5 Bollywood comedies from the 90s that always feel like bottled sunshine: Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa to Duplicate

If you're feeling as if the week has knocked you really flat, and nothing on television seems to be lifting your spirits...well, how about a brief, joyous return to your childhood? (This is assuming that you are of course, a millennial or lived through the 90s. If you're new to the Bollywood joy of 90s, it's always a good time to start).

Life is too short to not laugh over some silly, slapstick, fun comedies, and that's what Bollywood of the 90s is here for.

So, here's our list.

1) Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa

Yes, it will always be a contention that this is one of the very rare film that Shah Rukh Khan did not get the girl (Suchitra Krishnamurthy).

Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa reminds you Bollywood once knew how to make failure look charming. Long before hyper-masculine heroes and polished perfection took over, this gave us Sunil — played by Shah Rukh Khan at his most vulnerable. He’s a lazy soul, and terrible at lying and almost always one bad decision away from disaster. And, the film is fuelled by underdog power. Sunil isn’t the cool guy. Every plan collapses with the confidence of a house of cards in a ceiling fan.

And yet, the movie never turns cynical about him. It's the secret sauce of Kundan Shah’s direction: Awkward, painfully relatable humour, and yet which lands. Nobody’s delivering punchlines like they know they’re in a comedy. The laughs come from panic, timing, humiliation and pure emotional messiness. Everything feels wonderfully lived-in.

Most importantly, the film allows its hero to lose. And somehow that makes it even more comforting. Sunil doesn’t get the dream girl, the grand victory or the cinematic payoff he imagined. But he survives embarrassment, heartbreak and failure with his softness intact.

2) Duplicate

When Shah Rukh Khan does comedy, he is truly invincible. And Duplicate is what you need to lift you out of a bad mood. If one SRK isn't enough, there's two for you, and one is a particularly hilariously evil one. (It's obvious SRK had the time of his life in this role).

The film is gloriously ridiculous from the word go, a squeaky-clean and childish chef Bablu who prays constantly gets mistaken for a leather-jacket-wearing gangster because they happen to share the same face. Logic immediately packs its bags and leaves the building. Everyone's committed to this joyous caper, from Juhi Chawla to Sonali Bendre.

The comedy comes from collision. Bablu accidentally lands inside the criminal underworld while Manu (evil SRK) barges into Bablu’s sweet middle-class life. One is teaching gangsters morality lessons; the other is terrifying innocent people while pretending to be a chef. Nobody knows who anybody is anymore, including the police, the girlfriends and occasionally the audience.

But that’s the charm of 90s Bollywood comedies: They never feared excess.

And somehow, beneath all the madness, there’s still innocence. The film believes good-hearted people should win, villains should be dramatically punished and love should survive absurd amounts of confusion.

3) Andaaz Apnaa Apnaa

How can you not watch the film that made you change the way you say 'Robert'? Or the film that made Crime Master Gogo everyone's fancy dress costume?

Well, you're in for a ride, if you have missed it. Andaz Apna Apna is what happens when two dreamers decide reality is optional and confidence is mandatory.

Amar and Prem, played by Aamir Khan and Salman Khan, are not really here to “win life” so much as to aggressively misunderstand it. They arrive with one shared ambition: marry into money.

And so, we're strapped in for a sequence of bold assumptions, terrible disguises and decisions that age like milk in the sun. There's also the identity soup: Everyone is someone else, nobody is where they’re supposed to be, and the richest man’s household has more deception than a badly moderated reality show. Even love gets confused, the girls are mistaken for each other, the servants are criminals.

The film is organised disbelief, and that's why you need to see it.

4) Hum Hain Rahi Pyaar Ke

Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke is wholesome and just sweet. You get emotionally ambushed, along the way, but that's the point. At the centre is Aamir Khan as Rahul, a man running a garment business on deadline while also managing three children who operate a highly organised rebellion. Every rule he sets is treated as a creative challenge.

And that’s where the fun begins. The children smuggle in Vyjayanti, hide her with military precision, and turn Rahul’s carefully structured life into a constant guessing game. Every attempt at control only makes things more entertainingly complicated. And then romance begins, of course with a side of villainy. It's Aamir and Juhi at their best, and most comic, healing the wounds of Qayamar Se Qayamat Tak.

Underneath all the confusion, this is a story about chosen family. About children who refuse to let love slip away. About adults who slowly realise that stability isn’t the same as happiness.

5) Pyaar Kiya Toh Darna Kiya

Sorry, but my favourite scene from this film would always be Salman Khan running after chickens and shouting, 'I am Murgi Man'. A grim Arbaaz Khan, who plays Kajol's protective brother in the films asks her, "Are you sure this is the one you love?" Nervously, she says yes. "Okay."

This film was just everything Bollywood. It had the romance, Salman's Suraj falling in love with Kajol's innocent Muskaan. It also had evil people pouring in from different corners, including a vicious-tongued step mom. And there's a kidnapping at the end of the film, so we get to see Salman playing hero and saving Kajol.

It's fun and absolutely ridiculous, and for sure, it will bring a smile to your face.