In conversation with Rahuol Lohani
Creating ruckus in silence isn’t a piece of cake. When Rahuol Lohani was offered the silent comedy Gutur Gu (on SAB TV) he took it up gladly as he had always wanted to do something different. Hailing from a theatre background, it was easier for him to be a part of a show without dialogues as both silent comedies and stage plays rely extensively on body language. He explained, “In theatre, it is the basic exercise, that when you get any character, you start working on your physical appearance and how you are going to walk into the character, what expression you are going to carry or any particular trade mark that you need to imbibe. I had to do the same for Gutur Gu. After doing two or three episodes, I felt at ease with my role.”
We asked him if he had added any nuances into his characterisation. He replied, “I try to reserve certain emotions for certain expressions in all the episodes so that people identify with the character and emotion.”
Agreed that a silent comedy is a challenge. Nevertheless the actors are spared from the hassle of memorising lengthy dialogues. Does that make things easier for them? Rahul was of the opinion, “I feel that it is very easy to express yourself when you have a line. Because even if you are not in a good mood or a proper rhythm, it is easy to express yourself by saying dialogues. In Gutur Gu we don’t have any lines nor do we mime, so we have to think hard to come up with appropriate gestures.”
Continuing on the challenges of doing a silent comedy like Gutur Gu, he says, “Our show isn’t a daily soap as we take three to four days to shoot one episode. Yes, there have been silent films, cartoons and international TV shows before. Gutur Gu is nevertheless the first silent Indian comedy TV series. I do not feel bad if people say that we are imitating Charlie Chaplin and Mr Bean series. The bottom line is that the Indian audience should accept it.”
He went on to say that Gutur Gu is far challenging than many other well known silent comedies. The actor brought to our notice, “In Chaplin they use placards. In silent cartoons like Tom and Jerry the makers enjoy a lot of liberty. You can after all use your wild imagination in a cartoon. As we are human actors we cannot jump the way Tom and Jerry do. Our show is far difficult.”
On a concluding note we asked the actor how he would compare his series to SAB TV’s Chintu Ban Gaya Gentleman. He answered, “We are on the same line doing something similar. Chintu… is totally dependent on gags though. It is nevertheless easier for Al Amin who plays Chintu as he is performing in a one man’s show. In our serial we have to communicate with all the family members and therefore we have to take into account how others are reacting. So it becomes all the more difficult to perform when there are more characters.”
