Jagathi

Jagathi Sreekumar, the actor has retired for the time being. A motor accident has wrecked havoc with his mind. He has travelled beyond the din of the actual into a calm of the within. He goes through the motions. Let us hope that there will be more light at the end of the tunnel, that the comedian nonpareil for the Malayalees will return us to quality laughter. 

Quality laughter is a complex term, as it is a slippery feel. if humour is the process and laughter the product, as the theorists say, then quality laughter must be the result of quality humour.  The blank which Jagathy has left behind is a yawning divide in the lives of the average Keralite who loved a good laugh, but rarely at the expense of the female of the species. The miss of the real is felt when we have to live with the kind of replacements which have materialised in the guise of comedians. When the quintessential humour gives way to pedestrian buffoonery, pathos of the viewer bring the memories of Jagathy back. 

Quality Humour has to be subtle, like all quality art. It has to imply more than it says. It has to mean more than what it is. It has to suggest what it could have been. The tangents it could have travelled into, the possibilities it could have  potentialised. Real humour leaves you in the lurch happily, holding the baby, but happily. Quality humour is like cooking in which the fire is on, ingredients are mixed but the final stir or steam is yet to be. The  Caramelising  part is yet to be. To stay with the culinary metaphor, it could be even the garnishing act. But that is where the humour begins to tickle you. The tickler is off, but the tug of the nerves, the groping of the funny bone is just working itself up. 

Jagathy, like all class performers, made humour look so easy. A sign of  a master is often  the ease and difference with which the ordinary acts are performed. The master has the capacity  to make it look so easy and different, gracious and classy. One classic scene from a Jagathy movie which I often cite as a class apart in terms of its simplicity runs like this: Jagathy is seen walking out of an auto with visible signs of injury. He has bandages and clothe wraps on him. He carries bottles of medicine and stuff. 

An acquaintance asks him, what's wrong?

Jagathy responds: Did you see that electric post?

The man says: Yes

Jagathy : Well, I didn't.

He turns and walks off. 

The dialogue hardly serves to drive home the ease of the effect since much of it it is built on the body language and expressions. 

A humour actor has to be primarily an actor. Though humour may emphasise the actor in him, the acting primarily defines and carries humour. What lends depth and credibility to Jagathy's humour is his acting genius. He is no one skill talent, a one dimensional comedian who attempts humour and leaves bathos around. The stable performances he has left behind, like the one in Moonnam Pakkam speaks volumes for his acting metier. Even when he dons those roles as a foil to the hero, there are countless instances where he eclipses the protagonist. What is Jobi without the still photographer in Kilukkam? The oeuvre of his achievements as an actor is mammoth. He is a part of our Kerala's collective unconscious for the right reasons. 

The dearth of humour we witness on the screens these days, the struggle of the actors to manufacture humour, the pain we to through whole farce fall through, this is when actor  is sorely missed. When we watch with tragic helplessness the mediocre effort to fit into the throne lying vacant, when the occupant looks a mouse in the lions den, that too when the mouse is unaware of it, perhaps humour works at a different level. Jagathy Sreekumar never took himself as a comedian in his life. He took himself more seriously than that. I feel the problem with many humour aspirants today is that they take themselves as comedians and attempt to clown through their lives. The only positive outcome of the act is that it pushes Jagathy on to a completely different orbit. Humour is intelligence taking a walk outside the box. Jagathy Sreekumar is a very level headed actor who walks the tight rope of humour with remarkable ease. 

As pleasure is said to be a bye product, humour too is. When one tries too hard to achieve, often it may not yield the desired end. Contrarily, If one simply does what is needed and keep going, the result will arrive unheralded. 

Humour has its serious responsibilities since humour is built on intelligence.