The Bhatti School of Humour

Borkar,now a film editor in Mumbai,says it was the originality of the show and Bhatti’s way of poking at hollow ideas and principles of society that endeared him to the concept of making a film on the subject.

“I made the film in 2007 as part of a multi-camera exercise. The film tells the story of a writer-poet being interviewed by a journalist. The idea had struck me during my days at FTII and partly because I was heavily influenced by Bhatti’s style of humour. Hence the film was called Ulta Pulta F.T.I.I.,” he says.

Bhatti,whose satire had popularised him as one of the foremost comedians in the country,used to deal with mundane as well as important issues in Ulta Pulta and Flop Show.

Bhatti passed away in a car accident on Thursday. Borkar said Bhatti’s death came as a huge shock. He says it has also galvanised him into working on scripts based more on the style of humour Bhatti propagated. He says,“He had this remarkable ability to laugh at himself and had a distinctive storytelling style.

I remember an episode where he has been invited as chief guest who comes on time and is made to do some work by the organisers. In a similar manner,my film is a comedy of errors that leaves the journalist exasperated.”

The five-minute film has a journalist interview a famous writer-poet. Things take a weird turn for the journalist when the writer starts answering all questions metaphorically,leaving him frustrated.

“Eventually,the journalist holds his head,at which the writer remembers he had forgotten to wear his hearing aid,” says Borkar.

Both the actors in Ulta Pulta F.T.I.I.,Proloynil Banerjee and Himanshu Prakash,were direction students at the institute back then.

“A lot of my batchmates still tell me it was a funny take on a very real issue. It is sad that I could never meet Mr Bhatti in person. I am sure he would have liked it. However,there are a couple of projects I will be looking at very seriously now,which will aim at popularising the same kind of humour,” says Borkar.