New Delhi: At a time when Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is waging war against the Enforcement Directorate summons and speculations of his arrest swirl, it is hard to imagine comedy was what the people of the city needed.
But the Delhi government’s comedy show last week was all about telling people all is well, don’t worry, be happy.
The government’s Art, Culture and Language department organised the annual ‘Hasya Rang Utsav’ from 2 January to 6 January in association with the tourism department. The timing of the event was not without irony. The idea was simple: along with electricity and water, the public was getting free jokes too.
The big names in India’s comedy circles such as Sunil Grover, Ahsaan Qureshi, Ashok Chakradhar, and Rajkumar Javkar (aka Raja Rancho) among others came to perform at the two-day ‘Laughter Weekend’ of the festival. were slated to perform in these festivals with free entry to the shows.
“Laughter Weekend is an initiative for those people who are forced to live a stressful life due to their responsibilities. To get such people out of stress, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has made arrangements for entertainment for you, where you can be stress-free,” said Minister of Arts, Culture, and Language Saurabh Bhardwaj at the Dr Ambedkar International Center before Grover’s performance on 5 January.
Bhardwaj called the artists present at the event “essence of our nation” who hold the “torch of creativity high”.
“It fills me with pride to extend my support and encouragement to these artists. My heartfelt gratitude goes out to everyone present for contributing to the celebration of our vibrant artistic community,” Bhardwaj added.
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Water, traffic, electricity
Cold winds and foggy skies didn’t stop the people of Delhi from crowding the room for Grover on Friday. The audience laughed with their bellyfulls when he presented his two famous characters Gutthi and Dr Mashhoor Gulati.
In his opening jokes, Grover talked about New Delhi’s traffic. He explained why he played the female role of Gutthi on stage with a stubble. “Raste me thoda traffic mil gaya tha to ye dadhi hatane ka time nahi mila ( there was some traffic on the way so I didn’t get time to shave).” And when the Bollywood hit song ‘tip tip barsa paani’ started playing, it was time to remind everyone that water is free in Delhi.
“Itni thand hai munh dhoya nahi jaa raha hai, tu paani barsa raha hai. Mana Delhi me paani free hai par iska ye thode hai tu barsaega (It’s so cold that one can’t even wash their face and you’re making it shower here. I get that water is free in Delhi, does that mean you will make it rain?),” said Grover.
There were jokes about government officers too and their infamous bureaucratic sloth. And what better place to crack this joke than in the capital city that houses the mother of all bureaucracies?
Raja Rancho performed with his puppet, which is called Rancho. When asked about his work, Rancho said, “I work in a government office and my timings are 10 AM to 6 PM.” Raja asked again, “Do you work 10-6?”. “No,” Rancho replied. “We gossip at 10 AM, then drink tea at 11 am. Then we can’t find the file and it is lunchtime.”
This all-too-familiar scene resonated with the audience, which roared in laughter.
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Casual misogyny
The event was not like the other government programmes, which get delayed and people wait for the officials’ arrival. Everything was on time and the show ended on a neat note. But there was a liberal dose of casual misogyny in the humour, not just by the comedians but even the anchor.
“Ek ladka ek ladki ko pyar karta tha uski shadi ho gyi aur ladka himmat karke uski shadi me gaya aur kahne laga- tum shadi karli to kya hua, mera bhi sehra sajega aur main bhi dulha banunga, tu nahi mili to kya hua main teri chhoti bahan pataunga ( One boy used to love a girl and she got married, the boy went to her marriage and told her, I will woo your little sister now),” the anchor said.
The public came with only one intention. They wanted to throw laughs at everything offered by the anchor or the performer.
“I don’t know if it is offensive or not but I came with my friends to have a good time and I am enjoying it,” said Mohit Dagar, who came to see Grover.
Grover hardly told 10-12 jokes in the entire performance. Most of his time was spent in crowd management. Everyone wanted to take a picture with him. At one point, the comedian invited some women on stage but a crowd followed them.
“Please don’t come on stage. All the women have come over here and half the audience is here,” said Grover.
He was supposed to host a dance competition between the women and give the winning trophy to one of them. But the strength of the audience on stage made it difficult to play the contest, it turned into a session of selfies. “This will go on forever, I have to perform,” he added.
Finally, bouncers showed up to clear the stage. That’s when the show moved forward. Grover thanked his fans and went on to play his characters Rinku Bhabhi and Gulati. He also imitated Amitabh Bachchan as the host of the game show Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC).
There were the overused and tone-deaf jokes about nurses and doctors that have often been called out for being disrespectful of women and also of the nursing profession decades ago. But the jokes just don’t retire.
“The lady is dying short of breath,” a nurse told Gulati.
“Oh I will give her mouth-to-mouth oxygen,” Gulati replied.
“The lady is old,” the nurse said. Gulati stopped and said, “Oh then I will give you the mouth-to-mouth oxygen and you pass it to the old lady.
The nurse was wearing an off-shoulder dress, which didn’t remotely resemble the usual plain scrubs worn by practicing professionals.
Before Grover’s act, the anchor also made some problematic jokes about nurses.
“In India people go to hospital with different problems and die from different ones. One man went to the hospital with a fever and one beautiful nurse told him ‘my sweet, lovely person you will be okay in 24 hours’. She took care of him very well but he died of a heart attack,” said the anchor, referring to how beautiful the nurse was.
But the jokes didn’t offend people in the audience much.
“There is no politics, no leader, only raw entertainment. We don’t find every joke funny but since it is free it is not a bad deal” said Ayushman, 18-year-old, who calls himself an artist.
Suresh Chauhan, a teacher from Bawana found the show safe. “I am thinking of bringing my family for the next show, the crowd is family friendly and this is holiday time so we all can enjoy this,”
One group of female students from Delhi University said they weren’t entertained by the jokes.
“It is like they don’t have any content apart from demeaning women and making wife jokes. These things worked in the old times but not here. It is so problematic that we are thinking of leaving,” said one girl from the group after listening to a few of Raja Rancho’s jokes.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)