This is a fascinating glimpse into the world of Indian screen comedy, peopled by known, as well as once important but now – forgotten comedians, who helped evolve the genre from its first slapstick beginnings to the police comedies of manners aimed at the urban middle class. The comedian or vidushak has always been an indispensable aspect of the Indian dramatic tradition. Comedy or hasya is one of the nine rasas as defined in Bharatmuni’s Natyashastra. It was, therefore, natural for Indian cinema to readily imbibe this aspect of the dramatic tradition, with the first Indian comedy, a single – realer directed by Dadasahed Phalke, making its appearance as early as 1913. The book traces the evolution of the genre from Dhirendranath Ganguly, the first recognized filmmaker – comedian who made comedies on a regular basis to the true godfather of the Indian comic art Noor Mohammed Charlie, who, along with his contemporaries, Ghory and Kesari, set the comic pace through much of the 1930s and 40s and much of what was to follow.