Anuvab Pal takes on The Empire
Stand-up comedian to give Ductac audiences his take on the British rule of India
It’s an interesting time to be a standup comedian in India. With ongoing debates about how political and religious parties are clamping down on free speech, and the recent controversy surrounding the ban of a ‘roast’ by a comedy troupe, the country’s reputation as an example of a liberal democracy has often been questioned.
But for comedian Anuvab Pal, who’s been at it for more than five years, it’s still worth the struggle.
“Yes, you can easily get disillusioned. Someone doesn’t like a joke, they can complain to the police, and get you stuck in a convoluted legal process. Anything can offend. Someone can say ‘I don’t like the way you talk about broccoli’ and that’s it. It’s a risky time.”
“But I don’t know how else to live. And when you get a few people from hundreds who come up to you and say ‘that’s exactly how it happened to me’, and you know you’ve made that connection, then that artistic joy makes it all worth it.”
Pal is bringing his one-man show Anuvab Pal Vs The Empire to Dubai today and tomorrow at Ductac.
“My previous show, The Nation Wants to Know, was very India-specific. It was more about the distinction between various communities, the hilarious media and just how Indians love to pick up things from the West that don’t apply to them,” he explains. “For The Empire ,I go into a bit of history.
“I delve deeper and look at what Indians were really like when the British ruled over them. How did we lose the empire to them? Why was it so easy for them to invade India?
“I look at the Indian independence struggle. Everything I read growing up was that the Indians were so good and the British were so bad. But how did Gandhi actually throw the British out without doing any fighting? I look at how Indians came up with different mechanisms of not fighting and how they kicked out the British by just confusing them.”
Pal, also a playwright and screenplay writer, has a lot of comedy in his blood. His writing credits include the cult 2007 comedy film Loins of Punjab Presents, and his 2009 play, The President is
Coming, which was made into a Bollywood film.
The biggest challenge comedians now face in India, is keeping the balance between pushing the envelope and staying true to one’s conviction.
“I try not to think about the audience too much,” Pal says. “You try to reach the emotional truth of people because people can easily sense dishonesty.
“That is what’s really tricky about this profession: If you are really honest, someone may censor you. But if you’re not, people will pick it up immediately. It’s a risk. But there is this nebulous environment we are functioning in.”
While comedy as a profession is picking up, the kind of jokes audiences can take will need a few more years to mature.
“There is an industry now. The commerce of it exists because there are even middle-aged men like me doing stand-up. But has it come of age where people are able to take all the jokes? That may take 10 to 15 years more,” he says.
The simple way to stop comedians from being harassed, he says, is to charge people for filing a lawsuit.
“Say it costs Rs20,000 [Dh1,156] to file a case. Then people will think twice about doing it. Right now it’s so easy to do and we live in such a chaotic democracy that people do it just to get publicity.”
Pal is also dedicating a whole segment to Dubai.
“Dubai has always been to good to me and I can’t wait to come there again,” says Pal, who’s performed at a few private gigs in the past. The Ductac show is his first public show in the UAE.
“It’s also so lavish there. In Dubai no expenses are spared and I am given the best of everything that I often wonder if it’s all for me or for Tom Cruise.”
Come to the show “if you have a vague niggling notion that Indians are funny people”, he says. “And if you want someone to tell you how and why from their own insecurities as an Indian person.”