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.

Paula McGlynn