Laxmikant Berde Passes Away
Afzal A. Khan
It is learnt that well-known comedian Laxmikant Berde
passed away in Bombay. He was just 50. Cause of death
was kidney failure. He had acted in films like "Sajan"
and "Hum Aapke HaiN Kaun".
Afzal
yeskay
He became famous from Suraj Barjatya's MPK first. He was the hero's
sidekick in MPK and was really irritating throughout the movie
needlessly calling out "Sumanji". I believe he is a well known
actor/hero in Marathi Cinema.
asi...@my-deja.com
Imho, resultant fame ensured that he would make it into Marathi films.
The combination of Ashok Saraf, Sachin and Berde's slapstick was
largely responsible for ensuring a mini-revival of the Marathi film
industry in the 1980's.
IMho, he was not even *close* to being good in Hindi films.
Sadly, good tv comedians like Berde and Satish Shah were reduced to
being caricatures in mainstream Hindi films.
- Arun
Ketan
asi...@my-deja.com says...
>
>He was famous for his sketches in the Marathi TV programme, "Gajra".
Ditto! I remember watching one "Gajra" episode in which he enacted scenes of how
Bombay handles its water crisis with rib-tickling comic timing. That
performance, alongwith Dilip Prabhavalkar's "Chimanrao", and those of Babban
Prabhu and Yakub Syed-other early Bombay DD comedians--are only a dream now.
>IMho, he was not even *close* to being good in Hindi films.
>Sadly, good tv comedians like Berde and Satish Shah were reduced to
>being caricatures in mainstream Hindi films.
I would add even Shafi Inamdar to this list. If "Yeh jo hai zindagi" was any
indication, here was another superb comedian in the making. All these 3
comedians plus the likes of Ashok Saraf, thrived on the spoken word to convey
the comic angle, whereas IMHO, Hindi movie comedy routines are more slapstick.
One could say that the careers of Gope, Polson, Tun-tun thrived only because of
the slapstick routines, but I always wonder how much better the careers of
Kishore Kumar, Johny Walker, Mehmood and Om Prakash could have been, had Hindi
movies worked harder on delivering comedy via non-slapstick routines.
Anyway,
To Laxmikant Berde--R.I.P. We are indebted to you for those laughs.
Ketan
naniwadekar
"Ketan" wrote -
>
> ... Babban Prabhu ... early Bombay DD comedians
>
The name is *Baban* Prabhu. He died in the early '80s.
Neelam Prabhu, the famous Mumbai AIR artiste, was
married to him. After Baban's death, she married music
director Yeshwant Deo, and is known as Karuna Deo
these days.
- dn
Ninad
Ketan wrote:
> In article <1103309509.7...@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com>,
> asi...@my-deja.com says...
> >
> >He was famous for his sketches in the Marathi TV programme, "Gajra".
>
> Ditto! I remember watching one "Gajra" episode in which he enacted
scenes of how
> Bombay handles its water crisis with rib-tickling comic timing. That
> performance, alongwith Dilip Prabhavalkar's "Chimanrao", and those of
Babban
> Prabhu and Yakub Syed-other early Bombay DD comedians--are only a
dream now.
>
I also remember the "Paper shortage" related "Gajra" program where
Lakshya had enacted several scenes ranging from paper shortage for
college students, in buses for issuing tickets, at the grocery and many
other situations. It was hillarious.
May his sould rest in peace.
And speaking of "Chimanrao and Gundya bhau", are any VHS copies
available of this Marathi serial ?
Ninad.
kcp
Sharjah ( on rent )
KCP
Ninad
location of the store. Thanks.
Ninad.
asi...@my-deja.com
Ketan wrote:
>>
> >alongwith Dilip Prabhavalkar's "Chimanrao", and those of
> >Babban Prabhu and Yakub Syed-other early Bombay DD comedians--are
only a
> >dream now.
Ninad wrote:
>
> And speaking of "Chimanrao and Gundya bhau", are any VHS copies
> available of this Marathi serial ?
>
> Ninad.
Indeed. You guys have revived memories here.
The closest "funny" Hindi programme during those days was Paintal in
"Laddusingh Taxiwala". Bombay tv was much better than the draconian
national network that came subsequently. Heck, all one has to do is
compare the likes of Luku Sanyal, Siddharth Kak, Dolly Thakore, Harish
Bhimani to Raman and Salma Sultan. Real news was replaced by
what-is-Indira-Gandhi-upto-today? by her toadies like H.K.L.Bhagat.
Vasant Sathe shined a brief ray of sunshine before he was summarily
moved to some other "harmless" department.
Programmes like 'Pratibha Ani Pratima', 'Gajra', 'Has-Parihas', 'Young
World', 'What's the Good Word', 'Khel Khilone' were so good. Even the
Marathi plays were brilliantly done.
Btw, I recently saw the film 'God Only Knows'. It is directed by Bharat
Dabholkar who made it as a follow up to the 'Bottoms Up' plays. The
film has Dileep Prabhavalkar, Anjan Shrivastav, the rest of the
'Bottoms Up' crowd and lots of funny PJs. :-) Prabhavalkar plays the
role of Indra, who wants a representative from earth. Yama and Narada
kill a politician and get him 'upstairs'. The politician tries to form
a coalition in hell to take Indra's chair away from him. I bought the
DVD of the film in the Bay Area.
Cheers
Arun