A Timeless Comedy
When Hera Pheri came out in March 2000, it wasn’t publicity stunted and marketed as a “classic in the making” or a “classic.” It came in quietly with no fanfare at all, and no one expected to see three extraordinarily unlikely men—an out-of-work dreamer, a dejected mechanic, and a bumbling landlord—become a remarkable and permanent part of the Indian pop culture lexicon. However, more than twenty years later, Raju, Shyam, and Baburao Ganpatrao Apte live on in today’s memes, socials, and jokes, as if time stood still for them a day, a week, or a month at a time.
Hera Pheri, to the other, and for many to the first, of the trilogy, it was one of the first pairs of comedy on screen in Indian cinema. It was about personal lives, struggles, and each actors instincts of their roles precisely because they put more of themselves to the world than they realized.
When the Story Finds Its Heart
Hera Pheri, certainly, the first of three comedy films in Indian cinema to be adapted loosely, and the first one was Ramji Rao Speaking (Malayalam). Three are trapped in a whirlpool of no money and lack tons or resources, Raju (Akshay Kumar), unemployed, funny, and smart, and a Shyam (Suniel Shetty) withresponsibility, and a ton of looking for work. Baburao (Paresh Rawal), their landlord, debt, and liquor.
The film’s focal point is an accidental phone call that entwines the protagonists in a fast-paced kidnapping plot. Chatting in a fun tone may mask the seriousness of issues like class conflict, unemployment, and the perception of the middle-class Indian family struggling to make quick wealth. The creative touch was in clever masking of the gravitas of the issues in the film that was built on the backdrop of slapstick humor, quick witted punch lines, and comedy genius of the cast.
Performers and Their On-Screen Personas
At the time of the film’s making, Akshay Kumar was still in the process of morphing from being a caricature of the “Khiladi” to exploring other avenues. He was labeled as playing the role of a stuntman rather than an actor, which made the Raju role a bigger risk than just the film’s first comic lead. However, Akshay saw this shift as a challenge to demonstrate his comic timing. He was in a transitional phase, as his role in the film demanded a hustler, a character that matched his energies in a struggling Bollywood.
Suniel Shetty was a revelation in the film, and his softer role as Shyam was a welcome contrast. As a rare opportunity, away from the guns of action sequences, Shetty was also able to demonstrate his softer, more dependable side on screen. Shyam’s character was the “straight man” in the comedy trio, a role that he was also able to flesh out as more than just a plot device.
In contrast, Paresh Rawal was the ‘Hera Pheri’ franchise’ Baburao whose characters amplifies the importance of Rawal in the franchise. Before ‘Hera Pheri’, he was acknowledged only secondary sign-characters like a villain or a serious type-cast. He changed with the role Baburao. Off the screen, Rawal was a theatre veteran who loved to prepare with and for rehearsals. He understood and greatly valued rhythm and time and all their complexities. He loved his role of Baburao whose bumbling and located spectacles worked in favour of his endearing personality. He stumbled and was able to improvise a polished and rehearsed performance which steered his stage-craft in lifed theatre for years. Many of Baburao’s sustained improvisaton and character exasturbations like Rashtriya’s and Gyan’s were polished in character rehearsals.
Wild, Inerprovised and Raw Set
That’s the set ‘Hera Pheri’ director Priyadarshan. known for his Malayalam and Hindi comedies changed with ‘Hera Pheri’. In direct contrast to his previously styled convention in ‘Hera Pheri’ he fluently transitioned into the raw. Shooting on a shoestring budget, it missed polish. While it lacked polish in all charm of production, it was it every raw aspect that dipped charm in all the peas of textures. There was a raw freestyle to it, and that freestyle created the charm in it. Most of the improvisations were funny, created with a freestyle.
One lesser-known fact: the now-iconic scene of Baburao scolding Raju (“Ye Baburao ka style hai!”) wasn’t fully scripted. The spontaneous and improvise nature was in all actors, and Akshay’s lines, then and there crafted, facilitated their automatic crafted and styled withdrawal from absurd of all theatre. Frequent ,redone episodes were of the scerne in wear and laugh of actors.
Not every moment on the set was pleasant. Long hours, delays, and, at times, technical problems, due to the budget, stretched the team’s patience. Priyadarshan was reported to have overworked his crew, demanding ‘arithmetic’ accuracy in the ‘overworked’ scenes. Exhausted actors were ‘forced’ to do their part over and over again, especially in chaotic scenes during the climax, where multiple characters were crossing in varying degrees of confusion.
The Media Buzz That Came Later
Interestingly, when Hera Pheri was released, it was Hera Pheri that did not have an ‘instant’ blockbuster. The film did not have a great opening, and critics, although praising Paresh Rawal’s performance, were not unanimous on the film’s prospects. The positive reception of the movie was a surprise, encouraged by patrons that were college students, young college graduates, and families. The movie was a slow-burn, cult film, certainly due to the subsequent VHS and television reruns.
The film’s first year marked an important milestone in Indian cinema. All ‘Baburao’ needed was to speak, and he was hilarious. The film’s unusual journey is itself a story of resilience, much like the enduring characters.
Bonds Beyond The Camera
Hera Pheri was the chemistry between the leads, Akshay, Suniel, and Paresh. They did not just play roommates, they ‘lived’ like one during the shoot. They integrated so well off set that it allowed their rapport to ‘translate effortlessly’ on screen.
Akshay Kumar has since acknowledged Paresh Rawal’s influence in mastery of comic timing. Suniel Shetty also stated that Hera Pheri was one of the rare films in which he felt completely at home. This bond was rekindled in Phir Hera Pheri (2006), though many fans still believe the original carried an innocence and spontaneity that the sequels couldn’t replicate.
Looking back, Hera Pheri wasn’t just a comedy. It was a reflection of India at the turn of the millennium. It showed the characters of ordinary people grappling with unemployment, loans, and the challenges of survival, problem still relevant today. Despite that, the film taught people to laugh at adversity and to find hope in the most desperate situations.
It also, in a major way, reshaped the careers of those involved. Akshay Kumar was no longer just an action star. Suniel Shetty was celebrated for his versatility. And Paresh Rawal was, and still is, recognized as an iconic comedy legend.
Over twenty years later, the mere imitation of Baburao’s squint or the recitation of Raju’s rapid dialogues is met with laughter. Very few movies achieve that kind of immortality. Hera Pheri wasn’t designed to be a legend, but just like its characters, it fumbled its way to that status, one laugh at a time.
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