A new documentary traces the journey of 14 comedians from diverse communities of rural Maharashtra to remind us that stand-up comedy can be more than big city jokes, and offer reality checks in our times
Kiran Deshmukh
I believe that stand-up comedy pushes people to be imaginative. There's no activity or movement; we just speak. But as they hear it, people imagine and enter our world. Even if they laugh along, it prompts them to ponder," explains Kiran Deshmukh, a sex worker from Sangli, about the power of comedy in a 28-minute documentary that charts the journey of 14 aspiring comedians from rural Maharashtra, and zooms into the unimaginable potential of stand-up in its hinterland. Titled Gheun Tak!, the film is a behind-the-scenes peek into how these comedians from Nagpur, Yavatmal, Chandrapur, Dhule and Akola, among other towns and villages, learn to speak their mind in their mother tongue, while cracking you up.
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Paula McGlynn
Nihal Passanha, member, Bengaluru-based media and arts collective Maraa, tells us that the film is a culmination of the Kaay Boltay programme that was undertaken by them along with Marathi comedy platform Bharatiya Digital Party (BhaDiPa) and The Fund for Global Human Rights (FGHR). The project is aimed at diversifying voices in the stand-up comedy scene. "The idea came about in 2018, when artistes, activists, poets, journalists, etc, were being arrested for speaking their minds, especially those from the minority communities. So, we were questioning the avenues for such communities to speak up and challenge the status quo," Passanha elaborates. That was also when stand-up comedy was booming in India and being used as a medium to raise questions. "But the scene was largely dominated by male, upper class, and upper caste voices, who were Hindi or English-speaking, although the art form abroad evolved from the ground-up. So, if we had to consider comedy as a means of self-expression, then representation was important," he shares, adding that they realised that if comedy has to become a socially and politically viable form, it needs to include voices from different backgrounds, speaking in regional languages.
The Kaay Boltay group
The participants were then handpicked with the help of local networking groups. "The first step was to introduce people in these regions to stand-up by doing variety shows. It was followed by a call to action to the audience that if you think you can be funny and express yourself, send us your video," says Paula McGlynn, co-founder and CEO, BhaDiPa. This was followed by an intensive workshop in Mumbai in 2019, with mentors from Maraa and BhaDiPa, where the participants developed their sets. "We encouraged them to express themselves and connect with each other before focusing on performances, taking into account that all good comedy is a commentary about something," she shares, adding that the aspiring comics then travelled across the state with 16 shows.
Trimbak Dharade
McGlynn and Passanha both tell us that the content of the jokes stood out in stark contrast to the "Ola-Uber" jokes of metropolises. For instance, in the documentary, Trimbak Dharade, a farmer-tailor from Dhamanwan, can be seen weaving in his experience of child marriage, while Deshmukh reflects on being a sex worker. "We realised that people hadn't seen these faces or narratives on the stage before. It made them uncomfortable but they were laughing," points out Passanha. But the best part is individuals who have been pushed to the margins - tribals, Dalits, LGBTQ communities - were able to see one of them up there, owning the stage. Now, that's the kind of set that deserves an encore.
Log on to: Bharatiya Digital Party on YouTube to watch Gheun Tak!
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