Five Bollywood Comedies That Make Us Laugh: From 'Delhi Belly' to 'Khel Khel Mein'

Heaven knows we need a laugh these days. But humour continues to lie in the eyes of the ticket-paying beholders. The “Bollywood comedy” is seldom a standalone genre anymore. You do have the occasional gag-a-second slapstick franchise but gone are the days of the irreverent David Dhawan entertainers, Andaz Apna Apna, meta-Farah Khan spoofs and Hera Pheri. Funny business is largely a supplement to the more serious genres now: the slice-of-life comedy, the social-message dramedy, the small-town comedy, the sex comedy, the horror comedy, and so on. So, it’s always refreshing to see a movie that commits to its tone, without any crutch. Here are five of the funniest examples in recent memory.

Delhi Belly (2011)

The cultdom of this film has only grown in the last decade, and with good reason. The Aamir Khan-backed crime caper (without an interval, mind you) ushered in a new era of potty-buddy-stoner humour — an unabashed internet-era comedy before the onset of OTT skit parodies. Packed with hysterical caricatures, an innovative Ram Sampath soundtrack, memorable set pieces, witty writing, filthy gags and Vijay Raaz’s timeless gangster-scowl, Delhi Belly expanded the language of Hindi multiplex comedies at a time of great mainstream churn. One could argue it’s the Dil Chahta Hai of urbane comedy: a laugh riot that challenged audience sensibilities instead of catering to them.

Madgaon Express (2024)

A coke-addled buddy movie about the adventures of three adult friends who belatedly take the Dil Chahta Hai-coded Goa trip they once dreamed of, Kunal Kemmu’s film is that rare new-age comedy that refuses to hide behind meaning or mayhem. It’s very much a tongue-in-cheek descendant of all the feel-good dramas that sold us aspirational male bonds and cinematic resolutions. The colourful side characters, unserious plot diversions, and the ode to misguided masculinity define the joyride. The world is a better place when the disarmingly authentic Kemmu directs or stars in productions.

Lootcase (2020)

Rajesh Krishnan’s black comedy about a middle-class Mumbai husband entangled in a red-suitcase-shaped mess is the kind of kooky entertainer that ages like fine (and delightfully cheap) wine. It went under the radar during the Covid-19 pandemic, but seems to have found its audience online, not least because they don’t make them like Lootcase anymore. The Delhi Belly influence aside, it’s always amusing to see Vijay Raaz play a gangster stuck in an incompetent setting; it’s even better if he’s a gangster obsessed with National Geographic-coded animal metaphors. The comedy-of-errors and mistaken-identity tropes flow thick and fast, yet the film remains consistently pacy, silly and relatable.

Khel Khel Mein (2024)

Based on Perfect Strangers (2016), Happy Bhag Jayegi director Mudassar Aziz’s chamber film revolves around a group of adult friends who decide to play a game that exposes all sorts of lies, infidelity and fake personalities. The presence of Unserious Akshay Kumar proves that the action-social-drama star remains most compelling when he loses all inhibitions on screen. He gamely leads an ensemble that includes Taapsee Pannu, Fardeen Khan, Vaani Kapoor and others in a film that knows what makes him tick. At the end of an intense day, Khel Khel Mein is nothing if not a neat guilty-pleasure flick that invites us to chuckle at the film and with it at once.

Saat Uchakkey (2016)

With a gold-standard cast of actors such as Manoj Bajpayee, Kay Kay Menon, Vijay Raaz, Annu Kapoor and Anupam Kher, it’s hard to go wrong. It’s equally hard to create a rib-tickling, gleefully foul-mouthed, Delhi-core comedy about seven crooks, a fake god and a hidden pot of gold. I remember doubling over in laughter, even if the blurry specifics revolve around Bajpayee, Menon and Raaz cursing with lyrical impunity. It’s an underrated superpower, to sound ‘authentic’ while belting out profanities. Nobody does it better than this group of performers; who needs a soundtrack when every testosterone-laced character sounds so musical in their panic?

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