Mallika Sherawat and Nana Patekar: Butt of jokes

If Himesh Reshammiya had been at the Science City auditorium on Friday evening, he would have surely lost his cool, and maybe even his cap. For, the music man ruling the airwaves was the butt of most jokes at The Great Indian Laughter Show presented by The Telegraph. As many as three of the five performers took a dig at the nasal renditions of Topiwaale Tansen, mimicking everything from Aashiq banaya aapne to Jhalak dikhlaja.

Keeping poor Himesh company in the dubious hall of fun fame were the likes of Mallika Sherawat, Nana Patekar and Shakti Kapoor.

For the five funnymen, in their words, ?unko poora phar daala?. While the top comedians from the hit STAR One show were missing in action, those present didn?t miss a beat. Everyone from stammering singers to nagging beggars figured in their scheme of things to tickle every funny bone in the packed auditorium.

?Hyderabadi? Syed Shahabuddin kick-started the three hours of non-stop laughter. Mixing music with mirth (and medical advice), he warmed up the audience and by the time he rendered his celebrated Paya paya song, everyone was in splits. ?Doctors say that half-an-hour of laughter relaxes the body and the mind for the next 12 hours due to the free flow of blood and yoga experts say that clapping of hands keeps the body fit.?

The hands kept clapping with Dipu Srivastava, younger brother of STAR One star Raju Srivastava, taking the stage, hell bent on naming every station in India after a film star. Sample this: ?Bhaiyon agla station Shakti Kapoor aa raha hai, aap apne behenon aur biwion ko sambhalke rakhein!? Then, Mallika Sherawat?s bathroom joke: ?Main apne bathroom mein uska poster chipka rakhta hoon aur julab khata hoon ki baar baar ja sakoon!?

Up next was Parag Kansara, the star of the evening with his ?ulta soch?. Comedy is everywhere, he said, you just have to be observant enough to spin fun out of the situations. And that he did with aplomb. Dissecting the lyrics of Hindi film songs, he really had people asking for more. ?Calcutta has become my home ever since I made it big on television,? he quipped. ?I have been here 10 to 12 times since.?

Kanwarlal, the next stand-up comedian, resorted to mimicking film stars and he did sound like them. If the eyes were shut, you could have sworn that Nana Patekar was on stage. His closing act of a steam engine leaving the station drew thundering applause from the crowds.

But it was young Dharsi Barodia who was the outstanding stand-up act of the evening. Singing a la Sachin Dev Burman, Bhupen Hazarika and many more, he literally had many rolling on the floor. And when he made Anup Jalota sing Dhoom macha le, the audiences went berserk. Nana doing an Amitabh Bachchan in Deewaar was the clincher: ?Bhagwan, mere ma ko theek karde varna doosron maon ko utha doonga!?