THE COMICS ARE ALRIGHT

A NEW VARIETY SHOW SEES THE WORLD OF INDIAN COMEDY TRYING TO LAUGH AWAY THE BLUES

- Shreevatsa Nevatia

Though we might have mourned the pandemic’s many casualties, our loss of fun, one could argue, never did get the moving obituary it deserved. Covid-19 made us feel mortal again, but with that, it also made us miserable and broody. We laughed less because there just wasn’t that much out there for us to laugh about. Released this month, Netflix’s Comedy Premium League (CPL), perhaps, signals a change in our collective fortune. If 16 of India’s most popular comedians could get together only to be silly, funny and rambunctious, the worst must be over. Laughter is, after all, some medicine.

For Sumukhi Suresh, CPL afforded a rediscovery: “Having my peers around helped me get back that metre of breathing I am used to when on a stage.” Ostensibly a comedy variety show—the format includes everything from improv and sketches to stand-up and roasts—CPL sees its comics compete with each other in groups of four. “We played it cool, but were actually very competitive,” adds Suresh.