Jaipur, 20 September 2019
Kapil Dev is like a hero, but at the end of the day his English is a little funny because he is the same guy who told Peter West after beating England with 14 wickets in 1986 that the secret of success of India is –‘ Bowlers bowl well, fielders field well, batsman bat well and we win’.
This is how Cyrus Broacha, a comedian, political satirist. He began his ‘state of satire session’ on the first day of Talk Journalism 2019 with such a mocking comment. He confirmed it later that the starting comment of his does not take away his love and admiration for Kapil Dev.
This added more laughter elements to a packed audience. Post this, more and more satires took all the audience on a laugh ride on every joke Cyrus cracked. He then shifted over to mocking Sachin Tendulkar like the way he presents himself and mimicked the way Sachin does on the field like rubbing the ball over his body. This gave an answer to the question of ‘What is the limit of making fun of anybody?’
Anant Jha, the anchor of the session asked: “ Did you ever get into trouble while doing religious comedy or satire or do you stay away from it ?” To which Broacha diplomatically answered that religious comedy is not a very big budget at this moment and that we will need to wait for a few more years.
Cyrus has always been talked about he not being well versed with Hindi. To this, he commented, “Kisi parsi ke ghar do mahine rehke dekho, aapko jawab mil jaaega (You live in the house of a Parsi for two months, you yourself will know the answer) !” He recounted an old tale of his home to give the proof. Once when a dhobi was on the door waiting for clothes and his grandmother told him “haa ruko, abhi kapde nikaalke aati hu (You wait, I am coming by taking out my clothes !“
When asked about his opinion on the fact that Maria Sharapova did not know who Sachin Tendulkar was, he stated that he is loved by millions of people and if one pretty woman does not know him, he is not going to lose anything. These are rich, powerful, happy human being and our country will not drown because of such thing, and nothing is going to end!
The endorsement of satire went with ballistic laughter in the hall and left the crowd thinking to see satire with a brain or keep it at home. Cyrus concluded by saying that he thinks not to be so emotional towards the taunts over social media sites.
Text: Pooja Paghdar & Swastika Sruti | Copy Edit: Niharika Raina | Photo: Pooja Paghdar | Photo Desk: Sagar Samuel | Editorial Coordination: Rupali Soni and Niharika Raina