Vulgarity is in the mind

The man with the golden touch, who’s at the receiving end of a flood of compliments — and a handful of critical barbs — after the release of Grand Masti, was in Vashi for a community function earlier this week.

“Navi Mumbai may be another city geographically, but it feels very much like a part of Mumbai, albeit a good part of Mumbai,” says Suresh Menon, whose first-of-its-kind comic-book villain role has got him rave reviews.

A regular to the satellite city, Menon says that while Navi Mumbai is much greener than Mumbai, there has been a surge of high-rises in the recent past which are giving a concrete look to the planned city.

“The remarkable thing about Navi Mumbai is the relatively smooth flow of traffic despite the huge number of offices and industries,” he remarks, attributing the better roads to the perks of living in a planned city.

Talking about his role in Grand Masti, Menon says it was a difficult role. “Indian men are petrified at the thought of exposing their apparatus,” says Menon, whose character Hardik took a public humiliation in stride and returned to extract revenge in great style.

“It’s a good break for me, and I am looking forward to doing more such mad roles,” adds Menon, who’s basking in the glory of the movie’s Rs50 crore-plus collections in less than a week, after critics panned it for its ‘crude humour and vulgarity’.

“Now that it is successful, some people are even protesting against the movie.
Wonder why they don’t voice their protest against movies that are far more vulgar and sexually explicit that sink without a trace,” quips Menon, adding that for all the talk about sexual exposure, there’s not even a single kissing scene in Grand Masti.

“There are some people who say that they will never see such a film and then the same people go and watch an Austin Powers or Sasha Baron Cohen movie, which is much more vulgar and even offensive at times,” he says, likening the double standards to the disdain for Hindi stand-up comedians and total acceptance of English stand-up comedians, never mind the double entendres employed by either to trigger a few laughs.

Menon says that much of the hoo-ha over Grand Masti’s humour is plain hypocrisy. “These are the same south Mumbai folks who will feel terribly offended by the language in Grand Masti and then go and queue up for a show of Vagina Monologues,” said the funny man, in all seriousness, adding that in terms of language there have been so many movies in recent times where foul language is mouthed without getting anyone’s hackles up. “Guess it’s cool to give bad words in English, but Hindi is a no-no,” he says.

Well aware about his huge fan following among Keralites of Navi Mumbai, Menon says they will soon see him in a serious role in a Malayalam movie, Namboodiri Yuvavuu @ 43. For the rest of us folks, it’s high time Menon got together with his better half Jose Covaco to release the season 3 of the Kaanmasti podcast!

Navi Mumbai is greener than Mumbai
A regular to the satellite city, stand-up comedian Suresh Menon says that while Navi Mumbai is much greener than Mumbai, there has been a surge of high-rises in the recent past which are giving a concrete look to the planned city.

“The remarkable thing about Navi Mumbai is the relatively smooth flow of traffic despite the huge number of offices and industries,” he remarks, attributing the better roads to the perks of living in a planned city.

Well aware about his huge fan following among Keralites of Navi Mumbai, Menon says they will soon see him in a serious role in a Malayalam movie, Namboodiri Yuvavuu @ 43