5 of Juhi Chawla's Best Comedy Performances

Although Juhi Chawla has proven her versatility time and again with both romantic and tragic roles, it's probably her comic timing that has received the most praise over the years. Salman Khan recently claimed she has "better comic timing than Charlie Chaplin"!

The evergreen heroine turns 54 this November 13th, and what better way to celebrate her big day than relaxing with one - or several - of her classic comedy movies? Here are five of the best to work your way through.

Clicking on the movie titles will take you to either Youtube or Einthusan.com, where you can watch the movie with English subtitles. They are all often available on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, too.

Eena Meena Deeka

One of many successful collaborations with the late, great Rishi Kapoor, Eena Meena Deeka was pure criminal comedy.

Rishi Kapoor is Eena, an innocent bank robber (yes, really) caught up in a whirlwind after he crosses paths with Vinod Khanna's Deeka, an ex-con trying and failing to go straight. Juhi is the cherished daughter of a police officer who takes being kidnapped by the pair of fugitives in remarkably good spirits; you could almost say she joins in. She fakes being a nurse, pretends to be engaged to someone she barely knows, and tries running around the city in a towel - all in a day's work for the comedy queen of the 90s.

Read my full review of Eena Meena Deeka here.

Mr and Mrs Khiladi

Available for rent on Amazon Prime with subs; or on Youtube without them.

Released in 1999, this was the first of the Khiladi films to be a comedy, and you can see why they couldn't resist that impulse with Juhi on board.

Akshay Kumar also got a chance to flex his comedy muscle as Raja, a bone-idle young man waiting around to magically become rich and successful, as predicted by a fortune teller, while his mother and sister increasingly despair of him. His life is turned upside down when he bumps - no, crashes - into Shalu, a rich girl who is immediately determined to marry him. Inexplicably, he takes some persuading!

Deewana Mastana

Can it be called a love triangle if the apex character isn't actually interested in either of their suitors?

Juhi plays a beautiful and accomplished psychiatrist who is treating Govinda, a madcap rich guy with more compulsions than can possibly be got over in one two-and-a-quarter hour movie. Understandably, her patient falls completely in love with her, but he has a rival: Anil Kapoor as Raja, a thief and fraudster who is also determined to be with Dr Neha. Hmmm, which would you choose: the severely mentally ill guy or the career criminal? I suspect your answer is the same as Neha's but everyone will have a laugh along the way in Deewana Mastana.

Duplicate

My personal favourite on this list; I've watched it three times and never failed to choke with laughter at some point.

Shah Rukh Khan has a double role as a criminal mastermind and an innocent wannabe chef - who just happen to be identical. Juhi Chawla, as Sonia Kapoor, is the love interest of his sweet but somewhat idiotic chef avatar, Bablu. All hell breaks lose when the evil Manu is released from jail, and no-one can keep track of which Shah Rukh is which - including Sonia.

Kismat Konnection

More psychic activity is on the cards in Kismat Konnection, but this time it's Juhi who's doing the predicting. She's an over-the-top psychic called Haseeno Bano Jaan, and her main role is to dole out advice to a hapless Raj Malhotra, played by Shahid Kapoor.

Raj suffers endless bad luck until he meets Priya (Vidya Balan), who he becomes certain is his personal good luck charm. Unfortunately, Raj and Priya's aims in life keep colliding, and the fact that Priya is already engaged to someone else is not helping. It's Raj's visits to Haseeno's haunted house style wacky mansion that persuade him to keep going and provide our much needed comic relief.

I hope you enjoyed this list of some of Juhi Chawla's greatest comedy performances, and you'll enjoy one or two of them soon!

Not in the mood for comedy? Check out 5 Times Juhi Chawla Broke Our Hearts This Century instead, for some of her more heart-rending roles.

If you like reading about Hindi films, check out my blog, Movie Jaadoo.