Raju Srivastava: The Desi Story of Laughter
In the dark of night, someone knocked on the door of a house in a village. An old lady opened the door and asked- ‘Who are you brother, what is the matter?’ The visitor said- ‘Amma, Rahul Bhaiya has come.’ The woman asked- ‘Who is Rahul Bhaiya?’ The person said- ‘Hey Amma Wahi, Apne Rahul Bhaiya, he has come.’ Amma- ‘But why has he come?’ Visitor- ‘Amma, he will stay at your house, will sleep here at night.’ The woman said- ‘How will we sleep in our house, we have only one cot here.’ The visitor said- ‘It doesn’t matter, they will sleep on it.’ The woman said- ‘But how will you sleep on it? On that sister ji is already sleeping.
Raju Srivastava made and told this joke at a time when some politicians were competing to go to the villages of Uttar Pradesh to take food and spend the night at the homes of Dalits. No other standup comedian in the country will remember as many tales or jokes as Raju’s. Those tales could have been about the tantrums of relatives and processionists at a wedding, the wedding meal, a flood situation, disputes between husband and wife, politics, media, floods and even traffic jams. The words spoken in his hometown of Kanpur and eastern Uttar Pradesh, the language, the tone and the depth of the humor that could arise from it, he took with him all over the country but also abroad.
Through fictional rustic characters such as ‘Gajodhar’ and ‘Sangtha’, he created countless funny stories. The beauty of those stories was that they reflected their entire lower-middle class society, its little joys, its troubles, its frustrations, its risks and its hopes. On the stage, he carved all these aspects of this class in different ways.
Raju later learned to create comic situations and their storytelling. They started with mimicry i.e. imitating the voice and style of famous people. That too with a mimicry of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The father used to request Raju in front of the guests that the son should recite the voice of Indira Gandhi. With the help of this mimicry, he started work on the stage and on the basis of this he reached Mumbai. He also got work in films like ‘Maine Pyar Kiya’, ‘Baazigar’, ‘Amadani Athani Kharsha Rupaiya’, ‘Bombay to Goa’, ‘Tezaab’ etc. His last film ‘Kanjoos Makchoos’ is going to come on OTT after some time. But Raju Srivastava might not have been made for films. He found his real identity as a standup comedian on stage.
Raju’s talent got the biggest platform through ‘The Great Indian Laughter Challenge’. His coin ran for many years on such forums. The condition became such that Shekhar Suman, one of the judges of the show, once said after a standing ovation to Raju that ‘no one understands this country more than this man.’ When the world and the world of entertainment are changing very fast, in such a situation, a few years of unity as a standup comedian should also be considered as a big achievement of Raju Srivastava.
Like films, Raju Srivastava may not have been made for politics. First went to Samajwadi Party and then to BJP. He was also affected by the ongoing ideological division in the country. Controversy arose in social media after his death regarding whatever he had said in its effect. The fact is that today we see many filmmakers standing on one side of this divide. So will he in future be remembered for his ideological remarks rather than his mastery of the genre? Then what about the professional achievements of our doctors, lawyers, scientists and journalists of today? All of them too are largely divided in the same way.
