To root out a society’s entrenched beliefs and biases in one fell swoop would be impossible, but for one night, actress Maya S Krishnan and her audience came dangerously close - if close meant that for two hours a room full of vastly different people laughed together.
The R18 stand-up comedy special “Pomblel’ was held at the Singapore Repertory Theatre on Friday (Sept 25). The performance saw Maya transform into Miss Manjula - a sharp-tongued teacher whose lesson that night was delivered with an equally formidable dose of sarcasm.
At the crack of her cane, the unsuspecting audience-turned-students greeted their newly appointed teacher, and the lesson began.
Maya had taken on smaller roles in films such as Vikram and 2.0 before her appearance on the game show Bigg Boss Tamil, where she placed second runner-up. It was through this, and her subsequently created online alter-ego ‘Miss Manjula’ that grew her fan base.
Miss Manjula was the brainchild of an opinionated personality looking for a medium to express just that. Comedy proved to be the perfect conduit to deliver social commentary to society.
And so began her journey - from finding an audience across the plains of YouTube, to making her debut stand-up special, and eventually embarking on a tour that brought her to Singapore.
Manjula poked fun at contentious issues that run rampant through our society. The likes of patriarchy, inequality, and injustices against women were not spared. While a few culture-specific jokes went over the heads of the predominantly Singaporean audience, the rest hit the mark and had the audience howling with laughter.
This disparity underscored that while certain cultural nuances were lost, many of these sexist and unjust sentiments have travelled with the diaspora and remain worth confronting.
“Humour is the biggest tool. This show is a protest against the patriarchy, but not against men. Back in India the situation is still as bad and delivering my message through humour makes my points hit harder,” said Maya.
Ironically, the satirical ‘Pomblel’ was anything but a gendered performance. It was a call to action to ask the right questions, dismantling the trappings of patriarchy and making way for a future where gender does not read as a sentence.
