×

Tanmay Bhat and All India Bakchod can stay away from cricket

It looks like Tanmay Bhat and AIB are not meant to have any success with cricket at the center of their effort.

Related articles

Tanmay Bhat... at the center of controversy.
Tanmay Bhat… at the center of controversy. Photo courtesy: YouTube screenshots and Tanmay Bhat’s Twitter profile

Once again, Tanmay Bhat, the co-founder of All India Bakchod (AIB) has forayed into making comedy around cricket and the latest product has created quite a furore. Small factions of political parties in Mumbai — if not Maharashtra — have suddenly woken up from slumber and have taken to filing PILs and burning effigies of the comedian who seems to have strayed horrendously from his primary motive, that is, of creating humour. To portray public figures as profound as Sachin Tendulkar and Lata Mangeshkar in the manner he did was certainly not acceptable, and the furore has compelling reasons behind it. Video: Tanmay Bhat’s controversial take on Tendulkar & Mangeshkar

Bhat would not have thought that an attempt to create humour will backfire with such a great impact. His choice of personalities was not off the mark — Tendulkar and Lata have mind-boggling following — and his product would certainly have got the eyeballs at a time when the comedy group that he has co-founded has not been in news, or let’s just say, in the public eye.

Anyone who creates content around famous personalities, incidences or anything that could create waves in the new world — social media — knows it very well that the results, or say, the response, could be huge. Bhat, who is no less than a famous personality in the entertainment circles in Mumbai, would have known it very well that having Tendulkar and Lata will give him many, many eyeballs. ALSO READ: Vinod Kambli to file defamation case against Tanmay Bhat

But what did he end up doing? Bhat had the venerable Lata talking about Tendulkar’s abdomen guard and showing the middle finger to the cricketing legend! Isn’t it outrageous? Anyone who is aware of the relationship these two Bharat Ratnas share would only be left with pity on the comedian, who has done fantastic work in the past.

Tendulkar considers Lata his mother, and to have a mother showing a middle finger to her son is certainly not humour. It is not even an attempt to create humour. Can this be not termed as an act in desperation to gain some limelight; using two of the biggest brands India have ever produced?

In hindsight, Bhat might have ended up creating something which the Indian public would have loved, but the comedian, who claims to be possessing profound knowledge of fields which have no relation with his profession went atrociously wrong.

AIB and Bhat exist because they create comedy. They entertain people; it is their job as comedians to make others laugh. But in their past work, they have had sarcasm coming into how people in Delhi lead their lives, how profound their knowledge is about realty market in the country’s capital, and much more. Yes, that again, was the absurdity, way away from their core idea of comedy.

Interestingly, Bhat and his house have had trysts with cricket in the past as well, and it can be said it was not comedy either. There was an absurd video of AIB members teaching the audience how to play cricket, and perhaps it was one of the lamest efforts to create comedy.

Creating comedy is not anyone’s cup of tea, one needs to be possessing an extremely sharp and analytical brain to think on a different track. Bhat and his group have done a terrific job in the past, and they deserve rich praise for embarking into something that is as challenging as any other profession. But it looks like Bhat and AIB are not meant to have any success with cricket at the center of their effort. It is better if they stay off it.

(Devarchit Varma is senior writer with CricketCountry. He can be followed on Twitter @Devarchit)

trending this week