He’s funny, he’s loud and he’s a “mast aadmi”. Biswa Kalyan Rath is one of the hottest properties in India’s stand-up universe today.
For Biswa, the tryst with comedy began after he had graduated from IIT (of course) in 2012. At an open mic at Bangalore in 2013, he met Kanan Gill. The two came up with a million dollar idea (not literally). They shot and uploaded a string of videos in which they critically reviewed some of the most popular movies. Pretentious Movie Reviews went viral on YouTube and the duo became a rage overnight. Here they share their unfiltered thoughts on one of the most iconic Bollywood films of all time.
For the longest time, Biswa was the less-popular half of Pretentious Movie Reviews. This changed in 2015, when he uploaded a few videos of his solo stand-up work on his personal YouTube channel. Fans loved his brand of comedy and there was no looking back. His first solo national tour, Biswa In Your Face, commenced later that year. It was his second show, Biswa Mast Aadmi, that really established his footing in the stand-up industry, and was later converted into an Amazon Special in 2017. A second Amazon Special, Sushi, followed in 2019. He has dabbled with non-comedic content on the side, having created and co-written two seasons of Amazon’s original series Laakhon Mein Ek.
Biswa’s style is to rant about anything and everything in his trademark loud, energetic register. Like many of his contemporaries, his material largely comprises observations and anecdotes from his own life. But what sets him apart is his knack of creating humour from the most mundane of subjects. For instance, here’s his sermon on why bachelors love bananas and detest pomegranates…
Here he talks about how the humble Indian nail-cutter aspires to be the Swiss army knife…
And here he tells us why he isn’t a fan of two-wheelers…
In the lockdown, Biswa started a podcast called 2 Past 2 Curious with his buddy Kumar Varun, in which they discussed events and ages from history. Here they talk about various epidemics that the world has seen.
Biswa Kalyan Rath now comes to Mumbai with Not A Comedy Show, an experimental one-man performance that he’s been developing through 2019 and 2020. Catch him next week at That Comedy Club in Bandra, with socially distanced seating (24 seats only), temperature checks, masks and meticulous disinfection.
When: Monday, February 1 to Thursday, February 4 at 8pm.
Where: That Comedy Club, above Smoke House Deli, 33rd Road, Pali Hill, Bandra (West).
