Shinde Supporters Have Done More Harm To Him By Vandalising Kamra’s Studio

By Sushil Kutty

The statement ‘Comedian Kunal Kamra keeps me in splits’ is not comedy. Neither is ‘Kunal lives in a room which is his surname!’ And if a child drops the line “Papa bought me a Kunal Kamra to take pictures”, it still isn’t a joke. What’s called ‘Stand-up Comedy’ is people paying money to listen to jokes at a comedy club in a hotel in Maximum City Mumbai!

The hotel housing the Habitat Comedy Club was vandalized by Shiv Sena (Shinde) workers after Kunal Kamra cracked an unfunny joke at the expense of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde who, pardon the liberty, can stop laughter mid-stream with a single glance, like the turn of a tap stops water with a single twist!

Time was when nobody in his right senses cracked jokes on the Shiv Sena or its founder Balasaheb Thackeray. These days, and it ain’t funny, there are two Shiv Sena, the so-called ‘original’ and the so-called ‘duplicate’. Kunal Kamra chose the so-called ‘original’ to crack his unfunny joke on.

And jokes can lead to violence committed on the joker who committed the joke. It’s a blasphemy or as blasphemous as, no jokes, a Danish cartoon. Even cartoons have spilt blood. Even cartoons are no jokes and Balasaheb Thackeray was a cartoonist.

Comedian Kunal Kamra specializes in the stand-up variety of comedy. The sitcom sort is the kind that targets President Donald Trump. Mostly on late-night Saturday evenings when Friday has long gone and Sunday is yet to rise. Trump doesn’t react. Nor does his Maga supporter. But Eknath Shinde’s supporters took a shine to Kunal Kamra and would have given him a shiner if he was still at the venue.

Kamra had found the “traitor” hiding in full glare of Mumbai and Maharashtra. The Mumbai Police has now lodged two FIRs: One for the master, and one for the black sheep who lives in the ‘Kamra’. It is no longer a laughing matter. Kunal Kamra faces consequences though a similar statutory warning also dogs the Sena workers.

That being said, Kunal Kamra shouldn’t have practiced his brand of stand-up comedy on Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. Calling the Deputy Chief Minister a ‘traitor’ was foolish, not even remotely funny. That too, in Mumbai, Maharashtra. What if the Guwahati Police takes a fancy for Kunal Kamra’s stand-up comedy? Remember Eknath Shinde went from Surat to Guwahati when he broke from Uddhav Thackeray and broke the Shiv Sena! People don’t call Guwahati’s jail today’s ‘Kalapani’ for nothing.

The Shinde Sena has promised to see that Kunal Kamra never walks Mumbai’s streets ever again. They have threatened that he will be grabbed on sight and his mug blackened with whatever soot that comes to hand. Kunal Kamra can take that promise to the Muthoot or any other financier for whatever it’s worth.

The line comes to mind: “Ab tera kya hoga, Kamra?” The Shinde Shiv Sena isn’t the sort of sport that forgets and forgives. Even Gabbar Singh will flinch. The FIR against Kunal Kamra says Kamra called Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde a ‘traitor’. The backlash would have caught Kunal Kamra flush in the face if he was caught at the “venue”. The comedy has now become a controversy. The FIR against the stand-up comic mentions “defamatory remarks”.

And Kamra is a repeat offender, a serial-joker targeting imaginary traitors. Somebody answering to the name Rahul Kanal lodged the FIR at the Khar Police Station in Mumbai in the early hours of Monday under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including 353(1)(b) (statements conducing to public mischief) and 356(2) (defamation) to ensure Kamra will keep running from pillar to post.

The tragedy in the comedy is the Habitat Comedy Club where Kunal Kamra tested his vocabulary and his memory for songs. It has now become uninhabitable for comedy shows. Kamra outperformed himself when he took up for topic the split in the undivided Shiv Sena.

“Shiv Sena first came out of the BJP, then Shiv Sena came out of Shiv Sena. NCP came out of NCP, they gave nine buttons to one voter… everyone got confused,” Kamra said, and sang a parody inspired by the Bollywood film ‘Dil To Pagal Hai’: “Meri nazar se tum dekho toh gaddar nazar wo aaye. Haaye (If you look at it from my perspective, he looks like a traitor).”

Kamra didn’t name Eknath Shinde. He left it to the audience to identify the “gaddar”. If nobody else got it right, the Shiv Sena (Shinde) strongarms got it right! Kunal Kamra now awaits a blackeye. And a plastic drum! What did the Habitat Comedy Club do, except host good for nothing people having fun at the expense of politicians?

Sena (UBT) MLA Aaditya Thackeray came down heavily on the vandals: “Mindhe’s coward gang breaks the comedy show stage where comedian @kunalkamra88 put out a song on eknath mindhe, which was 100 percent true. Only an insecure coward would react to a song by someone.”

Kunal Kamra has been cracking jokes for a long time, keeping happy people who laughed for no discernable reason; people with irreverence for Gods but left the “one and only God” alone. This time Kunal Kamra left the gods and goddesses alone.

In fact, Kunal Kamra has been missing in action for quite some time from the stand-up stage. Stand-up comedians can’t afford to sit at home. They’ve to be up and about targeting somebody famous for the notoriety it brings. Also to keep pace with the gravy train even if the political climate for stand-up comedians is deadly.

There is pressure on stand-up comedians. Pressure to perform and outperform. Always be in the eye of cyclones. The room had shrunk for Kunal Kamra. The Supreme Court came down heavily on comedy tested on the people by comic failures like Ranveer Allahabadia and Samay Raina. But it also gave them relief. Kunal Kamra should also get an injunction in his favour. In any case, Eknath Shinde is not a “traitor”, he’s Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister, which is not a joke! (IPA Service)