For The Love of Stand-Up Comedy

I hope we get Mizo Stand-Up Comedians one of these days that can do a 20 minutes to an hour set, in Mizo or English or Minglish I don’t care but it’s about a Mizo experience, and it is not about “There is this one guy…” which is how Mizo comedians tell jokes but yk the story might be funny and I’d laugh but I would still always prefer self-referenced comedy and I think I’d find the joke funnier if you convinced me “the guy” was you or maybe your friend, someone with a name, the Martin to Gabriel Iglesias, yk.

That’s a really long sentence. If you read that without taking a breath, take one now.

I like comedy. My favourite ones tend to be, like I mentioned, the self-referenced ones, the first person narration, and if it is self-deprecating, it is even funnier to me. What that says about me IDK; you make of that what you will. 

I think presently my favourite stand-up comedian is Trevor Noah who Atu and Momo introduced me to, with the Zambian Escalator joke. He has smart comedy. I even bought his book "Born A Crime" and read it; quite enjoyable. Back in college, I was, as were most Englosh speaking Millennial Indians, partial to Russell Peters; somebody gonna get a-hurt real bad, yk. And then later, Fluffy.

Recently I’ve started listening to Indian stand-up comedy in English and am thoroughly enjoying some of the sets. I even have favourites now. My current favourite is Shamik Chakrabarti who got me hooked with the story of how he lost his laptop one night. I could relate! Especially with the policeman training him how crime is investigated in India, and how most office passwords are Admin123. I know some of your office WiFi passwords are exactly that. Or yk, Admin1234.

Or his muse on how Indian parenting somehow trains you to be "sickeningly honest" that you find yourself a sleeper cell, reporting on yourself to your parents. They don’t know you bought a laptop, but you somehow find yourself telling them you lost the laptop they didn’t know you bought, so that now the only outcome is you are forever the Laptop Loser. Hilarious. Because it happens.

The school bus driver story, the Karnataka tiger reserve, the buying a Hall AC for a one bedroom house, the auto charge of 77INR… I play them over and over; relaxes me while it amuses me. 

A close second would be Niveditha Prakasam who’d wryly ask you if you knew that people with generational wealth looked just like us? Or how from Tamil Nadu, everyone else is a North Indian, much to the possible chagrin of Mumbaikers and Bangaloreans, maybe. I laughed hard at how she described her sexual awakening and exploration of it, and how it connected to IRCTC booking!

Laughed too, at how Hollywood, unlike Bollywood, preferred the dark-skinned Indian girls to represent India but how they also get it wrong and then you have two Tamil girls representing Indians in Bridgerton and their names were “Sharma”. Chagrin of thw fair-skinned Sharmas, maybe.

Then there is Somnath Padhy who I started to listen to because of his hilarious set on Vitamin D Deficiency. Because I was researching Vitamin D deficiency on Google, perhaps. Algorithm, yk. His relatable stories include Indian classrooms, frogs v. cockroaches, engineering over MBBS, and electrical engineers at war. Hilarious. 

In Mizo, I think comedy form is theatre drama over stand-up. All our stand-ups are basically people telling a series of jokes, but not exactly as a set. Which is what is missing from our stand-ups. Even so, my favourite Mizo comedian used to be Thangkura drama party; I memorized the drama too back in cassette days, because I listened to them so much. I also enjoyed Leikhi Miss even though that was highly slapstick. In contemporary Mizo comedy, I really enjoy the more cerebral and dry humour of Chhara and Mastea. A little earlier, the drama of Zephyr comedy club, headlined by Mapuia. Fun. I also truly enjoy Tleua and gang. 

I believe I enjoy them because these performances come in a larger picture scenario with their own Titles holding the whole set together, I think. And also because they are a reflection and contemplation of Mizo society, without being preachy, and I enjoy that. I even prefer a sermon that is delivered as a funny musing over the Hell Penalty ones. 

But again, not exactly stand-up. I truly hope we get those soon. I am pretty sure the next gen will be up to the task. IDK about reception though. Maybe I’m the only weirdo who enjoys stand-up comedy so much she is hoping to listen to a Mizo/Minglish set soon. IDK. Could be.

I leave you this time with an advice from Somnath Pathy: if you are going to drink and drive in India, do it during the day because the police don’t have their device; they’re charging it for the night.

Another Town, Another World

Comedy often gets lost in translation. So truly, I pity the people who won’t get the whip dry comedy of Pu Biaka as he talks about his hunting prowess. One hour straight of never cracking up as he drawls in this low, measured voice, recounting his many extraordinary experiences in the game? Transcendental experience.

I mean how in the world does someone talk about if all the monkeys I’ve killed came back to life, they’d fill up the football stadium for the World Cup finale and then top it off with but I don’t really consider monkey as game? Hilarious. Or, I don’t have much experience fishing but I guess the biggest fish I caught was the catfish I shared with 300 people and when it rained, we propped its mouth up and took shelter in the cave of the mouth? Hi-fucking-larious.

Of course, people seem to know him best for the wildly beautiful Lasi – nymphs, maybe, I don’t know; or elvenfolk in the manner of LOTR and not Harry Potter – he has supposedly known. Biblically. I’ve heard of many people who claim to have Lasi lovers but I’ve never heard of a Lasi college! Also I’ve never heard of castes of Lasi. That wit was blazing sharp.

In another world, another town, he could be famous. He could really cash in on this. When I met him, he told me people have indeed suggested he take up comedy as a vocation. That he could possibly earn decent money from this routine.

I agree. I think he has great potential. I am a fan of dry comedy. Always have been. My favourite authors have been known for their razor-sharp wit. Douglas Adams, Bill Bryson, KC, JK Rowling, Terry Pritchard, Neil Gaiman, Andrew Kaufman, Marian Keyes, Mindy Kaling, Jug Suraiya, Richard Ayoade, Khushwant Singh… all amazingly witty. I don’t know how rich they all are but going by how I have had access to them before the explosion of social media, I think they have a pretty penny each to their names. Assuming fame and fortune go hand in hand. And I’m guessing they do. To a certain point, at least.

This is a problem with living in a shitty economy. I know a senior in my service who would be aces as a CEO of a big-ass company but they’re not because we’re in Mizoram and as Mizoram economy goes, being MCS is stable, secure, decently-paid, powerful enough, in short, dream job. I’ve often thought about how it would be grand to do something else but in this economy, what I have is good. Which sucks. Because I think sometimes that if I were in a richer economy, I’d be trying out for something else than government service. I’m not saying I’d excel, but I’d try out. In Mizoram, it’s harder to be brave, career-wise. Especially when you know you lack tenacity.

Moving on.

There are Mizo people who are so witty they amaze me. I often watch youtube clips of Mastea (a current favourite) and earlier Mapuia (Zephyr/FTH, I guess), and earlier still listened to Thangkura and Leikhi Miss. Comedy changes with time. The people and material do, too. However, these people are usually of a different make than Pu Biaka, though. While a grand variety of the best of Mizo comedy is slap-stick or at least physical, Pu Biaka’s brand is bone dry, sedate and yet, this world-building he does on the spot is truly the mark of a sparkling wit, and proves he’s not just a dazzling wordsmith. For that, I’d marvelled and extolled. This was why while I have no real drive to meet any of the professional comedians, I’d wanted to meet Pu Biaka in person. I’d wanted to shake his hand, let him know his wit was appreciated. I’d wanted to sit and have tea with him and chat with him, listen to him chat in person. And thankfully, I did get to shake his hand and take a picture with him.

Which is a good story in itself! The day I got transferred to Hnahthial and I realized Pu Biaka was a resident of Hnahthial district and not far from the town at all, I was very excited. I made plans to locate and meet him. I eagerly waited for the first weekend so I could go look for him. I was fully prepared to use my office as a means to get to him. Which I did. I got the name and number of the village council leaders and asked around. Interestingly, his house was right across the village council president’s. And even though the monsoon road was not ideal for a weekend joyride (there were three major landslides and at one location, half the road have caved in), I went. He was not home.

I tried again the following weekend. He was again not home. But the third time I pestered the village council people over his whereabouts, they could locate him. But in the middle of nowhere on a jungle road. He was caked in mud, from cheeks to boots, I might add. Very fitting manner to meet a Great Hunter, I should have known.

They say you should not meet your heroes. Because they disappoint. Not Pu Biaka. That meeting was not disappointing. At all.

Hmanlai Film Dangdai: A Commentary

I consider it unnecessary for a story to have meaning. This is why I love anecdotes and random narration as much as full-fledged chronicles. In fact, I have never particularly enjoyed ‘moral of the story’ type tales. I like for morals and romances to be incidental to stories, not have them be central, overarching, all-encompassing themes. As in life. Most of life indeed is random and chance-like. This is why I have not been a big fan of Mizo literature overmuch, much less Mizo films. 

Then came Hmanlai Film Dangdai. Anyone who has ever watched HFD would know how very random the narration is and how arbitrary the picture has been captured. There is seemingly no rhyme or reason to the film, just the story and how it is told however it has to be told. Whatever the plot demands, the cast provides, reason be damned.

It is comedy gold reminiscent of Monty Python. I doubt I could give them a higher compliment than that. They also often answer real world queries in their films off-handedly, like how people thought the protagonist's name was Cheu-a but he was actually Tleu-a, as though that was an in-world misnomer. Never shying off of any topic, even mostly taboo topics like sex, HFD presents slices of life in a way that is novel to Mizo films in short bursts.

The dialogue is hardly ever stinted, although you can tell it has been thoroughly worked on because the punch line nearly always lands. The delivery by the actors is on point and sounds more natural than the majority of Mizo films; the conversations have a relaxed, between-friends sort of a vibe that is very often missing in Mizo cinema.

However, it was the costume that captured my attention first and foremost because there was a relaxation in it that was hilariously inconsistent. You’d have characters dressed in ‘proper’ ‘old-timey’ Mizo clothes and barefooted. Then you could erratically have one of those wear proper modern shoes. How? No explanation. Even more unpredictably, a character, most notably Hauchhumi, would appear in proper modern clothes – in her red flannel shirt, black jeans and shoes – with no clarification.

The characters themselves are another ambiguous ballgame. Sometimes they talk about characters from folktales like they were neighbours or at least living in the same time as them. Sometimes they casually go to the side of the road and enter ‘the deep forest’ and call out a Lasi who has magical powers and bestows upon the humans boons. These magical creatures exist side by side with them with zero impact on the humans unless they actively interact with them which is such a matter-of-fact story-telling which I deeply appreciate. They even whip out smartphones and if I remember correctly, talk about folktale characters being part of group chats or something similar. Possibly Japanese-esque in this regard. Or in the vein of retelling of stories where fairy tale creatures are in the modern world. Like Once Upon A Time, perhaps. 

I like the demonstration of relationship between the characters as well and how easy their bonds are accepted without making anything into a complicated love triangle. We all have those friends. We know them. We understand them easily enough. Of course, since there is only one major male character, he is often paired as the love interest of many of them ladies without it ever coming off as complex and intricate. They’re truly literally just playing parts. And simply playing off of each other as friends, like we do in real life. I cannot express just how deeply I respect this.

I have enjoyed many Mizo films. I have done my part watching the cringe fests with interest, even rented their CDs/DVDs from movie rentals. I can recite a few Mizo film dialogues with my sister. I sometimes howl with laughter over some comedy acts. Also over non-comedy acts too, in all honesty. YouTube is a relatively new venture and there are a ton of acts there that are refreshing. Not all of them films though. Not all of them brilliant.

One of the biggest problems I have with Mizo films is with direction and editing. There are simply too many unnecessary, empty screen times and scenes that drag out longer than they need to. Add to that moralizing and forced dialogues. HFD is novel again in that they do not waste screen time and utilize mostly all their scenes, often covering with overlaid voice-overs or dialogues. I truly admire this. It cannot be easy.

In the end, a good movie is about how well it tells a story and how engagingly it tells it. A good HD camera or good casting alone cannot be enough. HFD is good at it. I am a fan.