It is a battle zone, or maybe not, depends on the perception of the observer. To me, it looks like an uneven playing field, with most of the men in jeans, loafers, crumpled shirts left out over paunches, accompanied by skinny women in tight jeans or dresses, six-inch stilettos, salon-set hair, full make-up and toting large shoulder bags. The men are glowering at their phones, the women are checking out what the others are wearing. The men are wolfing down sandwiches, and the women are holding stemmed glasses of cold coffee, that they are pretending to drink.

It’s SoBo’s classy spot, the Tata Theatre, and this crowd has come to watch Vir Das’s new comedy show, Battle of Da Sexes, and they have that determined ‘we will have fun’ look in their eyes. The stage is all flashing lights and in the middle is a large wing chair that Vir Das sits in once during the show, and a guitar, which he does strum a lot. He is now a star stand-up comic, and even before he steps on stage, people are in a mood to laugh. Let’s say, a new Vir Das show is the Chennai Express of the stage. It’s a hit before the first ticket is sold; and the tickets are sold out in 24 hours.