Funnily Ever After

I had no clue how to write a book!” admits Mumbai-based stand-up comedian Sorabh Pant. Now,five years after he started work on his debut novel ‘The Wednesday Soul’,he’s ready for a multi-city release. After the launch in Mumbai on January 19,it’s Pune’s turn today. At Arc Asia,8 pm onwards,Pant will be accompanied by actor Ashwin Mushran and together they will “discuss the book,death and what comes after. We’ll bum everyone out,” Pant says. After all,the subject of this fantasy fiction book is the afterlife. But where there’s Pant,there’s less seriousness,and more laughter.

He started writing the book even before stand-up comedy happened. “I looked at it as a serious book on the afterlife. I researched about the subject but my editor,on seeing the first draft,said: ‘It’s supposed to be funny’. So basically I went through an insane number of drafts,” Pant recounts. The Wednesday Soul is about a girl – Nyra Dubey – who is a vigilante in Delhi. She goes after men who’ve been wrongly acquitted after committing crimes against women. She dies on one such outing. “The book is about what happens to this feisty woman in the afterlife,” he says. He loves the recent boom in comedy. “A great outcome will be that two years down the line,television serials and films will get funnier with relatively intelligent jokes. There are comedians who are writing for television; it’s a good sign,” he adds. Will we see him on TV or on the silver screen? “The problem with TV is that the budget never works out. As for films,they’re for good looking people,not me,” he chuckles. “I did a college show once and was mobbed. Shocking. I looked at them and wondered,‘Me? Really?’” he adds. His focus will remain on his shows and his next book. “This is the first of a trilogy. The second will be even better and far funnier,” he promises.