Comedy’s Sardar-E-Azam: Why Jaspal Bhatti’s Flop Show was a mordantly ‘misdirected’ satire

Ask the bae era about Jaspal Bhatti, and it’s probably their response shall be a query mark. Before Navjot Singh Sidhu, Mr Bhatti was the ever-present turbanator-in-chief who revolutionised comedy on Indian tv. However, in contrast to his incurably gabby successor, he was no ‘Laughing Sardar.’ Dour and dry, he had a quite critical mien. Seldom even he smiled, leaving all of the chuckles to the place it mattered essentially the most — the viewers. Starting with the Eighties all through Nineties, when state satellite tv for pc was all Indian sofa potatoes had within the identify of TV leisure, Doordarshan dominated the tube and one man reigned supreme when it got here to laughter.
Jaspal Bhatti’s Flop Show (1989) wasn’t simply another sitcom. With its acerbic writing and ridiculous but relatable conditions, it was a caustic satire that uncovered all the failings, frailties and eccentricities that ailed the booming North Indian middle-classes. The present not too long ago made a comeback to DD National to lighten the temper of a populace practically coming to its tether’s finish after months of Covid lockdown. Few urbanites tune into Doordarshan anymore, however even within the age of Kapil Sharma, AIB comedy roasts, Netflix originals and the present development of stand-ups and open mics, Flop Show’s mordant satire holds out as sui generis. In episode after episode, it reminded us what good humour was all about and the way it might be achieved with the gentlest of contact, sneakiest of jab and sharpest of sting.
Madhouse Magic

From the tongue-in-cheek disclaimer at first (‘This episode is dedicated to those influential people whose trivialities result in another big meeting’), the orchestra-style opening and quirky closing credit to the finale usually ending with a doggerel, Flop Show tirelessly campaigned in opposition to what was mistaken with the system. Take, for instance, the rip-tickling episode titled ‘Meeting.’ It lampoons the governmental follow of addressing a ‘meeting’ which supplies the committee a recent alternative to name for one more assembly, thus by no means resolving the problems for which the primary assembly was referred to as within the first place. True to type, Jaspal Bhatti performs a personality named Jaspal Bhatti, the official of a authorities agency infamous for a frustratingly gradual work tradition. Productivity is zilch right here, regardless that the “entire country is in a meeting.” The solid is populated by a well-recognized ensemble, who flip up in every episode enjoying a caricature of some real-life archetype you could have seen someplace. Of these, the distinguished ones have been the late comic Vivek Shauq, usually reappearing as Bhatti’s pal or superior and Savita Bhatti, the lynchpin’s spouse and co-conspirator. If you haven’t ever seen an episode of Flop Show (there are solely ten), ‘Meeting’ needs to be an excellent place to start out. It’s a madhouse. Savita performs Preeti, a suspicious housewife who’s fed up together with her maid. Sounds acquainted? Her work is okay however she’s awful at breaking neighbourhood gossip, complains the mistress. Vivek Shauq seems as a pipe-smoking supervisor determined to get his file cleared. Caught between a hectoring spouse and demanding boss, add the very enterprising workplace rodents who’re giving Mr Bhatti sleepless nights!
Most episodes are, broadly, on the identical traces. And simply as hilarious. In explicit, sleepy babus, servile secretaries, public administrations, corrupt builders, medical mismanagement and middle-class mannerisms are the butt of jokes. Bhatti spends his time as a henpecked husband heading off crises, whether or not it’s trying to find a treasured watch (his father-in-law’s present) or his spouse’s lacking pet. One episode attracts to an finish with a Bollywood qawwali parody between contractors and engineers. Another is a send-up on property encroachment. One of the funniest moments comes within the first episode itself. Bhatti performs an “experienced chief guest” who begins his speech by saying issues like, “Sorry for being only one hour late today. Usually, at any function, I’m at least one and a half hour late.” In the Bhatti-verse, even a brand new phone line (a legit trigger for celebration for ’90s households) was sufficient to generate some well timed LOLs. Sample this comedian gold: Man: ‘Number toh bohot badhiya hai.’ Bhatti: ‘Kyun? Iss number pe bill nahin aata?’ One spoof on a well-known patriotic tune goes, ‘Ghoome boss ki biwi caron mein, khada baki staff qataron mein/Yahan sote hain babu susti mein, kare ghar ke kaam woh chusti mein.’ A former instructor, Savita Bhatti will get her finest line when, elated at receiving a bribe, she pressures her upright husband to simply accept the suitcase full of money:”Tankha toh aapko workplace jaane ki milti hai, kaam karne ke paise toh aaj aapko mile hain.” Hailing from an air drive background, Savita was no actress however when Bhatti the Ringmaster turned the digicam on her, she went alongside for the trip. Under her husband’s mis-direction, Flop Show captured the ’90s Punjabi zeitgeist that at this time, trying again, looks like less complicated occasions. And less complicated occasions deserved easy humour. Jaspal Bhatti’s materials was neither obscene nor hurtful. For that bawdy model, you have got the streaming websites: Sacha Baron Cohen’s no-filter mockumentaries or AIB’s bathroom humour, take a decide.
Satirist Supreme
Jaspal Bhatti’s comedy arose from the on a regular basis scenario. (Express photograph)
Satire generally is a tough enterprise. How to make a joke with out sounding too message-y or preachy? A innocent comedy that may be became a significant reflection of the world round us was one thing that RK Laxman efficiently provided in his searing cartoons, and a movie like Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro did by means of its sharp remark of a corrupt society the place the one good individuals left within the hellhole are two bumbling photographers (Naseeruddin Shah and the late Ravi Baswani), good for nothing however ultimately discovered to be good for one thing.
If Jaspal Bhatti’s humour generally resembled that of a cartoonist’s, it’s as a result of he was one. His trick was to mix middle-class aspiration and pretension, with an distinctive present to achieve for this so-called genteel strata’s underbelly. His comedy arose from the on a regular basis scenario. It might have occurred to us, in a dusty authorities workplace with a bureaucrat lobbying for kickback or the neighbourly tittle-tattle however whereas we laughed alongside and moved on, Bhatti was the one one who cared to notice it down, then exaggerate and warp it and voila, it’s match for TV. He by no means ran out of satirical steam as a result of his main topic — the nice Indian middle-class — by no means stopped supplying him with recent fodder. At a time when DD had such quipsters as Pankaj Kapur, Satish Shah, Deven Bhojani, Bhavana Balsavar, Shafi Inamdar, Swaroop Sampat, Rakesh Bedi, Ratna Pathak Shah, Supriya Pathak et al, Jaspal Bhatti stood out together with his distinctive model of comedy. He would have continued his artistic run had tragedy not struck. In 2012, the comic misplaced his life in a automobile crash, surprising associates and followers alike. If alive at this time, you’ll be able to guess Mr Bhatti would have interpreted the present information cycle by means of his personal crazy lens. The pandemic, social media, plummeting financial system, Modi authorities, cow cupboards, Trumpism, pretend information, Bollywood nepotism and a lot extra. He would have had such a subject day.

Flop Show was an authorized hit and Bhatti adopted its success with the farcical Full Tension and Mahaul Theek Hai, constructing on the identical middle-class motifs that made him well-liked. Around the identical time, he additionally acted in Rishi Kapoor’s Aa Ab Laut Chalen, enjoying an Indian sparring associate to the Pakistani cabbie essayed by veteran Kader Khan. He went, as they are saying, together with his boots on. It was whereas selling Power Cut, a Punjabi movie additionally starring his spouse Savita and son Jasraj Bhatti, that he met with a deadly accident. Even in a truncated profession, Bhatti left his affect on a brand new era of comedians, like Sunil Grover and Bhagwant Mann. Decoding his mentor’s comedian enchantment, Mann attributed his reputation to the way in which he related with the lots and his personal intimate data of the problems that the frequent man confronted day in and day trip. “His satire went beyond comedy. It was always a statement. A powerful voice against the system seeped in corruption, inequality and circumferenced by social evils,” Mann wrote in The Quint.
Wife Savita Bhatti, who by no means spares a chance to perpetuate the satirist’s legacy, as soon as referred to him as Indian comedy’s ‘Sardar-E-Azam.’ You can think about the self-effacing Sardar shrugging off that flatter, as a substitute turning the joke on himself. Anyone remembers the final Flop Show sketch the place a personality counsels him to put money into a tragedy as a substitute of comedy? Defying him, the funny-man ventures out to make an out-and-out comedy solely to take a potshot at himself in the long run. A household watching Flop Show is proven deeply regretting this prime time expertise, practically smashing their color TV set. In actuality, although, it was the other.
Flop Show is on Doordarshan National’s YouTube channel.