Biswa Kalyan Rath's sardonic sense of humour has always been one of his biggest assets. Rath has over time consolidated his position as a strong comedian, with the ability to sway audiences with the simplest of observations in the most poignant ways. This is most visible in his first Amazon Prime special, Biswa Mast Aadmi,
His second special Sushi was advertised as a mix of all and nothing, a delicious goop of likes and dislikes, the odds and the conventional. As promised, Rath delivers and how! Instead of treading very obvious political paths, he chooses to talk about important social dilemmas in the most veiled manner. Audiences are reminded of lackadaisical bank employees (and the eternal annoyance they cause), bad footpaths, leaking taps, corrupt bureaucrats, and a general happily-ignorant nation that works in unison towards nothing, as it turns out.
Biswa is much less corrosive this time around. He softly plants the jokes in audiences' minds and lets them figure it out eventually. While Mast Aadmi had an undertone of years of angst and a sense of emancipation, Sushi revels in the knowledge that 'not much makes sense'.
Still from Biswa Kalyan Rath's new Amazon special Sushi. Image from Amazon Prime
Always a subtle voice of awareness, Biswa's special holds ground on important issues. He takes on the issue of corruption head-on. In a well-crafted set about airport officials and their signboards declaring "Do Not Pay Bribe", the comedian opens the hilarious chasm on the surface of Indian democracy. "Other countries ask their people to not take bribes, but our government knows that the main culprits are customers." In a detailed bit that follows, Biswa holds up the helplessness of law-abiding tax-payers by pitting them as more-than-willing participants in the bribe wars.
But in his rant against society, Biswa never forgets his USP — to connect on a personal level. He introduces a parallel narrative about his mother (which seems to be an easy target), to explain how bizarre Indian families can be. From his mother's incomprehensible calls for house help to her magical abilities to trace lost items in the house, Rath comes up with a compelling lot — add to that a brilliant section on stage-lighting effects, and it makes for a perfect set.
The main element binding the Amazon special, is Rath's idea of modern India and all its weird quirks. Talking about a sign on the road which said "Accident Prone Area", Biswa questions why the government is so interested in giving him disclaimers about the area instead of doing something about it — "Jab tumko pata hai wahaa accident hota hai, toh kuch karo na. Mere saath dard kya baat rahe ho?" The comedian's understandable agony is shared generously with the room as they burst into peels of laughter.
Despite Sushi's likeability, the total set lacks the slap-in-the-face epiphanies that Biswa is generally known for. You laugh, but its more of a breezy reaction, rather than a full, guttural sign of appreciation. The best thing about Sushi though, is Rath's enthusiasm to slide into topics that are far from personal, or more importantly, dealing with material that has little to no space for eccentric improvisations.
In the end, Biswa proves to be the master of anecdotal comedy, but slips marginally when it comes to universal playing grounds of comedy.
Rating: ***1/2 stars
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