A unique way to remember Jaspal Bhatti, India’s foremost humourist & satirist

Jaspal Bhatti’s wife and comedic partner Savita Bhatti has organised a humour fest in Chandigarh on his birth anniversary for the fourth successive year.

A screen grab of Jaspal Bhatti's show | YouTube

Chandigarh: There is perhaps no better way to remember one of India’s foremost humourists and satirists than by making hundreds of people laugh on his birth anniversary. And that’s exactly what’s happening in Chandigarh this weekend, as some of the country’s most well-known comedic talents have assembled for the Jaspal Bhatti Humour Fest.

The festival, being organised for the fourth successive year, is the brainchild of Bhatti’s wife and comedic partner Savita, and features the likes of Amit Tandon, Kenny Sebastian and Maheep Singh.

Of course, for those who grew up watching Doordarshan in the 1980s and 90s, the late Jaspal Bhatti needs no introduction. The electrical engineer-turned-cartoonist-turned-humourist didn’t just break stereotypes, but pioneered a whole new genre of sketch comedy and heavily satirical content, which the audience lapped up.

The Sardar of satire

Born on 3 March 1955, Bhatti ‘misdirected’ (his words, not ours) shows like Ulta Pulta and Flop Show, with the latter being particularly memorable for everything from its catchy title song to its low-on-budget high-on-satire content that spoofed everyone from corrupt politicians to bureaucrats, and even college and university professors.

The truth is that Indian society hasn’t changed much since Flop Show, so even if one watches one of its 10 episodes today, nearly 30 years later, there is a high level of relatability.

Bhatti’s satire was easy to understand, incisive and clean. He never felt the need to use dirty or abusive language to make people laugh or attract attention. The message of his satire was also simple — if you wish to change the world, change yourself first.

“He picked up ideas from the daily life of the Indian middle class and made you laugh. But when the joke was over, it left everyone thinking and looking within,” says Savita Bhatti.

“Jaspalji had started his career as a cartoonist—he drew for The Tribune for almost five years. That gave his work the edge to be to the point. So, he never strayed.”

Other hit shows he created for Doordarshan included Nonsense Private Limited, Jijaji and Full Tension.

In 1999, he directed his first feature film, Mahaul Theek Hai, a side-splitting satire on the Punjab Police. Bhatti, who had by this time earned the epithet ‘king of comedy’ and became a household name across the country, acted in dozens of Bollywood films and was a regular on television shows.

A man of firsts

Savita says her late husband was “the first man to wear the turban proudly in mainstream entertainment”.

“He was also the first person to legitimatise the fact that comedy is serious business. A comedian is not a joker, but an intellectual,” she adds.

In a Reader’s Digest list of 100 people Indians trust, Bhatti came in at No.44, with the only entertainers ahead of him being Bollywood superstars Aamir Khan and Amitabh Bachchan.

He took his satire to the streets as well — Chandigarh residents fondly remember his hilarious take on inflation when, in 2009, he put up a vegetable stall in the city centre, projecting them as the most expensive gift items in town.

He started his own production house called Mad Arts and a studio-cum-training school called Joke Factory. His team produced short skits, and soon, he went on to direct his second full-fledged feature film Power Cut with his son Jasraj. It was while promoting this film across Punjab that Bhatti died in a car accident in October 2012.

He was posthumously awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2013 — probably the only humourist to receive this honour.

Keeping the spirit alive

Bhatti was known to be a kind, warm human being, who created a team around him that went places. The core of the team, however, remained the original team of two — Jaspal and Savita.

“He was a family man who doted on our children Jasraj and Raabiya,” she says.

After his demise, Savita didn’t just keep his memory alive within her, but also out in the world that he addressed with his art.

“He mirrored the common man’s pain and frustrations, which is why people miss him. When demonetisation happened, a lot of people told me, ‘Agar Bhatti sahab hote to yeh hone na dete’ (Had Bhatti sahib been alive, he wouldn’t have let this happen). No artist other than him can claim to be the people’s champion,” she says.

That’s why she initiated the humour fest to honour him in 2016.

“We’ve had the biggest names in comedy perform here — Sunil Grover, AIB, Amit Tandon, Surendra Sharma, Jaswinder Bhalla, Binnu Dhillon, Jeeveshu Ahluwalia, among others. It is the only fest to be presented in three languages — English, Hindi and Punjabi. This year, we have Maheep, Kenny, Ali Asgar, Amit Tandon, Nishant Suri, Parvinder Singh, Rahul Dua, Manpreet Singh, Anita Devgan and me,” Savita says.

The interesting thing about the artwork for the fest is that Jaspal Bhatti is not just a picture to be honoured, but seemingly an active part of it, sitting, standing and laughing at the camera, with his trademark twinkle in the eye.