Humble Politiciann Nograj review: Danish Sait's irreverent political satire is an extremely refreshing watch

Language: Kananda By the time you finish the 10 episodes of Humble Politiciann Nograj on Voot Select, you’d have a legitimate doubt — if Nograj is the real person, not Danish. Because, that’s how much Danish has internalised Nograj over the years on radio, in films and now in the form of this series. Danish is a picture of politeness in real life, but the loudness and crassness of Nograj is now almost second nature to him on screen. Nograj is the origin story, if you need a superhero reference, of all the other memorable characters like Rammoorthy Avre and Jaya Didi that Danish created during the Covid-19 lockdown. A spoof can’t sustain itself for 10 episodes of 30 minutes each without a central character that is part endearing and part infuriating. Here you have two — Nograj of One Big Party, who does not believe in filters of any sort, and Krishna Gundu Bala aka Gundu aka KGB of Most Secular Party who hopes his desire to become chief minister will fructify if he changes his name to Balu, and buys three legislators. It helps majorly that the characters are played by Danish and the incredible Prakash Belawadi, who can, chameleon-like, inhabit any role. One Big Party and the Family Run Party have decided on a post-poll alliance to keep Gundu out of power. Will they succeed in their mission to steal legislators from the other side? Representing the Family Run Party are Karan Kapoor and the sincere Pushpesh (called by various names through the series) who is the only one who knows what a floor test is. A mother figure is spoken about often. In the 2018 film, Nograj uses every trick in the book to defeat an honest candidate to become MLA. In three years, he’s learnt the ropes well and his party bags a sizeable number of seats, making Nograj a kingmaker. He’s still faithfully assisted by Monjunath (the ever-dependable Vinay Chendoor), who tries to make sense of whatever Nograj says. There is the loud dramatic Simi (Disha Madan), a pliant journalist with Paid News TV, and Gundu’s wife Gowri played by the lovely Shalini Narayan — you wish she had more of a role though! The series begins with a moving tribute to young star Puneeth Rajkumar , who died in 2021. Incidentally, Puneeth played a cameo in the 2018 film. Resort politics is by now infamous in the country and Karnataka is no stranger to it. Predictably enough, co-writer-director Saad Khan and co-writer Danish set the series there, and there’s a rich harvest of real-life incidents they can milk to elicit laughs. Just that scenes with one legislator (Gurudas, played by Raaghu) borders on taking a cheap shot at same-sex love. [caption id=“attachment_10260261” align=“alignnone” width=“639”] Prakash Belawadi in a still from Humble Politiciann Nograj[/caption] Eagleton resorts, which was the scene of action some years ago, takes on the prefix of ‘Ill’, and every politician worth his or her name is roasted with delicious joy. And, Danish will hopefully get away with it, because no names are used. If someone does come forward to protest, they’d basically be identifying and owning their role in one of the more shameful episodes of the state’s political history. A party president who strikes deals goes by the name of Mrs Dalal (the lovely Geetanjali Kulkarni) and there’s a prime minister (Tiku Talsania) who is perennially abroad and whose pastimes are errm, not very conservative. We read of resort politics, but what the writers focus on is the everyday nitty-gritty — the fight for better bathrooms, bigger rooms, the itch to get out, the itch to sell oneself to another party for more money, the habit of slyly taking off your neighbour’s roti off his plate… basically, the film gives you even more reason to not deify politicians. They are human, a little too human. The 10 episodes deal with the horsetrading after a fractured mandate and the desire to hold on to power. Of course, you know right from episode one that Nograj will get his way by hook or crook, but his trump cards might just surprise you.

This is not a politically correct, ‘Should I mention this or should I not’ kind of series. Very few personalities or situations escape the punches that come their way from Danish and his team. Nothing is too sacrosanct to not be roasted.

Almost every hashtag that trended in the past two years finds a place in the fim, including the vile ‘Go to Pakistan’ (do look out for the retort that follows) and the steel flyover proposal that saw Bengaluru protest vociferously. There’s Hitler, Nityananda (it is the me in the me reference) and even Korean face masks, because, can’t Nograj live the good life? There’s a Russian connect too — two gangsters want to move drugs from Goa to Mangalore, but they are definitely not scary. Dmitri becomes D Murthy Avre, every single time. He stops trying to correct them after a point. A pat on the back for the team for the decision to retain the show in Kannada, and to not remove local references. Nograj in any other language would have been a mere caricature. The ingenious puns and language-based humour (think vioyylence and Patels for petals) would have been lost. Also can any ice cream reference top the one about Corner House Bengaluru’s Death By Cholocate? That’s an emotion you see. The show, produced by Sameer Nair, Maaz Khan, Danish Sait and Saad Khan, is deeply irreverent, and it is refreshing to see no one being spared. We should all learn to laugh and lighten up a bit. When Nograj can, can’t we? Watch the trailer here

Humble Politiciann Nograj is streaming on Voot Select Subha J Rao is a consultant writer and editor based out of Mangaluru, Karnataka. There, she keeps alive her love for cinema across languages. You can find her on Twitter @subhajrao.