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Bollywood spy comedies are no Johnny English. Licensed to kill, struggling to amuse

Our spies can blow up Pakistan, save the country, and fight an army of villains, but making audiences laugh at them seems to be a different mission altogether.

Bollywood has just discovered spy comedies, but the problem is that it ain’t Johnny English. Films such as Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos and Vibe are trying to make spies funny, but the genre is yet to take off.

Our spies can blow up Pakistan, save the country, and fight an army of villains, but making audiences laugh at them seems to be a different mission altogether.

Bollywood’s spies take themselves too seriously

The problem is that Bollywood treats its spies like superheroes. They must look cool, deliver punchlines, beat up ten men at once, and save the nation before the interval. Nobody expects them to make a fool of themselves. 

But that is precisely what makes Johnny English (2003) work. Rowan Atkinson, better known as Mr Bean, plays a spy so incompetent that you wonder how he got the job........

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