ABSTRACT

Unlike most Western horror cinematic traditions where horror-comedy is an established and distinctive sub-genre, it has often been argued that there are elements of comedy in most Indian horror films. The chapter titled ‘Do we fear laughter? The genre of horror-comedy’ discusses at length the need to constitute this separate sub-genre even in the context of Indian horror. It is demonstrated that this horror-comedy sub-genre can be further subdivided into horrific horror-comedy and comedic horror-comedy categories. The dialectics of fear and laughter as explored in the Marathi Pachadlela (dir. Mahesh Kothare, 2004) and Zapatlela (dir. Mahesh Kothare, 1993), Tamil Kanchana: Muni 2 (dir. Raghava Lawrence, 2011), Hindi Chamatkar (dir. Rajiv Mehra, 1992) and Bangla Bhooter Bhabishyat (dir. Anik Dutta, 2012) create spaces for depiction of non-normative sexualities, critique of feudalism, abuse of power in state organisations and rapid conversion of heritage properties into commercial malls. The chapter concludes that unlike the more ‘straight’ horror film, horror-comedy uses humour to mask the disorientation of the body even though the protagonists are misfits in their own way and prone to extremely debilitating kinds of othering.