Marathi and Gujarati stand-up comics speak local to go global standup comics

Apple Maps or Google Maps? Which is better?" people often ask Bandra-based Aditya Desai who thinks Mumbaikars only need Boss Maps. "You know the one where people go, 'Boss, how do you get to..'," he deadpans in Marathi. Surely, Aditya would get along with Ahmedabad's Manan Desai who doesn't rely on maps so much as an internal bullsh*t radar for directions. A while ago, on seeing a biker friend looking skywards in a cornball facebook photo whose existential caption read 'Sometimes, you must lose yourself...to find yourself', the perennially droll Gujarati voice inside Manan's head cried out: "

Doba

(moron), you are in Sarkhej."

These two Desais - millennials who've tickled Mumbaikars in their respective mother-tongues - belong to the toddler worlds called new-age Marathi and Gujarati standup comedy which now punctuates the sophisticated, English-infused air at hipster breweries, bakeries and comedy clubs with gritty words like 'Bhandiwala' or 'Olkhaan'. With venues in cultural hotspots Bandra, Andheri and

South Mumbai

lapping up their regional jokes spanning the gamut from Falguni Pathak to caste politics, these young comics who normally fill community auditoriums are feeling vindicated. You see, more than taking a cue from the popularity of Hindi standup or trying to subvert the heritage of slapstick regional humour, their idea to deliver laughs in the mother-tongue is an effort to rehabilitate, through humour, a much-maligned word: 'vernacular'.

"English works well for comedians abroad because it is their native language," explains 27-year-old Marathi standup comic

Omkar Rege

, pointing out that the Marathi cultural scene boasted a rich, pun-strewn oral humour legacy in the 70s in the form of mono-acts by writers such as PL Deshpande. As an attempt at revival, the new standup scene began last year after Pune-based actor Sarang Sathaye of Marathi digital content platform BhaDiPa (Bharatiya Digital Party) launched SMS or Secret Marathi Standup-an underground jamming session for wannabe Marathi standup comics-and put up their first Marathi standup show in an Andheri brewery with six comics in September last year. Today, with 60 comics onboard including teens who mine sex education and armchair activism for jokes, the troupe has also tickled audiences in Pune, Nagpur and The Netherlands. Now, Sathaye politely refuses political parties' requests for comics who would perform favourable material and readies comics for gigs at Munj (thread ceremony).

The connect the mothertongue achieves is instant. "You can add emotions to words," says Manan, who finds no English equivalents for 'Na Hoy' (can't be) or 'Olkhaan' (acquaintance). Manan-whose venues have included a Mundan (thread ceremony) near Girgaum Chowpatty-mines everything from garba to Gujarati bathroom habits for sarcasm -"an unprecedented form of humour in Gujarati comedy". The content also brings a few non-Gujaratis to his Gujarati gigs in Mulund.

A side-effect though is an older audience. Marathi comic Trupti Khamkar-an actor who has been typecast as a maid so many times that "my visiting card now also says kaamvali bai" - is used to women"blessing" her after shows while 23-year-old Gujarati comic

Rohan Parekh

- who hosts Gujarati open-mics in South Mumbai and Bandra - is trying to figure out how to make his uninitiated audience members laugh. For now, the uncles simply nod, say 'barabar che' and pitch in with their own anecdotes.

The room isn't always friendly. When vegetarian uncles glare down her "non-veg" jokes, tomboyish psychologist

Unnati Marfatia-whose

set includes a chain-smoking boyfriend who feared ingesting toxins from kissing her lipstick-smudged mouth-simply points to her sporting mother in the audience. However, Pune's Rege, whose bit on jingoism saw him getting "heckled into the train" after a Nagpur gig, says he will stick to talking about why he hates pigeons till the scene matures.


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