Raju Srivastava and the legacy of Gajodhar Bhaiya for heartland humour

Gajodhar Bhaiya , more than anything in Raju Srivastava ’s illustrious career, stands out as the creation that will forever define the late comedian’s oeuvre. If Srivastava found his space in showbiz with the rise of stand-up comedy on Indian television in the 2000s, Gajodhar Bhaiya emerged a mascot for the generation, specifically the heartland set striving to come to terms with a rapidly changing big city milieu. Not since Amitabh Bachchan’s angry young man has a fictional character so imaginatively defined the common man’s struggle amidst urban chaos, drawing quiet attention to class divide. The difference is while the angry young man scaled an iconic high exuding angst in mainstream Hindi films, Srivastava brought Gajodhar’s gentle jibes into the living rooms and let him take the joke on himself.

Interestingly, Srivastava’s reason for creating Gajodhar Bhaiya would seem far less than dramatic given the mass impact as well as fan base the character would go on to enjoy over time. At a live event a few years ago, Srivastava revealed how he created Gajodhar to primarily joke about films. The fictional funnyman would watch a film in the big city, return to his small town home and narrate the story of the film to his buddies in the way he perceived it, replete with ‘expert comments’. From Sholay, Hum Aapke Hain Koun and 3 Idiots to Titanic, Slumdog Millionaire and many other hits, Gajodhar’s narrating his experience of watching numerous films to Puttan, Yadav ji and other neighbours gave Srivastava the scope to spin trademark humour around the character.

It didn’t take long for Srivastava to realise the power of Gajodhar Bhaiya’s popularity beyond being a ditzy film buff. The late stand-up star would use the character to convey seemingly innocuous comments on other aspects of life, too, in various gigs. Gajodhar started featuring as the star of many of Srivastava’s non-filmi jokes with subjects as varied as a bumpkin’s first experience of flight travel and glamour calendars featuring skimpily-clad models. At a popular film awards night in 2007, Srivastava took to the stage as Gajodhar Bhaiya wearing white kurta-pajamas with the signature red gamchha hanging from his neck. Beyond liberally joking in typical heartland accent about the very Bollywood royalty that watched from the front row, Gajodhar didn’t miss the chance to crack a few impish ones even at the political power set present at the do as chief guests.

Srivastava’s rise to the top echelons of the stand-up heap happened with The Great Indian Laughter Challenge in 2005, a show that also made Gajodhar Bhaiya a darling of the nation. Humour had a new face that people could identify with. Importantly, if stand-up gigs had catapulted popular comedy to the centerstage from its role as a sidekick element in our films, Gajodhar had emerged as a celebrity. There were other characters too — such as the friendly neighbour Kapoor saahab, the chacha-chachis, mama-mamis, behen and bhabhi et al — that Srivastav used in various gigs. Gajodhar Bhaiya stands out because Srivastav seems to have left a personal imprint in the character somewhere.

If Gajodhar represents Srivastava’s brand of comedy it is because the character echoes the two basic influences that shaped his art as a comedian. The first is Srivastava’s innate sense of small-town humour. The other is the overwhelming influence that Bollywood films left in his mind right from his years of growing up in Kanpur. Srivastav started out early as an entertainer during his Kanpur days, mimicking top stars. Mimicry in fact was a speciality he would never cease pursuing and, filmstars and popular film characters apart, even regular characters he acted out on stage were created from his experience of people he had met in real life.

The fact accounts for the theatrical element in Srivastav’s performances. He turned stand-up comedy into a performing art rather than just standing in one place with the mic and delivering his funny lines. With Gajodhar, for instance, whenever he would turn into the character on stage, Srivastava would spontaneously imbibe a lethargic body language highlighted by the signature gesture of lazily resting his arms behind his head. He had patented a typical body language for almost every character he acted out through his comic gigs — the aggressive shaadi videographer, the irate chachaji, the cunning neighbourhood auntyji or the prankster kid who’s too smart for the adults. If he grew up performing mimicry acts inspired by the dialogues in Bachchan classics as Sholay, Deewar or Don, the Bollywood influence of his formative years had effectively honed him into a natural actor.

In a way for Srivastav, incorporating the popular role of Gajodhar in his gigs helped him stay in touch with his acting dreams. The film industry itself had failed to recognise him as an actor though, like any heartland youngster arriving in Mumbai with tinsel dreams, he wanted to face the movie camera. There were small roles in films such as Tezaab (1988), Maine Pyar Kiya (1989), Baazigar (1993), Mr. Azaad (1993), Aamdani Atthanni Kharcha Rupaiyaa (2001), Waah..! Tera Kya Kehna (2002), and Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon (2003). Shaktimaan, the hit TV show that ran from the late nineties to the mid-2000s, cast him as Dhurandhar Singh, a role that made him a familiar face long before stand-up stardom happened. None of it, however, was good enough to earn him the resonance that being Gajodhar Bhaiya would eventually fetch.

Being a first-generation stand-up comedian on national television, Srivastav had once observed how shows such as The Great Indian Laughter Challenge and Comedy Circus changed the popular perception that comedy was merely a side show. The popularity that Srivastav started enjoying once Gajodhar became a star was good enough to throw open a political career with the Samajwadi Party, as a Lok Sabha candidate from Kanpur in 2014 (he would return the ticket alleging the local party members were not extending ample support, and subsequently join the Bharatiya Janata Party). He gave a second shot at Bollywood stardom, too, albeit with modestly mounted projects as Bombay To Goa (2007) and Bhavnao Ko Samjho (2010). These films didn’t quite connect with the audience, but the legacy left by Srivastav’s image as Gajodhar Bhaiya ensures the viewership count of his viral videos will continue swelling by the day.

Vinayak Chakravorty is a critic, columnist and film journalist based in Delhi-NCR.