Comedienne

 Comedy is quite some detox, right? There are very few interesting comedy programmes in Marathi, my mother tongue. Awful cross-dressing hardly makes for a good laugh. 

Such comic programmes, moreover, make quite derogatory references to women, both in general and often pointedly personalised. So ridiculous, however, is the comic in such PJ programmes  that  they are hardly worth a mention.

Yesterday I spent some time watching on the mobile the "Mona Darling" series from the "Maharashtra chi Hasyajatra". Earlier Namrata Sambherao used to play the eponymous role. Now it is Shivali Parab. 

Both of them present perfectly the silly social media sensation called "Mona Darling". The crazy airhead character comes alive on stage with their stellar performances, their perfect timing, and wonderfully suited make-up and costumes.

That made me think, especially because now in India there are a number of women stand-up comedy artists as well. Is it the case that to create laughter, a comedienne has to mock women? Well, the social media sensations in real life would hardly be like this reel representation. The "tik-tok" queens with millions of followers most probably would be quite worldly wise, and hyper 'smart', i think. Sure this is my guess. I would not know much of that area of the entertainment industry.

In other words, is there a belittling or mockery of womanhood involved in the roles created for comediennes? Do women have to be brain dead eye candy? Does the depiction by most script writers get limited to the standard roles and representations assigned to women traditionally? 

May be, that is why i think i prefer the comic roles that Vishakha Subhedar performs (or used to perform, may be. I would not know as i do not watch the programme regularly) in this programme. She does not create the comic through body shaming, for instance. At least whichever of her roles I saw, she is not a dim-wit bimbette. There was this performance of hers wherein she was a Bollywood dance master. Yet never was in it any demeaning of womanhood.

Of course, actors follow faithfully the script. Hence the need for witty women script writers. Sure comediennes would be truly fun then!

Pratima@ If lions were to be sculptors, very different would be the depiction of the man-lion statues at very many crossroads!