By Varushka Bhushan
Like every other teenager stuck in this quarantine, most of my time is spent on doing two things—stressing about all the schoolwork I need to catch up on and surfing through Netflix like the world is ending tomorrow. In the past three weeks, I have watched binged on several movies to TV shows: from Korean dramas to documentaries to Drag race. After rewatching Brooklyn Nine-Nine, the fourth time, to be precise, I was scouring through the streaming platform to watch something new. And then, I stumbled upon Netflix's new all-women comedy special called, 'Ladies Up.' The four-part series presented 15 minutes episodes of stand-up comedy. Now, I am not too crazy about this form of comedy, it isn't my style. So what me made click on the play button? Well, I didn't want to study, but more importantly, the genre of this show was stated as 'irrelevant.' Why put up something that'll waste an hour of your life? Well, I was about to find out.
'Ladies up' had all the essential ingredients to give the audience a rib-tickling saga with first-hand experiences that leading women in the world of comedy struggle with from day to day basis. The line-up was remarkable with new-found talents like Prashasti Singh, Supriya Joshi, Niveditha Prakasam, and the seasoned, Kaneez Surka, who only heightened the rich-pit of content that was flooding. Or, at least I had assumed when I read about the show. The idea of this show seemed to have the right intentions, sadly, the comedians were not able to live up to it.
The type of comedy being used was the all-too-predictable reigon humour like the divide between south and north Indians, fair and dark-skinned ones. Over the years, the realm of comedy has changed and discarded this degrading tactic in the form of quick laughs. But, to see this regularly for three of the four episodes gave me second-hand embarrassment. The show isn't all too bad, it is just so stereotypical. From lousy dating lives to I-will-never-have-a-happily-ever-after drawl, the fist comedian wasted her talent and position to send a positive message. Similarly, the other two new performers went with delusional relationships and cultural differences as a means to make people laugh. It felt too repetitive and wasn't as exciting anymore.
That is until the third episode when Kaneez Surka took over the stage and made a bold statement through her own life stories as a happy, divorced woman in her mid-thirties. She dissected the hypocrisy that our society harbours under the sheen of respectability and modesty: "After you are divorced, it's almost like the entire society gives up on you. They're like, 'Now you can do whatever you want to, we won't judge, so be happy.''
Without revealing too much, a jarring section about how her sex life altered post her desire to become a mother, had me rolling with laughter. This garnered waves of laughter from the audience and proved to be uncomfortable for many men sitting in the audience, which showed me her comedic brilliance.
If you were to watch this show—I recommend the third episode. Surka's piece is worthy of your time, but the other three? They pass off as amateurs. In my opinion, the show could have said so much, but it chose the route to be another fallow addition to the man v/s women debate.
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