Vivek | Reason – A Film by Anand Patwardhan

Kunal Kamra is one of the few Indian stand-up comic artists I like. The others are Punit Pania, Varun Grover (though he is not a full-time or mainstream stand-up artist), Tanmay Bhat, Bassi, and Kanan Gill. There are 5-6 others who I like or have liked their one-off performances.

However, the first three in this list are different. Kunal Kamra, Punit Pania and Varun Grover use comedy as a tool of dissent, a tool to speak to the powers and fight against oppression. They do it through humour, but their subject matter, the substance is rich in social message and social cause. Others just tell jokes, or funny stories (which is not a bad thing either).

Even among these three Kunal Kamra is special, because he is intense and also does it with a purpose. He uses his popularity and platform to amplify the message, the ideology he believes in.

Acclaimed documentary Director Anand Patwardhan is a fighter and a torch-bearer against the fundamentalists, particularly the Hindu fundamentalists. His “Raam Ke Naam” was a brilliant documentary on 1992 Babri demolition. It didn’t get as much popularity and didn’t reach as many people back then.

Kunal Kamra used his Youtube channel to make that documentary accessible. You can watch it on his Youtube channel.

Taking that legacy forward, Kunal Kamra just released the latest documentary film by Anand Patwardhan called “Vivek | Reason” which is based on how the rationalists in India (mainly in my state Maharashtra) are/were fighting the Hindu fundamentalists and how they suffered in the course. The reason this is a great gesture by Kunal Kamra is that the award winning documentary was made in 2018. Did you hear about it till now? I’m sure not! So such documentaries need a platform to reach out to the audience. And Kamra has give his own platform by risking the backlash nad hatred from the right wing trolls that he’ll get soon.

It’s a 94 minutes documentary which is a must watch for anybody who cares about the downfall of rational, secular people in India and the threat of Hindu Taliban (i.e. RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal and their ilk).