Sumukhi Suresh appears to have run the gamut of responses to her comedy, and every response provides a layer to her understanding of humour’s attain. As soon as, in Bengaluru, an aged man filed a police criticism towards her, calling her comedy “vulgar” and her a “public nuisance.” Equally memorable was a efficiency in Chennai, the place a 70-year-old girl was there on her husband’s dying anniversary, wearing her marriage ceremony saree. As an alternative of mourning, she advised Sumukhi she wished to snort and be blissful, as her husband would have favored . It’s a second that profoundly moved Sumukhi, and affirmed her perception within the energy of her storytelling.
Sumukhi’s newest stand-up present, Hoemonal, is a comedic self-portrait formed by private revelations. Via wry, intimate humour, she recounts experiences with singlehood, physique picture, and navigating her thirties with a curious combination of concern and defiance. This present, like her different works, is her try to “converse with out a filter,” providing her viewers the components of herself that many individuals, particularly ladies, select to hide. She tackles these topics with refreshing irreverence, poking enjoyable at herself and on the expectations thrust upon ladies, creating a mix of candour and laughter that her audiences discover each humorous and disarming.
“All my works share a typical factor: honesty. I inform my tales with honesty and vulnerability. I embarrass myself and make the tales private. I don’t ask the viewers to narrate; I merely share my experiences,” she says, “And honesty is important in stand-up comedy. The extra trustworthy I’m, the extra possible I’m to make the viewers snort. If I’m dishonest, the viewers will discover.”
Sumukhi Suresh
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular Association
Tamil at The Fringe
Making a debut on the prestigious Edinburgh Fringe Competition with Hoemonal, Sumukhi skilled firsthand the push-and-pull of acting on a world stage. She admits she needed to work to get her distinctive cultural and comedic sensibilities throughout. However relatively than catering to unfamiliar sensibilities, she held quick to her roots, making references to Indian-specific conditions and even weaving Tamil phrases into her materials.
“I thought-about adapting the present [for the Fringe audience] however determined towards it. See, I’ve spent years perfecting my act, and I consider it has common attraction. The story I inform is extra essential than the references I exploit. In case you perceive my story and message, that’s a win. Judging me solely on references means you’re not paying consideration. I come from a land wealthy in cultural references. So, I stored breaking into Tamil typically. So, they had been like, ‘Wait. What is that this now?’ However the Tamilians within the crowd had been actually blissful. They had been like, ‘Thanks a lot for the illustration.’,” she laughs.
She gained a recent perspective watching the varied crowds — Japanese, Dutch, and American — react to her materials (she even made them do hook steps of ‘Kajra Re’), gaining a worldwide view of humour’s energy and limits.
Sumukhi Suresh
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular Association
Breaking taboos
Sumukhi’s comedy is particularly noteworthy as a result of she foregrounds ladies’s well being and societal attitudes in direction of it. Recognized with PCOS and prediabetes, she brazenly addresses the frustrations of managing power circumstances in a world that usually turns a blind eye to the realities of ladies’s well being. In Hoemonal, she recounts her common visits to her gynecologist, relaying them with such vividness that audiences really feel as if they’re within the examination room alongside her. Her tackle medical visits highlights how society locations motherhood as a central expectation in ladies’s well being, ignoring different vital points. She tackles this discomfort with humour that resonates deeply, discovering power in vulnerability.
The content material of Hoemonal is deeply private, typically uncooked, and decidedly fearless. Sumukhi jokes about mortality and her personal timeline for all times, laughing as she talks about her “plan” to die by age 65, partially on account of household historical past but additionally a aware option to dwell freed from prolonged worries. “I would like folks to have constructive conversations about dying relatively than specializing in the disappointment. I don’t need folks to really feel sorry for me after I die,” she says. This angle additionally helped her take care of problems with physique picture.
She says that a lot of her resilience got here not from her profession however from her childhood experiences of what she calls “fat-girl bullying,” which taught her to deflect, dodge, and finally ignore. Nevertheless, she admits that the digital area calls for a thicker pores and skin. “I’m 36. Nevertheless it seems like I’ve been bullied for 37 years. I wasn’t seen as an individual, only a goal. However I’ve realized from this expertise. Whereas I’m not utterly healed, I do know this sense will go,” she says.
However what attracts audiences to Sumukhi is that this mix of humour and self-reflection. Her method to storytelling invitations the viewers not solely to snort however to discover their very own views. Her candour in regards to the struggles of a contemporary girl — well being, ageing, singlehood, and all — is what makes her materials hit near residence for thus many.
Hoemonal shall be carried out in Bengaluru at Good Shepherd Auditorium on November 17 and Mumbai on December 6 at Bal Gandharva Rang Mandir
Revealed – November 13, 2024 04:07 pm IST
