Master of Mirth breaks winter iceThere should be an official apology for holding the Mahotsav so far out of city bounds, thus depriving so many Lucknowites of the opportunity to enjoy Raju Srivastav’s live performance on Wednesday evening. The stand-up comedian who is a household name drew a crowd as big as one couldn’t expect for any other event in the cultural pandal at Smriti Upvan. Squeals, whistles and loud applause greeted the star jester as he came running on the stage and struck funny poses for the shutterbugs. His mixbag of oneliners, jokes, gags and mimicry took into its purview a gamut of trends, issues and expressions of the times we live in. And though recession—hey! even the inaugural day performer Pankaj Udhas mentioned “stress-ridden times of global meltdown”—or retrenchment on the job front found no mention in his repertoire, there were rip-offs aplenty of the media and various TV channels, fashion models, cricketers and who/what have you that kept the audience in splits. His laughathon went on for 55 minutes without a break and he came back to tickle the funnybone, just a few minutes later. As he recreated the scene at a Ramlila or as he enacted a kid drooling over goodies served before a guest, it was easy to tell what made him the toast of the nation. Re-running one of his items on request he showed how things go awry when a mafia-don -turned-religious-guru narrates to his followers Sita’s abduction by Kans and Shankar Bhagwan coming to the rescue of Draupadi during ‘cheer-haran’.Raju interspersed his rib-ticklers with filmi songs and presented a hilarious remix/pop version of KL Saigal’s Dil jaltaa hai to jalne de.Time and again he reminded his fans that performing in Lucknow and Kanpur was always a homecoming. It was a coming-of-age moment for the Mahotsav, which once relied solely on performers from outside, when a star of UP origin regaled the fair visitors. But one misses the presence of doyens like Girija Devi, who last performed in the Mahotsav that was held at Begum Hazrat Mahal Park. It was the same time of the year and when someone sent a request, she responded with “Is sardi ke mausam mein Phaag?” but obliged nevertheless. Organisers owe an explanation for keeping classical music (except in Kathak performances) out of the show.
