There’s an air around Vir Das, that he has been through something huge. He’s an Emmy-nominated star of stand-up, of Bollywood and Hollywood, so some elevation might be expected, but it’s not that. What it is, is trauma. And it’s with such generosity he shares the experience that delivered it.
Last year Das released the video, ‘I Come From Two Indias’ whilst touring in America. In response seven charges of sedition were made against him by the Indian government. It’s a story the majority of his audience are familiar with, and before launching forth on his experience of it Das wisely warms up the crowd. He has a powerful tale and it’s a masterclass in how a comedian can joke around something deadly serious without robbing it of its gravitas. It’s best to wait until everyone has settled to start.
What follows is heartbreaking, heart-warming, brilliantly crafted, and filled with a power of truth. Das conveys the surreal world he found himself in – “I mourned my whole career”, he laments in the thick of it. Whilst deconstructing the Western comedy ethos of not punching down he shatters it with nuance, satirises social media behaviours with animal anthropology, questions the fragility of privilege so intelligently – and all in good humour and benevolent intelligence, conveying a context for what happened.
He straddles the East and the West, feeling a different influence and pull from each, and his love and passion for India is apparent and timely for his Scottish audience. When Das outlines the distinct difference between patriotism and nationalism to a post Brexit post Independence vote audience chiefly made up of self-same Indian-identifying nationals also with one foot in each culture, there’s a recognition that buzzes.
Vir Das has his career back but it will never be the same, he tells us. As much as the trauma was huge, there’s an optimism in an India and world that he hopes for still present. The story about his stand up origins shines bright with a love for the art that could almost be overwhelming. He’s a poet, he’s a philosopher, but most of all he’s a comedian.
Vir Das – Wanted
Pleasance Courtyard, Beneath, 17.25, August 3-28 (except 15th)
