By Avanija Katiyar:
“Laughter is the best medicine” is a saying which is popular with almost all of us. Most of us would always come across people who are fond of jokes. It can be claimed that leaving aside the few odd individuals, all of us do like humour and would prefer humourous friends, and even humurous life-partners.
In everyday life, the individual human being suffers from a lot of stress and tensions. The school-going children are increasingly being burdened with exams and competition, the college-goers are to look for jobs, the bread-earner has to be concerned about his family, and the housewife has to care for all the domestic issues in the house. Everyone is caught up in this vicious circle of life. There, at times, seems to be no way out of all these. Even though we may try to bring about a sense of real-life humour, circumstances do not permit it. For example, no can be funny with his boss when he is being chided for negligence.
Most of us may be aware of the fact that in India Bollywood is a dream industry. The reason as to why most people would go to the cinemas is when a comedy film is being screened. Classic comedy movies famous among today’s youth are ‘Andaz Apna Apna’, ‘Hera Pheri’, ‘Golmaal’, etc. Most Indian movie channels would and do go to great lengths to show these movies over and over again. Still, the audiences would also love to watch them again and again. The target audiences (which includes all age groups) never seem to get tired with comedy.
Even the scenario with the TV fraternity is not so different. Though soaps and reality shows are the order of the day; it is by no means wise to say that comedy on TV is out of business. That is precisely the reason as to why ‘Taarak Mehta Ka Oolta Chashma’ is a craze among a lot of people. Sony Sab has also never run out of TRP ratings as it mainly focuses on comedy serials, even in the face of increasing shift of the audiences towards reality shows.
Comedy has the power of changing human moods. It can take a person out of depression and make him/her feel better. This is the factor on which the film and television fraternity bases its existence. Even if it is for a moment, the viewer completely finds himself in a world which is tension-free. Therefore it is not surprising to see that many doctors would suggest patients with the ‘laughter therapy’ even though it is an informal way of treatment. Laughter, if properly utilized, can break the ice in conflicts- both domestic and abroad. Thus, it can be safely confirmed that laughter is indeed the best medicine. Do you have a joke/funny incident to share? 🙂