Comedy Premium League Review: When comedians poke fun at themselves and deviate from the script, the show becomes more real.
Comedy Premium League Review
Tanmay Bhatt does not believe in becoming friends with his ex-girlfriends or boyfriends. Prashasti Singh believes that beauty is more important than intelligence. Kaneez Surka has had a ‘Anjali’ obsession since the days of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, while Sumukhi Suresh can pull off a schoolgirl look with a unibrow and ribboned pigtails.
Oh, and in case you didn’t know, Amit Tandon’s alter ego is ‘The Family Man,’ a rapper. Netflix’s Comedy Premium League (CPL), a reality-meets-stand-up-meets-variety-show series, reveals all of this and more.
Urooj Ashfaq, Sumukhi Suresh, Sumaira Shaikh, Rahul Dua, Mallika Dua, Rahul Subramanian, Kenny Sebastian, Aakash Gupta, Prashasti Singh, Kaneez Surka, Prajakta Koli, Aadar Malik, Amit Tandon, Rytasha Rathore, Samay Raina, Tanmay Bhatt, Rohan Joshi are among the 16 comedians who.
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For the Indian public, the Comedy Premium League is unexplored ground. Something like this hasn’t happened in a long time. Tea Time Manoranjan, a variety show featuring comics that broadcast on Doordarshan in the 1990s, is a show that few millennials, let alone Gen Y or Z, remember.
It included talent such as Vrajesh Hijree, Amit Mistry, Suresh Menon, and Raju Srivastav. The 30-minute show, hosted by Divya Seth, featured the comedians performing stand-up, improv, and sketch comedy in front of a live studio audience. CPL is similar, but it’s bigger, bolder, and more cutthroat.
The 16 comics are separated into four teams and given various settings, a discussion topic, and a situation where they must all scratch their grey cells in order to ‘not just tickle our funny bones, but to fracture them,’ as Prajakta Koli rightly observes. It’s a guarantee that not every joke will land in a 40-minute format spread over four episodes. Those that do, on the other hand, make you laugh out loud.
Tanmay Bhatt, Rohan Joshi, Sumukhi Suresh, and Sumaira Sheikh of the IDGAF Iguanas roast their own colleagues, recalling the infamous AIB Roast of 2014. Regardless of the comparison, the jokes and punchlines land.
Amit Tandon, who is well into his forties, keeps pace with his significantly younger comrades as they perform a rap performance. Mallika Dua is a joy to watch as she returns unapologetically to the realm she knows best and gets the laughs.
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But it’s the ‘unscripted’ portions that make Comedy Premium League so enjoyable. Sketches are a great way to express yourself. They’ve put effort into the substance, as well as the scenery and costumes (the production value is amazing). But it’s when these 16 highly gifted folks try unplanned content that they really shine.
For starters, the ‘punchline’ round, in which they must come up with material on the spot, or the Tu Tu Main Main round, which is effectively a debate preparation. When the comics talk about themselves, whether it’s Tanmay describing his breakup with AIB or Sumukhi Suresh mocking her show Pushpavalli, the laughter is nonstop.
That’s when things start to get genuine; otherwise, what’s the point of gathering 16 ‘happy’ people? And it’s that genuineness that keeps you captivated. The genuine hilarity comes from the way Rahul Dua shouts at the scoreboard or Rahul Subramanian keeps his team’s spirit high.
It’s refreshing to watch celebrities who don’t take themselves or their celebrity too seriously. If they’re willing to make fun of themselves, Indian comedy could be in good hands.
The Comedy Premium League, featuring some female candidates, feels like a step in the right direction for Indian stand-up comedy, which has long been criticised of being a “all-boys’ club.”
Women give boys a run for their money and outrun them when it comes to swear words and innuendos. CPL is, indeed, R-rated, as are the various open mics to which we all go.
Just for that, I’ll give you a half-star. Clearly, there is a hunger for political satire; imagine what may have happened if they weren’t bound by censorship or the threat of political and social retaliation. We might as well have had our own White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
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We don’t even have a watered-down Comedy Central Roast to offer, given the scenario. Sigh. Given the times we live in, the Comedy Premium League is the closest we’ll get to having our own Saturday Night Live.
There are various references to current events, such as the Covid outbreak and the imprisonment of comic books. The brave souls of Comedy Premium League, on the other hand, take aim at a specific primetime TV personality, a specific channel, and a few political conditions.
Comedy Premium League cast
Urooj Ashfaq, Sumukhi Suresh, Sumaira Shaikh, Rahul Dua, Mallika Dua, Rahul Subramanian, Kenny Sebastian, Aakash Gupta, Prashasti Singh, Kaneez Surka, Prajakta Koli, Aadar Malik, Amit Tandon, Rytasha Rathore, Samay Raina, Tanmay Bhatt, Rohan Joshi and Prajakta Koli
Comedy Premium League rating
3 stars