Unafraid, unabashed & funny

THESE INDIAN COMEDIENNES ARE INVOKING THEIR LIFE EXPERIENCES TO PRESENT JOKES THAT ARE BOLD, HILARIOUS AND THOUGHTPROVOKING

Indian female comics have never had it so good before. With the emergence of the female voice in comedy, topics that were once considered taboo are now on the table.

Charlie Chaplin once quoted, “To truly laugh, you must be able to take your pain and play with it.” And this is exactly what these women are doing. With feminism as the secret weapon in their arsenal, these comediennes are tackling sensitive topics with their fearless comedy. From sexuality to pregnancy, menstruation to arranged marriage, stalking to rape, body weight to physical stereotypes and virginity, every issue is broken down with a generous dose of hilarity.

Mallika Dua, Neeti Palta, Sumukhi Suresh, Vasu Primlani, Aditi Mittal, Punya Arora, Radhika Vaz and Savita Bhatti — these fiesty ladies have managed to play a big role in redefining comedy in a maledominate industry.

Often drawing upon stereotypes to destroy sexism, it’s their unique content that has made them hugely popular. Be it Aditi Mittal’s videos on how women struggle with lingerie or Sumukhi Suresh, Kaneez Surka and Mallika Dua’s A

Woman’s Besties ( a video about female pleasure) or Vasu Primlani performance as a man from Delhi looking at a woman and singing a birthday song to her boobs, their humorous social commentary have gained them a loyal set of followers who savour intelligent comedy.

If Mallika Dua’s Makeup Didi series deals with a woman who is very conscious of her looks, then Sumukhi Suresh’s web series Pushpavalli deals with stalking.

And Primlani talks about mothers who are always worried sick about their daughters’ marriage prospects. Radhika Vaz jokes on a range of provocative issues — like the sexism in prevailing religious practices like Karva Chauth.

Whatever the content may be these funny women use humour to rip patriarchy to shreds.

NOT DIPLOMATIC AND NOT SORRY NEETI PALTA’S SATIRICAL BRAND OF HUMOR HAS FOUND MANY TAKERS IN INDIA

Stand- up veteran Neeti Palta jokes that Indian men don’t like her because she has that smell about her that puts them off — confidence. She prefers tongue- in- cheek kind of humour.

A decision on their brand of content is taken by most comedians after several shows. “To me, comedy is a great way to sugar coat home truths. That’s what Birbal used to do for Akbar. I talk about whatever is bothering me at a given time. It’s sort of a personal outlet for me. I feel all comedy has a little bit of truth in it. Just the amount of truth varies. And I’ve noticed that the jokes that get the maximum laughs are the ones in which the audience recognises a truth. Then they are more open to laughing at themselves too. We are told to be demure, modest, quiet, and to make ourselves as attractive as possible. Stand- up comedy, on the other hand, rewards big, brash and vulgar personalities. It rewards women for being honest and tackling previously taboo subjects,” says Neeti.

Neeti’s jokes range from male bashing to big fat Indian weddings, the Indian political scenario and even the pressure on women to have babies. And she can laugh at herself too. One of her favourite one- liners is, ‘ My chin is divorced; it’s single again.’

“I remember a girl coming backstage after my show and asking me how, as a woman, I can make fun of women. I responded saying feminism is about equality and I can make fun of women as much as I make fun of men,” she says, referring to her bit on Indian men peeing in public and the money our government stands to make from fining them.

“There’s another one where I talk about our middle class mentality and how we hate throwing anything away. That’s why my grandma hates lingerie because she holds up my lacy underwear and comments ‘ what kind of duster will this make’. That’s why India prefers male children, because their underwear makes better dusters,” she says.

Thoughts on rape: She feels there is a lot of debate over a woman’s clothes and rape. “I think the only clothes that are rape- proof are clothes without women in them,” she says, adding, “A guy had once said to me in some other context, ‘ Don’t take advantage of the fact that you’re a woman’. My response, ‘ Why not? Someone will.

Might as well be me!’”

DEALING WITH FEMINIST ISSUES RADHIKA VAZ’S IS USING HER HUMOUR TO ADDRESS TABOO TOPICS IN THE INDIAN SOCIETY

Radhika Vaz never identified as a feminist until she scripted her first comedy show Unladylike and followed it up with Older, Angrier, Hairier. She says, “I write about whatever makes me really angry, irritated and annoyed. I take that negative emotion and turn it into something I can laugh at. I am doing this mainly for self- preservation. If I didn’t make jokes, I would be a full- time assassin.”

Radhika explains the different reasons why today’s comedians are tackling weighty subjects as well as what the future of comedy might look like. “I can’t speak for all the other comics but I am pretty sure it’s the same reason as mine — you see something unjust, suspicious, or downright disgusting and you want to say something. You want to fight it as well as try and change it or at the very least, bring attention to it,” she says.

Radhika has written two shows, one book, a web series and countless columns and almost all of these are issue- based pieces. She elaborates, “Comedy is, to a large degree, about instinct. I think I have that instinct and so the bigger challenge is making sure the jokes are unique and not done to death.” Radhika believes stand- up comedy also opens a path to social change.“I for one will never stop talking about feminist issues. I know that even if it’s one person at a time, I can change people’s minds. Men and women alike have approached me after a show or after reading my column or book and tell me they had never thought about how bad sexism could be until then. That makes me very proud,” she says. Speaking about marital rape, Radhika says, “India is a country where marital rape is legal. However, bestiality is illegal. So my husband is more likely to go to jail for fornicating with a farm animal against its wishes than he is likely to go to jail for fornicating with me against mine.”

I do a bit about men peeing in public and how there is a ` 500 fine for that now. But it won’t fix our men. So think of the amount of money our government stands to make. If the Middle East is an economy running on fuel, India is running on manpower! You can’t fake laughter. So if you find me funny that means I have managed to enter your mind. And even if you don’t agree with me, you will remember the punchline and maybe that would make you a little more open to another point of view