The horrific laughter in Pachadlela: A study of Marathi horror-comedy

TLDR: The authors explored how Indian horror-comedy films working through the dialectics of laughter and fear reveal the sociopolitical anxieties of marginalized gendered subjectivities, while some comedies may contain horrific episodes and some horror films may induce unintentional laughter, the present study limits itself to those Indian films that overtly promote themselves as horror-comedies.

Abstract: Horror-comedy films have intrigued viewers for ages, and not without reason one may add, because fear and mirth are generally considered to be diametrically opposite human emotions. If fear induces anxieties, mirth generally mitigates misery by allaying tensions. While the former is generally associated with grief, the latter signals prosperity. And yet when they come together in cinematic productions, more often than not, they set the cash registers ringing. The film scholarship, both Indian and western, has largely ignored the study of Indian horror-comedies. The purpose of this study is to explore how Indian horror-comedies working through the dialectics of laughter and fear reveal the sociopolitical anxieties of marginalized gendered subjectivities. While some comedies may contain horrific episodes and some horror films may induce unintentional laughter, the present study limits itself to those Indian films that overtly promote themselves as horror-comedies. This article will focus in the main...