Ananth Mahadevan's new movie could turn out to be the most hilarious comedy since Jyoti Swaroop's "Padosan" and Gulzar's "Angoor".

Mahadevan, who has made two interesting romantic comedies "Dil Vil Pyar Vyar" and "Dil Maange More", is set to go all out with the laughs in "Do Dooni Char".

"My new film is a comedy of errors in the fullest sense. It's a film about mistaken identity on the lines of Shakespeare's 'Comedy of Errors'. The zany plot unfolds over two days. I don't think Shakespeare's comedy has ever been interpreted in this way. It's been scripted very cleverly by Samir Kohli."

Sammir Dattani, quite easily the most promising newcomer in the last two years, has been finalised to play the lead.

Says Mahadevan: "I chose Sammir because I see in him the same boyish charm and flexibility of expression as Shahid Kapur. I find Sammir very endearing, very clued in, very enterprising. He isn't afraid to experiment.

"I plan to make another film called 'Us Paar', a very different romantic triangle, with Sammir in the lead. Sammir is equally comfortable with the gravity of 'Us Paar' as he is with the whackiness of 'Do Dooni Char'.

"Like Shahid, he's very endearing on screen. Whereas Shahid's face conveys a wealth of mischief, Sammir's whole personality is more innocent and vulnerable.

"I needed that quality in 'Do Dooni Char' because the two protagonists have to be innocent and roguish at the same time.

"Sammir can do both. I've seen him in his debut film 'Uff... Kya Jadoo Mohabbat Hai'. Though he's just a fresher I think he's capable of handling a double role. I think Sammir is here to stay."

However, Mahadevan expresses dismay over the quality of comedy in Hindi films.

"We tend to get physical in today's comedies. Farce needn't be vulgar. What Kundan Shah did in 'Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron' was real farce. We need to revive the era of the breezy comedies of Basu Chatterjee and Hrishikesh Mukherjee.

"We can't have outdated laughter. But at the same time, techno-gizmo gimmicks cannot stand in for genuine humour. We need to get the definition of comedy right again."

Mahadevan isn't too excited about the successful comedies of Priyadarshan like "Hera Pheri", "Hungama" and "Hulchal".

"He has a whole library of his Malayalam comedies to fall back on. In the original films, Mohanlal said his dialogues with a poker face and yet managed to convey so much humour through his demeanour. If we do a comedy in Hindi in that fashion the audience will probably get bored.

"When Priyan started in Hindi with 'Gardish' and 'Muskurahat' I could hear him tell his actors not to underline every dialogue. Somewhere down the line all good directors tend to succumb to the temptation of italicizing every moment."

Comedy and Mahadevan seem to be lawfully wedded at the moment.

"It seems so. I've just completed a 16 mm film for Zee TV called 'Staying Alive'. It's set in the ICU ward of a hospital. It's about a journalist who has had his third heart attack and is laughing at death and a gangster who has had his first attack and is petrified of dying. I play the journalist and Saurabh Shukla plays the gangster."

The movie will be part of a series of telefilms on Zee by distinguished directors.

"This is my most uncompromising work so far. The equipment in the ICU set is real. If I had a heart attack they could've used it to save my life," he guffaws.

Ananth is also making a drama called "Aksar' for producer Shaym Bajaj. "It's a mind game between a husband and wife and a fashion photographer. Then I'm also making a marital comedy for HMV."