Way before India went cartwheels over the Hollywood blockbusters – Spider-Man, The Avengers, the Fast and Furious series and of course, the Star Wars techno-dazzlers – there were the Jerry Lewis comedies which infallibly assured lengthy stays and ‘house full’ singboards at the cinemas of Mumbai and other metros.
The ticket sale revenues didn’t mean much to the Hollywood studio honchos back in the 1950s and ‘60s. The accruing profits could not be transferred to the US They had to be deposited and used within India by the offices of the MGM, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros and other majors.
The huge earners would be Biblical epics like The Ten Commandments (1956), period epics like Ben-Hur (1959), grandly-mounted dramas like David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Dr. Zhivago (1965). The post-independence English-language-educated audience would flock to them.
The moneys earned in India would be described as “a mere drop in the ocean.” Yet Hollywood bosses were aware that India could not be ignored. The sway of American film products had already fanned all over Europe and Asia.
Around the mid-1950s, Jerry Lewis who passed away in Las Vegas on Sunday at the age of 91, became a staple favourite of the weekend moviegoers, especially with the school kids. Lewis’s mix of slapstick, light-and-easy humour and the frequent prominence assigned to children in his movies, made him a household name.
The first major hit scored was Rock-A-Bye-Baby (1958) followed up by The Geisha Boy in the same year. Lewis defined clean-cut entertainment for family outings at a time when the desi movies were still to define its brand of comedy, which more often than not still veers largely towards toilet humour.
Over time, the influence of Lewis who excelled in playing the goodfella David who combats Goliathan odds, can be traced in the zany antics of Kishore Kumar. On record though, he acknowledged his debt exclusively to Topol of Fiddler on the Roof (1971). And there was the undervalued-to-this-day, funster Agha, who darted out punchlines a la Lewis with a deadpan face, only to balk at his own antics.
Moreover look closely. Shah Rukh Khan has also disclosed touches of Jerry Lewis (plus Jim Carrey, who took on the mantle of Lewis) in the craft of flexing his facial muscles -- as in the Simple Simon half of his dual roles in Duplicate (1998), Rab Ne Bana di Jodi (2008), Ra: One (2011) and Fan (2016). Monitor the body and facial lingo of the two while executing incredulous gags, and the similarities are inescapable.
To the disappointment of the early teen fans of Jerry Lewis in India, The Nutty Professor (1963) was certified for ‘Adults only’, perhaps because of a rash of raunchy jokes addressed to the iconic blonde Stella Stevens. Even in the pre-swacch-era of Pahlaj Nihalalni’s film censorship, the policy was, “No sex please, we’re Indians.” On catching up with the Nutty Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde identities of the comedian on DVD today, the jokes needless to emphasise are no more than a teddy bear’s picnic.
Also one of the Nutty Professor’s sight gags – arms elongating to the extent that Lewis could scratch his toes with them in bed – finds an echo in Kamal Haasan performing the same feat in the widely-adored, silent chortlefest Pushpak (1987).
In the course of an interview, laugh-raiser Mehmood, bed-ridden at his Bengaluru farmhouse, had pointed towards his collection of Jerry Lewis films on video cassettes, and had stated candidly,
I watch his films and Charlie Chaplin’s whenever I’m feeling low. Raj Kapoor saab adapted the Chaplin image beautifully. I could never ever think of getting inspired by either Chaplin or Jerry Lewis. Here as you know, comedy has to be extra-loud. Dialogue has to be delivered at the volume of a loud-speaker.
The late 1940s movies of Jerry Lewis who had partnered with Dean Martin the, do command a following among retrophiliacs in India, the most accessible among the lot being the punnily titled Hollywood or Bust.
The oeuvre of Lewis, who also took to directing himself in solo leads, has been uneven. For instance Who’s Minding the Store? (1963) and The Family Jewels (1965) aren’t a patch on his best: The Nutty Professor and some may contend, Cinderfella (1960) and The Errand Boy (1960).
Martin Scorsese turned to the dark side of the moon with The King of Comedy (1985), in which Jerry Lewis played a near-replica of his real-life self, and is kidnapped by a mentally-unhinged fan performed gamely by Robert de Niro. Shades of this plot premise are more than apparent in apna Bollywood’s Fan. Only the Khan took on the parts of the star as well as the twisted fan. Oh well.
To wrap, the season of international film festivals is just a breath away, kick-starting with the MAMI smorgasbord in Mumbai in October and the International Film Festival of India, Goa conducted by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. So how about a mini or a major retrospective of the best of Jerry Lewis, who shone a light all over the world during the golden years of comedy?
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