While Zakir Khan takes you through a number of emotions, both the laughter and the poignancy hit with almost the same intensity, notes Utkarsh Mishra.
IMAGE: Zakir Khan in his Papa Yaar stand-up.
Key Points
- Zakir Khan’s Papa Yaar special, now streaming on Netflix, features updated jokes and storytelling compared to its live performances.
- Viewers experience a ‘roller-coaster ride’ of emotions, with moments of laughter and poignancy hitting with similar intensity.
- The show is recommended for a watch, especially with parents, though Gen Z might not relate to all aspects.
Zakir Khan has been performing his stand-up act Papa Yaar for some time, and it has now been released on Netflix.
Last year, I had a chance to watch it live, albeit in a much smaller set-up.
While the Netflix special has the same premise and stories, quite a lot of jokes and punches are different. Naturally, he has made some changes in the delivery and storytelling to suit the audience (among whom you can spot several familiar faces). Thus, it didn’t feel like I was watching it a second time, and there were moments that genuinely cracked me up.
Emotional Journey With Zakir Khan
Right at the beginning, Zakir Khan took the attendance of those who were there with their parents. Then, he promised that in the end, they would have a renewed respect for them, especially their fathers.
But the intervening time is going to be tough. So, one would expect an hour-long crescendo of fun and mockery around the parenting of boomers and Gen X, redeemed at the peak by words that would leave one teary-eyed, yet laughing and clapping.
And so, it was a roller-coaster ride of emotions.
Now that I have used a cliché — I could have called it a sinusoidal wave of emotions — it should not be left undefended. The crests and troughs of a wave are often metaphorically used to denote the highest and the lowest points of something. A roller-coaster, on the other hand, also rises and falls, but those taking a ride keep screaming all the way.
It is, therefore, more appropriate to call this special a roller-coaster ride — even at the risk of using a cliché — because while it takes you through a number of emotions, both the laughter and the poignancy hit with almost the same intensity.
Zakir Khan begins by reminding the audience how their father was practically a stranger to them while growing up and their mother was the only communication channel, but while you thought your mother was on your side, she would gladly throw you under the bus when ‘her husband’ is angry.
He keeps you giggling with jokes about his childhood and youth — in which his friends Kuntal and Vishwas naturally appear.
The stories take a sombre turn when Khan recalls the first time his father cried in front of him.
He says, ‘When you see a loved one crying, you feel like setting the world on fire.’
And as you reach for the tissue, he breaks the spell with his hilarious remark: ‘But what to do when a stranger is crying in front of you?’
And this punch, that your father is practically a stranger to you, makes several comebacks during the whole set.
However, at the end, he hits you with the realisation that your life wouldn’t have been the same without this ‘stranger’ constantly working to shape it.
Audience Reaction And Pacing
Whenever the camera pans to the audience, you would see people laughing while wiping off tears, or gesturing towards one another as if saying, ‘see, this is you’. But even for someone removed from the venue and watching it online, it has multiple moments that give you a lump in the throat, or teary eyes, and the next moment you would break into a guffaw.
At the end, you won’t feel like you have been sitting for over an hour. And that sums up the entertainment value of the show.
But if one has to talk about the weak points, I could add that some bits felt a little overstretched. The punch could have landed sooner. While others were delivered rather quickly, which could have benefitted from a slower build-up.
I say this only in comparison to Khan’s previous performances that I have watched, where his delivery with a certain cadence makes the story more impactful. In this one, it was a bit easier to differentiate the natural from the made-up, the lived from the performed. But these are minor aberrations and can be easily overlooked if you are caught up in the flow, especially if you are watching it for the first time.
Overall, it is worth a watch — with parents if intermittent use of cuss words is not a problem (which is highly unlikely with the generation of parents that it focuses on). Gen Z may not relate to all of it, though.
Zakir Khan: Papa Yaar is streaming on Netflix.
Zakir Khan: Papa Yaar Review Rediff Rating:
