A TEDIOUS BARRAGE OF MOSTLY UNFUNNY JOKES

S dramatic as it sounds, no one can deny the fact that Tamil cinema has been going through a severe drought of quality comedies in the last few years.

- PRASHANTH VALLAVAN

AS dramatic as it sounds, no one can deny the fact that Tamil cinema has been going through a severe drought of quality comedies in the last few years. An argument could be made that the source of the problem can be traced to our obsession with rhyme schemes. For some reason, our filmmakers and comedians seem to think that a joke is funny just because it rhymes or repeats a word. "Unakku life prachana, enakku piles prachana," says Yogi Babu, in the opening scene of Jolly O Gymkhana. It is not that we want Yogi Babu's health condition to add value to the plot or that it is an inappropriate subject matter to make jokes out of. It is hard for the audience to find fault in anything when they are laughing through a scene. However, with Jolly O Gymkhana, where the jokes don't work, all we get are floating set-ups which doesn't make any sense.