Ashish Kaul
“Let the filth began” was the opening statement given by Karan Johar before structured demolition of civil and lingual boundaries started. Indeed the filth was generated, enjoyed and spread in a way that people were forced to approach the courts in order to stop it. The so called humour show took place on 28th January this year and we are still talking about it in the last week of February. This shows the audacity and depth of wounds left by the show. It all started in Mumbai when a bunch of unshackled free mind (don’t take this in positive sense) stand ups who named themselves as A.I.B (All India Bak@!*#@) decided to introduce our audiences with the degenerated form of western humour topping it up with trend insults, verbal abuse, below the belt jokes , highly erotic and rough language. If sources are to be believed then the per ticket cost for this show was between Rs 4000-8000 and these tickets were purchased by 4000 people who were more than happy to welcome this new genre of uncensored and so called braver version of stand-up comedy. The audiences for this presentation consisted of the elite class crowd of the city and all the big names who are mostly visible on “page 3” of newspapers. Did I say that this was a braver and uncensored version of stand-up comedy, no brave were the people who became a part of this show, even braver was their tolerance level to listen to and enjoy the filth of obscene and bawdy content served to them.
This was a clear abuse of “freedom of speech” done by A.I.B in an era where people and nations are fighting for the same across the globe. This so called ‘Insult Comedy’ consisted of nasty, obscene, gross, indecent, unseemly and bawdy language and references to people, body parts and culture. All this didn’t stop inside the arena; members of this so called A.I.B group uploaded the video of the show on YouTube too. It was only after the matter reached the court that the upload was taken down from YouTube however by that time it was already viewed by 44 lakh people. The most frightening aspect for over a billion Indians is that India has 2nd largest internet user community in the world, nearly 170 million young adults use internet on mobile devices; that is nearly a country in itself that is on the cusp of moral puberty and AIB is a defining moment.
The video uploaded by A.I.B Roast has instigated the teen agers to watch it on media platforms however the irony is that the content of this forces them to make sure that they see the video in utmost privacy without their parents becoming aware of it. Bollywood didn’t waste any time to come up with their own definition of “freedom of speech” in order to defend the show, content and their own presence in the live show. If we dig deep in to this it’s nothing more than a proof that we are still living in an age of psychological frustration and concealed cruelty.
For me this show was worse than the cheap erotica available on net and movies, even that holds and sustains some portion of creativity and art whereas this new imported genre of comedy was an audacious overdose of bawdy, unwanted, gross and unheard (at least in our country) language and jokes targeting sexuality, body parts, and race. Every so called chunk of humour served targeted and tarnished all human values and respect for humanity. In defence of the show and the content, organizers claimed that the audiences knew what to expect when they were buying the tickets. In the same manner the content when uploaded on YouTube starts with a warning about the content hence still if 44 lakh people decided to watch it then for sure they didn’t took the content as rash, abusive and hurting. Another Logic given, says that the content didn’t held or spoke of anything that our society is untouched with.Let me remind the people trying hard to shove the content and logic down to our throats that they are dealing with the most advance form of nature’s creation – humans. We do need privacy when it comes to sleeping; Reading, Loving, creating however expressing, serving, revolting and innovating are a matter of public viewing and acceptance. When we decide to talk about content related with one’s privacy and intimacy on platforms like A.I.B Roast we are threatening our values and creating a threat to social health and well-being.
shows like AIB are destroying moral fabric because a handful of people are painting a fantasy that is not the truth of India…these people are create a support group for the consumption of their own content at the cost of society….this content is making society insensitive…when u legitimise such abusive language then how can u stop it from becoming street lingo and when it does this lingo will us back how will we stop people from using this language against our own women?. Aren’t we adding more stress to already crumbling police structure ?. Will AIB call their own mothers and sisters as MC and BC ? And even if they do, do we take it as a call of all the women in India Just to sound cool ?. This is a pseudo society playing on sentiments. It is not about good or bad content where people have a laugh;it is about what kind of a moral society are we developing for our children. Do we want our children to be like this is the question we need to ask, not from the perspective of people like KaranJohar who haven’t known the life in Indiaoutsidetheir mothers lap.
Our social lives are fuelled by beauty and moral science. Beauty helps us to create and adore whereas moral science helps us to stay on a correct path and move smoothly. Striking balance between the two is the mantra. Moreover we all need to and are expected not to cross that thin line which separates humour from bawdy thoughts. Come-on we all know how a kid is born and it takes coming together of a male and female but we don’t speak about this in so called “open” and “liberal” language in front of our families or do we? Fantasy, Frustration, Anger etc are the sort of thoughts we tend not to express in public however these thoughts and content like sexual positions, body figures, cheap erotica were left like a herd of snakes to crawl freely in the auditorium and audiences brain. The fact that audiences apparently enjoyed it served as encouragement and stamp of approval for the organizers. In hindsight this show served only one purpose and that was of degrading our social health and thoughts.
This looked like an attempt to remind us that being rash and gross is the new “cool” and we need to adopt to more insensitive and vulgar approach towards the way we look at things. The incident and Roast group have done their best to tarnish our culture and moral values. They wanted to make this stamped permanently in our brains and culture by changing our tolerate thought process and the way we look at each other. They did use technology to the best of its use in order to do so. Shows like these are an attack on our culture and lifestyle and should be condemned to say the least. After almost a month, the only thought which comes again and again is ‘Please don’t let this filth to begin again’.
(The author is a media & entertainment professional)
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