Humour cool and subtle
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Shekar Suman kept the audience at Kamaraj Arangam laughing and thinking with his razor sharp wit. Some highlights. RANJANI GOVIND
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SHREWD AND SPARKLING: Shekhar Suman has a finger on people's pulse. — PHOTO: K. V. Srinivasan
It's not a joke. Having the packed audience at Kamaraj Arangam in splits for two hours can be a nerve-racking task.
But for the `Badshah of blah,' Shekhar Suman from Mumbai, it was a normal affair. Spirited, jovial, effervescent and at once natural, the live jabber's non-stop intelligent humour was cool and subtle — often taking a dig at some seemingly funny incidents, personalities and moves in the world of politics, cricket, films, advertising and so on.
The `laughathon' affair — `Shekhar Suman Live,' from South Chakra, the city's Hindi Weekly, commemorating its 10-year celebrations was a gift to the Hindi-lovers in Chennai.
While Shekhar's presence in the tinsel world is remembered for his role in `Utsav' opposite Rekha, his comedy shows on Hindi channels in the recent years boast of TRPs that any soap on the idiot box would be envious about.
Only a confident chatterbox as Shekhar, with a nose for news and current-affairs, tongue for diction and a gift for memory, could talk nineteen to the dozen and engage people for hours in delight.
This past weekend Shekhar dedicated the show to R. K. Laxman.
If politics had him spinning tales — imaginary situations and reactions of Lallu Prasad, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Sonia Gandhi in their typical styles — which had the audience rolling in laughter, the recent non-performance of Ganguly in the India-Pakistan series enabled Shekhar to come out with some hilarious make-believe reactions from Sourav.
With liquor baron Vijay Mallya's airline enterprise in the news, Shekhar's take off on the safety announcements by the tipsy airline staff only added to the excitement.
But hold on... it wasn't just a laugh-and-forget show! Several of his jibes were intertwined with social awareness messages too — pesticide content in cool drinks, the need for better ties with Pakistan, the obsession for horror movies, or the near-emptiness of serial titles were examples worth reflecting upon.
But what really took the cake was Shekhar's breathless commentary for `football by politicians,' his perfectly timed sarcasm and verbal flutter reminding you of a sewing machine.
Gag on Ganguly
"India believes in "Athithi Devo Bhava" (Guests are akin to God). Rightly, when our guests from Pakistan arrived on the cricket field, we didn't steer away from our traditional belief. Our generosity in bowling saw them not just running feverishly between wickets, but going beyond the boundary!
But Ganguly, our `King of the Pavilion' is still in a rollicking mood in spite of his single run.
How are you so cool Dada?
Sourav: (biting his nails) "Positive attitude matters. I am only short of 99 for a century!"
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