukherjee, as also by Amitabh Bachchan in a couple of films. There was an Oriya character played by an actor in Hum Hain Rahi Pyaar ke which was also very good. Lalita Pawar played a quintessential Indian mother-in-law, as did Nirupa Roy, the mother. These were real stereotypes played by the actors so well, that they became embedded as a caricature. The police inspector from Jagdish Raj, the Commissioner played by Iftikhar, all turned into a sort of pseudo-reality of their respective characters, and the audiences lapped them up. The village belle was one such, played by variious actresses over the years, but always a ghagra-choli clad, over-the-top, or overly innocent character with full-blown make-up from L'Oreal.

The villains and the dons over the years played by Prem Chopra, Pran, Manmohan, Ajit, and so on, were also exaggerated with mannerisms giving them an identity, topped by the tobacco chewing Gabbar Singh, for a change in military fatigues instead of a dhoti and kurta. Not to foregt the original 'item girls', the gangster's molls, singing "Maar diya jaaye ya chhod diya jaye". Even modern urban characters are frequently exaggerated, like the TV reporter, or advertising executive, or night club crooner. Until realism came into (some) films, actually, every character was in a way, a caricature of the role being played, and this happened even more in some of the regional cinema, like Tamil and Telugu for example.