Full of punches

Jasmine Singh

Five minutes into a free-wheeling conversation with Punjab film industry’s best actor-comedians BN Sharma, Gurpreet Ghuggi, Karamjit Anmol and Binnu Dhillon, and you’d be complaining of stomach ache. You’d try hard to hold back those so called tears of laughter descending like a waterfall. 

While you’d be shifting in your seat, throwing your head back and forth, these four actor comedians from Carry On Jatta 2, would be completely poker-faced. Creating laughter is the most difficult thing, and the four best here agree to it whole heartedly. 

Shelf life of a joke 

“Let’s begin with a joke. Sometimes I share a joke on Whatsapp, and the same joke comes back to me only in a forward message,” this one comes from Binnu Dhillon, “this is the shelf life of a joke...” “And we have to whip up puns and one- liners in each film, in every scene,” Gurpreet Ghuggi completes the sentence as Karamjit Anmol and BN Sharma nod. 

Ingredients for a comedy film 

We’ve gone to Jupiter talking about meaningful Punjabi cinema but when it comes to a commercial gains, a comedy film has an edge over any other genre. Why? “Stress bahut hai ji life ch,” Binnu takes the lead here, passing the baton to Gurpreet Ghuggi again, “To make a good comedy film you need at least five or six good Punjabi comedians, and when the audience find their favourite comedians in a comedy film, they love it.” But making comedy is a difficult art, “just by keeping a films name comedy, it doesn’t become comedy. So many comedy films have flopped in the recent past, and some haven’t recovered money of the posters,” adds Gurpreet Ghuggi. 

Over to Sharma ji please 

Unlike the laughter beans that he spills on screen, in real life he is a quiet person, talks only when talked to and laughs, well, rarely. “I am able to do comedy also because they (Binnu Dhillon, Gurpreet Ghuggi, Karamjit Anmol) teach me a lot.” His statement leaves the three of them in splits, “See this is the best joke ever, and this is why we tell you that BN Sharma is the best,” Karamjit Anmol laughs uncontrollably. “ That BN Sharma learns comedy from us is century da sabot wada joke hai.”

Punch me hard 

It all about the right timing, comedy is all about keeping the tempo of the jokes. “You miss the punch, you’ve lost it,” chorus the four. And any moments when they couldn’t get the punch right? “Life in general is a miss punch, you can’t apply right punches in a relationship, in marriage, with kids and of course, with your boss, try throwing a punch at your boss...” Karamjit speaks up for all. 

Welcome the comedian 

After Carry On Jatta, Punjabi singer-actor Gippy Grewal got his name enrolled in the list of comic actors too. “Sometimes, you have to give away your punch to someone else to keep the momentum of a scene. The whole thought about Carry On Jatta is to get the comedy right, and if we are unable to do it after six years ‘fer tan asi gaalan de haqdaar han.”