MRs FUNNYBONES
Author: Twinkle Khanna
Publisher: Penguin
Pages: 235
Price: Rs 299
I remember Twinkle Khanna for her charming role opposite Salman Khan in the 1998 Bollywood film, Jab Pyaar Kissi Se Hota Hai. Besides that, I remember her for her famous lineage and her choice of spouse, Akshay Kumar, one of Bollywood's action heroes. When I discovered that she could write - her column, Mrs Funnybones, has been wildly popular on the Internet - I was pleasantly surprised. And before I could bat an eyelid, a book by the same name was out.
Everyone I know seems to think Khanna is gifted and extraordinarily funny. Some of her columns were indeed funny, but nothing stood out. The book had a chance to change that for me, which it did, but only to an extent. The title of each chapter is organised according to the English alphabet - from "Am I an idiot" to "Zip your mouth for God's sake". This is clever, but it tries too hard to conform to the genre of comedy, much like Khanna's prose. The introduction and the first few chapters are painfully inappropriate, sometimes misogynistic and do nothing to hold my interest. Khanna parenthesises almost every joke with a snarky remark and tries, unsuccessfully, to be British in her humour. (If I had a penny for every time she uses "Blimey"…)
Her jokes about the butts of Kim Kardashian and Saroj Khan are unfortunate. Her reference to Kardashian as "Kimmy" seems as forced as most of the humour in the book. While she may be smart and a "gifted" writer compared to many of her peers, her writing skills aren't much to write home about. The "poor little rich kid" act is distasteful and I fail to see why she refers to her young son as "the prodigal son". The anecdotes of her various challenges while travelling the world and being a "star wife" have me reading the initial chapters with her nasal twang in my mind, the only thing that makes them funny.
It is only when Khanna stops trying so hard to be funny that her prose comes to life. She refrains from any wisecracks in the chapter concerning a young child's suicide in the family, and this is where I begin to see her as a thoughtful, sensitive woman. The conversations with her children are interesting in parts, but these too are praiseworthy when she's not trying to be witty. Though she dedicates this book to her late father Rajesh Khanna it is oddly silent on her relationship with him.
The final chapter is perhaps the best, where she sees herself as an outsider who, after all these years, still tries to fit in to her very Punjabi family. Despite the cruel jokes about her mother-in-law, which I presume are meant to show her as courageous for not mincing her words, Khanna pays a well-written tribute to the abilities of her husband and mother-in-law to keep the family together. The book is fast-paced and readable, especially when you consider the large font, but perhaps only during a Metro ride when one has nothing better to do.
