Comics take off on Mumbai being in a constant state of work-in-progress

Mumbai: The city is in the process of reinventing itself with the tacit promise that one day its citizens will enjoy all the trappings that are par for course of a true blue Mahanagri – a well-oiled network of Metro, concrete roads, a shiny coastal road and trans-harbour link

Mumbai: The city is in the process of reinventing itself with the tacit promise that one day its citizens will enjoy all the trappings that are par for course of a true blue Mahanagri – a well-oiled network of Metro, concrete roads, a shiny coastal road and trans-harbour link. With that dream in a distant future, for now the Mumbaikar chooses to live poorly with a willing suspension of disbelief – a security blanket to cope with the daily nervous anxiety of navigating through upturned roads where infra projects are on and insane traffic snarls.

Chetan Kolge, who is famously known as ‘Poster Boy Chetan’, uses humorous handmade posters to highlight civic issues in still images. Kolge filmed himself sitting inside a pothole holding up a poster proclaiming ‘We are ready to use helmet for the pillion riders, are you ready to give us better roads?’ It became a talking point on social media. (HT PHOTO)

On the lighter side, this urban reality and collective anger has inspired many comic artistes’ satirical acts, garnering millions of hits.

Recently, stand-up comedian Shreeja Chaturvedi highlighted the plight of Andheri roads, demonstrating how officials were trying to find the core of the earth – they keep digging and digging and never put it back, she joked. Clearly, it resonated deeply, for Chaturvedi’s video was viewed more than 1.4 million times on Instagram and widely shared on other social media platforms.

“Frustration rather than inspiration goes into picking these issues for performances,” she said. “These problems are a genuine equaliser for an audience – it’s like someone is articulating your deep cry from within.” Chaturvedi understands the toll Mumbai traffic can have on people, so much so, she does not take unkindly to audiences filing in late as it illustrates her theme.

Alongside, stand-up acts, meme artists are also having a field day. Balram Vishwakarma’s Instagram page ‘Andheri west s**t posting’, is a reservoir of take-offs on civic lapses. As Vishwakarma said, “Instead of approaching your local political leader, which often turn out to be a threat, it is always wise to give the issue a humourous spin. When you know that there is no way out of it, laugh about it.” As an unconscious extension to Chaturvedi’s thought, he added, “It’s almost as if an employee hid a gold coin inside the earth that others are scrambling to find.”

Lending himself to the under-construction metro lines, Anirban Dasgupta’s recent video stemmed from the “anger and pain” that he goes through stuck in traffic jams. “People across ages and gender relate to this. Most of us don’t even need a plan to tell jokes on these subjects – they come naturally to us,” said Dasgupta.

Likewise, “coming up with an idea” is seldom a challenge for Azeem Banatwalla, whose video on Covid-19, traffic jams and the metro has also gone viral. Art imitates life “and most of your life in Mumbai is spent stuck in traffic”. “Being stuck in traffic gives you time to think, and in my case, write jokes.”

Speaking about the online and offline trends that has swept the city, he said, “All comedy is born from some level of tragedy, and I think the biggest tragedy of every Mumbaikar’s life is how poorly this city’s development is planned.”

Chetan Kolge, who is famously known as ‘Poster Boy Chetan’, uses humorous handmade posters to highlight civic issues in still images. Kolge filmed himself sitting inside a pothole holding up a poster proclaiming ‘We are ready to use helmet for the pillion riders, are you ready to give us better roads?’ It became a talking point on social media.

Kolge, who chooses to work in his mother tongue, said, “During the months of lockdown, when people couldn’t reach their leaders, I decided to use social media to air their views. The idea of using posters was different for others. Today, I get many messages from people sharing their civic issues with me asking me to look into their plight – I cannot do much except make posters. Some have reached the civic body and they have acted on them as well.”

Like others, Kolge expressed, humour is the best way to tell a bitter truth.