It's Not All About Pearls and Biryani, People - Hyderabadi Comedy Has Arrived

Not so long ago, all that people knew about Hyderabad was its pearls, biriyani, Charminar and that plump lady who did Tamil porn movies. But now all that has changed. Hyderabad is more about Sania, Saina and of course, the new age Hyderabadi movies.

It all started with Hyderabad Blues when a guy named Nagesh Kukonoor tried his luck with a handycam, the Hyderabadi slang and a guy named Harish in the cast who people say looks almost like the author of this post. Surprisingly, the movie was a huge success. Even people from other cities loved it. The best thing about the movie was the laidback narration and the built-in comedy which was brilliant.

Then Nagesh backed it up with Hyderabad Blues-2. I remember seeing a couple of foreigners watching this movie at a theatre in Hyderabad. Incidentally they happened to sit beside me and told me they had heard a lot about the movie in the UK before coming to Hyderabad and so decided to drop in instead of watching the much fancied Mr. and Mrs. Smith which was playing on the next screen. Unfortunately Hyderabad Blues-2 couldn't reproduce the same success as its prequel.

I always thought a guy who stayed in Hyderabad all his life and who was familiar with the Gallia, scooteraa and bumboo of Hyderabad could make a better Hyderabadi comedy. Then came The Angrez which redefined Hyderabadi comedy. No more comedy in English. Urdu it was. The casting was perfect; the dialogues great. The movie was a complete laugh riot except for the parts it had those NRI's on screen. Each time I watched the movie I found myself rolling on the floor laughing my ass out.

The movie started with one screen in Hyderabad, which increased to four and I think the producer released it nationwide three months later. I don't know how successful it was in other areas but in Hyderabad it attained cult following. Even in my college in Ahmedabad all of us loved the movie except those Karan Johar fans who thought the movie wasn't 'classy' enough. The Angrez also has fan communities on orkut. Commendable for a movie which started off playing only on one screen. Now I hear there are a couple more such movies in the pipeline including The Hyderabadi Nawabs by the same team who made The Angrez.

I hope more such movies are made because there's a lot of freshness in these movies. No more of those hackneyed plots, untimely songs and fight sequences. Complete entertainment; total paisa vasool.

Who said all that we Hyderabadis could do was to wear pearls, cook biryani, go to bed at nine pm and wear T-shirts with ugly one-liners on them?