A silent comedy speaks a universal language - Shyam Mashalkar

In a silent comedy there is no language. Shyam Mashalkar who plays the style freak Shyam in SAB TV’s Gutur Gu 2 (Fireworks Productions) however feels, “A silent comedy speaks a universal language.” He goes on to say that it is indeed a challenge for an actor to execute a silent comedy but one can overcome that too. “Before doing Gutur Gu, I had only done comedies with dialogues. It is really a big challenge as there are no spoken words. How will you tell the story? So, you have to portray yourself slightly loudly through your body language and mannerisms to communicate what is going on as well as your character’s emotions very lucidly to the viewers. It is good that you do not have to undergo the hassle to memorise dialogues though.” Regarding other silent comedies, he is of the opinion, “Charlie Chaplin and Rowan Atkinson who plays Mr Bean have been extremely successful. When you see Chaplin’s work you laugh as well as feel sentimental as you witness a variety of emotions. You see more of comedy in Laurel and Hardy.” About the silent cartoon Tom and Jerry, he thinks, “It is violent but superb. They do not have any limitations though as it is an animation. Our serial has boundaries as we are humans.” He feels that SAB TV’s Chintu Ban Gaya Gentleman is nice but a simpler series as it is more of a one man show. He explains, “I feel that if you have a lot of characters then you can create multiple and varied situations which makes the comedy more colourful.”