This Emergency-era satire has returned to take pot shots at political class

The familiar music of a prime-time news show plays in the background. A man with a haughty look, sitting behind a table with a wooden frame to suggest a TV screen, preens and gives the thumbs-up to presumably his colleagues before launching an outburst that is characteristic of news anchoring today. He introduces himself as Nation Goswami (no prizes for guessing the inspiration behind this) and shouts out the day’s headlines: a chicken in Pokhran laying an atomic egg, the Bharatiya Janata Party government passing a bill making cows eligible to vote, and so on. As he proceeds to conduct a debate on the emerging role of cows and animals in politics, he screams and scolds the panelists — caricatures of politicians across parties — as one of them rains blows on another.

I am at New Delhi’s Akshara Theatre, an iconic complex where the actors are rehearsing scenes from Let’s Laugh Again, a legendary play by its late founder, Gopal Sharman. In the absence of an audience the scenes, which include an actor playing a cow that moos its political preference, seem like an acceptable private joke. At a time when criticism is prone to invite outrage and even censorship, it’s hard to imagine the reception for a play that takes pot shots at the political class liberally. But then, since it was first staged during the Emergency, Let’s Laugh Again has spared none. Why should now be any different?

Since late 1976, Akshara has staged improvised versions of the play every general election. Its structure has remained the same, and except for a couple of characters — including Jijabai Borkar MP VIP, played by leading stage actor and Sharman’s wife, Jalabala Vaidya — the dramatis personae have changed to target the popular politicians of the day. The current characters include thinly disguised names such as Bindi and 24 Karats, the First Family, Ms Haathi Mere Saathi and the Yadavs.

“This election is a little different. The fun, excitement and enthusiasm is quite low, so we have to work harder,” laughs Sharman’s daughter, Anasuya Vaidya, who is the director of Akshara Theatre.

Enacting a scene with a TV anchor

She says a few scenes performed by Sharman — who played an opportunistic politician called Dan Vir Singh — couldn’t possibly be replicated. “He used to say, ‘After the Emergency when the wind wasn’t blowing in favour of the Congress I defecated to the Janata Party’. We use references to his character, but haven’t replaced him.” Sharman passed away in 2016.

The two slated performances — on May 19 and 26 — will have slight changes in the script depending on what transpires in the last phase of polling and when the Lok Sabha election results are declared on May 23.

Gopal Sharman and Jalabala Vaidya on stage in the first production of Let’s Laugh Again in 1976

This year, Let’s Laugh Again is adding a set by standup comics who will improvise while interacting with the anchor. The figure of the anchor was earlier more in the manner of All India Radio announcers and played by Jalabala Vaidya.

The veteran recalls that former prime minister I K Gujral, then ambassador to Moscow, had come to see the play. “We were making fun of Mrs Gandhi and also Rajiv and particularly Sanjay Gandhi. Seeing this, he went ‘aargh’, as did the audience.” Anasuya Vaidya adds, “People were scared to laugh to start with. Once they did, of course they couldn’t stop.”

The Akshara founders met Indira Gandhi in 1976 after they returned from the US — where Sharman’s famous production, The Ramayana, was staged on Broadway. When Gandhi, who used to watch plays at Akshara, enquired, they replied the West didn’t have a high opinion of her. Gandhi swore she was a democrat at heart. Sharman and Vaidya asked her to prove it and suggested they make a satire that would poke fun at politicians and bureaucrats and telecast on Doordarshan, the state broadcaster — on the condition that it wouldn’t be censored.

Gandhi agreed. “She was quite thrilled at the idea. But the bureaucrats were aghast and the Doordarshan screening was finally shelved,” says Anasuya Vaidya. The play ran to full houses for six months. Jalabala Vaidya says the Janata Party that came to power wanted them to testify against the Indira Gandhi government after forming the Shah Commission (appointed to probe the excesses of the Emergency). They refused, saying Gandhi hadn’t harmed them, and were met with vindictiveness.

“In effect, today is actually more dangerous than the Emergency” -- Jalabala Vaidya, Founder director, Akshara Theatre

“In effect, today is actually more dangerous than the Emergency, because of all this business of sedition. Who can decide what is seditious or what is freedom of speech?” Vaidya asks, adding that some politicians today are inclined to be dictators who do not want a democratic country.

Let’s Laugh Again will be staged at Akshara Theatre in Delhi on May 19 and 26