When resistance turns to comedy, here's why you should witness this show live in Mumbai

Dr BR Ambedkar at a conference in New Delhi. Pics courtesy/Wikimedia Commons

If Dr BR Ambedkar taught us to question the rigid structures we inherit, Blue Material, an all-Dalit, queer-affirmative collective, asks what happens when those questions enter the world of comedy. Bringing caste, identity, lived experience and trauma to the stage, the collective will begin its first-ever recording tour in Mumbai on August 16, travelling to Goa, Pune, Delhi and Bengaluru through September. Before the collective gets busy, we caught up with comedians Ankur Tangade, Ravi Gaikwad and Sumit Kumar for a preview.

Humour can heal

For Tangade, comedy is rooted in experiences that have shaped her understanding of caste and identity. Growing up in Beed, Maharashtra, in a family of activists, the queer-Dalit comedian says she was initially too young to recognise the implications behind seemingly ordinary questions about her caste. "A lot of times, people would ask me my surname. My mother would do the same, in a positive way, to make the guests feel comfortable. I was too naive to understand that it always had a hidden agenda of casteism," she says.

Sumit Kumar, Ravi Gaikwad and Ankur Tangade. Pics courtesy/Blue Material

That understanding, she adds, came with time and personal experiences. "It took a lot of time for me to be comfortable with who and what I am, which came with a lot of issues." Recalling a conversation about marriage, Tangade says her partner once suggested that they avoid telling his parents her caste. "Now that I think about it, in hindsight, that was a huge red flag," she laughs.

For Kumar who hails from Bengaluru, the question is why caste is so often treated as a subject that belongs in formal discussions rather than everyday storytelling. "Why is there a need to turn every caste discussion into a panel discussion and pigeon-hole it? We all know stand-up comedians who talk about a generation, their personal communities and the notorious rigid superstitions each community is attached to. Why not casteism?" he asks.

On the other hand, Gaikwad from Mira Road describes Blue Material as "more of an informal setting for all of us to come together and collectively share". The collective's ethos is also tied to the social justice philosophy and imagery of the Dalit movement, particularly the idea that "we are all equal under the blue sky".

Hitting the road

The recording tour is not simply about taking a comedy show from one city to another. For Blue Material, it is an opportunity to document the work it has been developing on stage and make it accessible to people who may never have encountered the collective live.

"We haven't put out our videos, so it gets very difficult to reach out to the public when your videos are not out there," says Gaikwad. Audiences often discover the collective only when it performs in their city, leaving many unaware of its work until after a show has already taken place. The tour will record the performances for eventual online release, giving new audiences a chance to discover the collective and its comedy.

On August 16; 7.30 pm
At IFBE, Calicut Road, Ballard Estate, Fort.
Log on to @bluematerialgigs
Entry Rs 299 onwards