The Real Filth On Comedy Night Bachao Was Not The Comments On Tannishtha

The controversial episode of Comedy Nights Bachao where Tannishtha Chatterjee was ridiculed for her skin tone was finally aired on  Sunday.

While the offensive deeply racist comments on Tannishtha were duly deleted from the telecast, what we saw in the episode left us aghast  and horrified.

While Tannishtha and her Parched co-star Radhika Apte watched, three of Indian cinema’s most notorious villains Raza Murad, Prem Chopra and Pradeep Rawat leered and made broadly suggestive sexually offensive comments .

Laughing the loudest was our very own celluloid champion of equal rights Radhika Apte.

Ms Apte, who recently reprimanded and humiliated a hapless journalist for asking why erotic video clippings from her films were leaked out so regularly(frankly, it is a question a lot of us have asked ourselves) , had no qualms about being ridiculed for her dress and being called a chipkili(lizard) by her host.

The screen-villains specially Prem Chopra, had a ball playing the verbal molesters. Chopra at age 81, did  his cheesy leery act with Comedy Bachao’s new hostess Mona Singh who mock-pleaded to be spared for the sake of God.  “Bhagwan ke liye mujhechhod do.”

Mona, God bless her desperate workless condition in life, was reduced to a giggling fit with Chopra’s rapist’s remark, “Bhagwan ke paas toh bahot kuch hai.”

Old horribly improper rape joke.

Mona Singh,making a mockery of a crime as grave and rampant as rape is just not cool, let alone funny.Then there was a female stand-up comedienne who wanted to know which of the three screen villains was her father.

Really! As for Mr Prem Chopra, shame on you for taking a grave on-screen transgression to a new level of self-promotion at an age when you should be counting your blessings for what God has given you.

Tannishtha Chatterjee who had walked out during the show says, “I didn’t like what was  going on during the show.I walked out. I don’t know what happened after I left. Please ask Radhika Apte. She did speak on body shaming a colour bias, though.”

Tapsee Pannu who played a victim of sexual violation in the much-discussed Pink says she doesn’t take shows like Comedy Nights Bachao seriously.

However Vijay Verma who played one of the principal misogynists in Pink has a strong opinion on rape being turned into a joke. “From depicting rape for titillation to making a joke of rape,we haven’t evolved as a civilization, I guess.A subject like rape  demands utter sensitivity in its handling. Neither the act nor the suffering is even remotely amusing.”

I tried to question  the enlightened and empowered Ms Radhika Apte’s giggling presence on  a show ridiculing rape. But she didn’t respond.