No politics in Raju Srivastava’s comedy

If there was one rule of the humour generation that Raju Srivastava abided by until the end of his life, it was to never mix politics with his jokes. “Somewhere or the other someone will get offended if you bring politics or religion into the stand-up act. I’ve survived without these for forty years,” Raju once told me. Sure enough, Raju’s humour was always a class, never a crass, act. He would pick on the lighter side of working-class life and turn it into an inoffensive joke, for example, that classic skit on girls enjoying chaat at the streetside….Raju made the drag act so liberated of sexism, it wasn’t funny…. Or do I meant, it was too funny? A decent kind gentle humorist Raju could keep his audience regaled for hours without vulgarity or without getting high on anything more than life. As a stand-up comedian for 40 years, Raju never touched any drugs or alcohol. He believed addiction to these can destroy the best of careers. He once told me, “Look at Rajesh Khanna , the biggest superstar ever. His career was destroyed in 7-8 years because of alcohol. Then look at the next superstar Amitabh Bachchan , still going great guns at 80. He doesn’t touch a drop of alcohol. The great comic actor Keshto Mukherjee played a drunkard in all his films. He never touched alcohol.” Raju Shrivastava felt that an entertainer needs no stimulant to perform and entertain. “Rafi Saab, Lataji, Kishore Kumar, Mehmood ….did they ever touch any kind of stimulant to reach the summits that they did? We all need to learn from these greats.” Born Satya Prakash Srivastava, true to his name there was an honesty to Raju’s humour. He started his career in the comic kingdom with Hindi films, the most notable being Sooraj Barjatya ’s Maine Pyar Kiya. Barjatya had singled out Raju for his dedication and for adding an extra dollop of fun quotient in the blockbuster. But Raju was meant to be more than just a side attraction. He sidestepped a full-fledged movie career to become the first true blue successful stand-up comedian of India. Shatrughan Sinha who worked with Raju in one of his first films Bombay To Goa remembers Raju as a “comic virtuoso”… “His straight-faced humour was bang-on. He could, and was funny, without targeting any community, religion or individual. His loss would be felt deeply. At a time when we need all the laughter we can get, he has left us.” Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.