Damn you, 2020.

Dear Irrfan,

I am not including the ‘Khan’ in your name, as you had dropped it because you wanted people to know you by work and not your lineage.

Aapne ek interview mei kaha tha ke aapki aankhein gehri isiliye hain kyunki aap raat mei andhera karke mom-batti ko ghoorte the. Sach tha? Pata nahi. Log aksar actors ki movies dekhkar unke fan hote hain. Main actors ke interview dekhkar fan banta hun. Aapke interviews mei hamesha ek ajeeb smile se aap kehte the, samajh nahi aaya kya mazaak tha and kya sach.

Now that you are gone, people will talk about your films and how much you meant to Hindi Cinema. You knew people loved you. I don’t know if you saw this much love, how would you feel. Everything was going fine in your life two years ago. Your recent films were hits. You were doing a show ‘Gormint’ with A.I.B. But then you were diagnosed with a rare cancer and everything changed.

As a person, I can’t tell you how much you meant to me. I haven’t ever met you. Your movies are tremendous. But that is not the real reason. I am not going to talk about your movies, many of them are stellar. I am going to talk about your journey. I remember how you once mentioned that you used to fly kites in your hometown when your terrace didn’t even have a boundary. You fell once and broke your arm. From there, you later went on to star in some of the biggest Hollywood films, let alone hindi films. Apna Tom Hanks, wahi Forrest Gump wala, bola ke Irrfan ke saamne main feeka pad jata hun. And yet, your genuine humility and grace is just unmatched. You are a hero to me. If I make it someday in life, it will be because you were an inspiration to millions like me that we could achieve what we always dreamt about.

Your exit from the world is also as filmy as your performances. There is an audio tape doing rounds on the internet which you recorded to promote your last hindi film, Angrezi Medium. Usme kya dialogue tha ek apka. Ke jab life aapko lemons deti hai asliyat mei, toh lemonade banana thoda mushkil ho jata hai. Aur phir aapka shandaar laughter. Bilkul filmy exit. There will never be anyone like you. I wish more than your films, people look at your life and realize that films are just films, the taste is actually in the person.

R.I.P.

Irrfan (1967-2020)

The craft of Kanan Gill and his new Netflix special, 'Yours Sincerely'

Straight away, Kanan Gill is in my opinion the most interesting comedian in the Indian Stand-up comedy scene. Weirdly enough, the only other comedian which piqued my interest as much was Eddie Murphy who was a rage in the U.S. back in the 1980s. That says a lot about how much my opinion is completely biased, or rather how much comedy I have actually seen. That’s a start.

Indian Stand-up scene has come of age finally. Ten years ago, there was barely anyone doing it. YouTube was just starting. Now, the comedians are everywhere. YouTube is full of fresh content, a dozen or so artists have specials streaming on platforms like Amazon or Netflix. And this is where it gets to me, what should I watch and what I should just skip. The flood of content even in comedy, is exhausting.

Comedy, as I see it, is intelligent observation but with a catch. The observation should be relatable but not too relatable to the audience. A hint of alienation is necessary to sustain interest. And that is why the flood of content exhausts me. Mediocre jokes about the average Indian and his surroundings just bore me. Too obvious. Indian-Americans talking about their unique yet frustrating lives growing up in the U.S. are not relatable at all. A la Shashi Tharoor comedian pandering to foreign audiences by introducing them to the oddities (read cliched criticisms) of India makes me shake my head in despair.

And that is why I look forward to more content by someone like Kanan Gill. His Stand-up is mostly in English which narrows his audience a bit. His content also has a mild cerebral touch to it, he talks about Pavlovian Dogs, Julius Caesar and Pretentious Hindi movies. That again narrows it a little bit more. Gill himself admitted that a comedian’s loyalists might keep on shrinking with time if he sticks to his core, in a podcast with fellow comedian Kenneth Sebastian. Yet, he is the most popular name in India today. His shows in India are instantly sold out and he tours the world as well.

Gill started his comedy career doing a YouTube segment called 'Pretentious Movie Reviews'. He along with Biswa Kalyan Rath, another popular comedian, humorously critiqued some of our much loved Hindi movies. Stand-up comedy was next in the order. What is always interesting is that his humor is razor sharp and his content is quite diverse. Newer jokes which are relatable yet funny.

‘Yours Sincerely’ is his latest show on Netflix. It is themed on a letter he wrote as a 15-year-old to his present self. The show bounces back and forth from his current life to his past as a 15-year-old. And that is where it gets funny but like a slow burn. Everyone quite relates to his past and this where he humorously talks about harsh realities of growing up.

Kanan Gill, Yours Sincerely/ Netflix

The show packs in punches on almost everything, millennial habits, Indian aunties, silent airports and unrealistic expectations about growing up. Gill has a put a lot of himself in the show quite obviously. The bits about ‘If Possible’ when talking about love and ‘You Lose’ being a general judging statement rather than a game line get sad laughs. Sarcastic detours into Julius Caesar, writing letters in school and students being confused about metaphors suggest an ICSE school which hasn’t really changed in all these years. Sanskrit phrases draw people to their own memories of mugging them up.

The show has its hits and misses, mostly hits. It is an affectionate pat on the backs of people nearing their 30s, yet nowhere close to the lives they imagined 15 years ago. The humor is gentle and makes people wonder about the things they have forgotten themselves. There is a line in the show somewhere. “Is there anything lamer than how you used to be? Remember previous versions of your personality?” It is a good line.

Strange Days

The Corona pandemic has turned into something like the Football World Cup. The comparison is really crude, yes. But isn’t everyone behaving like a future pundit just like football pundits during the Cup? It is very privileged yet smug of me to write something from the comforts of the home, while thousands keep dying in my country and the world. The class difference as well the stars’ difference couldn’t be starker than what it is now. I am both privileged and lucky. Unlike millions.

Every Mumbaikar has at least once wished that Mumbai were this peaceful. Careful what you wish for, they said. Image by Indian Express.

Everyone is both worried and predictive about what the pandemic might actually turn into. As of now, it is turning into a giant monster just getting bigger and bigger every day. The toll of deaths is increasing each day supplemented in equal measure by conspiracy theories. China, they say, leaked the virus from a lab in Wuhan. Well, if there is an iota of truth in this rumor, then it is the dawn of a new era. The era of biological war. And since U.S. has been hit the worst, it fits into the scheme of things. China and U.S. were embroiled in an intense trade war for over a year or two, thanks to Mr. Trump’s imprudent protectionist policies.

It sometimes sends me into a thinking spree as to the current fate of the daily wage laborer in a country like India. With the poorest social security, thanks to humongous corruption even in these times, he is doomed. He has to actually see his family die slowly because there is simply no work outside. No medical facilities, no shelter, some are trapped in alien cities left to their own fate. Then there are layoffs in the corporate sector and more will follow. Meanwhile, Police and Administration are working day and night even at the risk of catching the virus. The only silent heroes.

I don’t think that the mere eradication or containment of the virus will serve any purpose. Sure, things will at least start rolling. But it will take a long time to really cope up with the losses the world will see. And this world is globalized. Every part of the body will share the pain. The industry, particularly energy, transport, manufacturing et al will have a real hard time and governments would have to reluctantly pump in money. The borrowings and the subsequent vices might turn Corona into an economic crisis as well. The monster has its body deep in the ocean.

Also, once it is all done, we selfish people will return to every bad habit which got exposed during the episode. I still can’t believe people burnt crackers at the behest of the PM to light diyas instead. SSI-Seriously Stupid Indians, that is what they are. Isn’t it more obvious, that our own misdeeds have led to this catastrophe? Overpopulation, lack of civic sense, pollution, waste dumps? I just dread at the thought that what if India had been as deeply infected as the U.S. Given our serious population and no considerable measures or infrastructure of containment, would we have survived even a month? Yamuna is cleaner after the lockdown than it ever was. And yes, millions were spent to clean Yamuna with poorest results. So, it is true? That the enemies of nature are indeed humans.

What will India do to better face such situations once it is done? I am not quite sure. Everyone will go back to the old ways after celebrating. And then we will go on, waiting for the next catastrophe to strike. We might need a new scapegoat, though. Because China won’t serve us long. Look at how well they did. By the way, the strange resurgence of the Ramayana and Mahabharata on television these days still puzzles me. Is is just a way to calm the nerves with some divine presence? Wait. Don’t tell me. No. Do we hypocrites believe deep down that the Gods might help? I don’t think so. They left this place long ago.