The apt destination for humour. Review on Comedy Nights with Kapil

Comedy Nights with Kapil, started off in June 2013, as just another comedy show which attempted to appeal to the masses with comedian Kapil Sharma hosting the show along with his family of ajeeb members and Navjot Singh Sidhu, playing the permanent laughter'guest'. But, little did I or several millions of others realize that this show, which was perceived as'just another comedy show' in its initial couple of episodes would end up being India's no.1 non fiction reality show just sometime later.

The concept of this show is only and obviously Comedy. Not just any kind of comedy, but witty Comedy, which only an ace and talented comedian such as Kapil can carry forward. His entry and presence in the show sparks a kind of charisma which keeps the audiences glued to the TV screen. More importantly, his spontaneous unscripted, one liner jokes, besides inventing words like 'Babaji ka Thullu' seem to be the center of attraction. Each episode begins with Kapil entertaining Sidhu and the audience with jokes and then each character of the show enter and gradually it turns into a skit or play.Each of his'family' members and friends in the show, from his wife to bua to daadi to naukar to his neighbor are unique in their respective characters and each of them have a significant trait that is easily recognizable.

For instance, Kapils' character name in the show is Bittu Sharma.His character is more or less the same as in the show. He also appears as the hilarious police inspector in some of the skits or as Sittu(Kapil's crack twin brother).Kapil's wife played by Sumona Chakraborthy, makes an entry on the stage by shouting or calling out'Sharmaji'(referring to him). She plays a loud mouthed woman who is always at the receiving end of Kapil, who spares no opportunity in pulling her leg and spoiling her name in front of everyone around.

Kapil's bua or Aunty, played by Upasana Singh, who has appeared in several movies in the past, is a single woman desperately waiting to get married and catches hold of every male celebrity guest or another entry in the show to get hooked. Her loud mouthed nature combined with her broken English way of saying'twaanty two year old aurat', or'Bittu, kaun hai yeh aadmi hai' for any guy(celebrity guest) who in some way has turned her down, turns out to work in her favour as an attraction.

The next most entertaining character besides Kapil is definitely daadi or grandma played by Ali Asgar, a very talented actor who has worked in several Hindi serials as well as films for the past more than two decades. One may assume this daadi in a stereotypical manner, which few other comedy based shows or movies have portrayed, but his(her) character is a daadi who is fun loving to the very extreme. She loves to get drunk, cross dress or wear weird outfits, and behave in a ludicrous manner. Her most entertaining acts would be dancing her signature step or getting cozy with all male celeb guests coming on the show. What is best about Ali's character is that he really resembles or looks like an old woman rather than a man playing a woman's character.

Kapil's naukar, played by Chandan Prabhakar(Great Indian Laughter challenge season 3 contestant) is a typical tantrum king who loves to entertain his guests and pull the leg of his saabji. His character is not just restricted to being the servant, but makes other appearances such as that of the Haryanvi Chacha or any other character.

Kapil's neighbors, Palak(Kiku Sharda) and Guthi(Sunil Grover), (who exited the show sometime back) are young girls who eventually become the butt of all jokes whenever they enter the stage.Guthi often entertained guests by singing songs or had unique facial expressions while Palak's unique character trait is to dance her life off and present shayaris in order to entertain the celebrity guests. Her signature lines, "Mr Sharma, speak to the hand" or'Oh oh oh.' symbolizing enough or don't try to act too smart are entertaining enough.

In addition, there are other characters such as Paresh Ganatra, who plays Sumona's brother and also appears as other stand off characters. Raju Shrivastava, Roshni Chopra, Razak Khan, Rahul Mahajan, etc. also make appearances in the show.

The second half of each episode is dedicated exclusively to the celebrity guests and Kapil manages to entertain them along the way, without a dull moment.Several filmstars from SRK to Salman Khan to Madhuri Dixit, Juhi Chawla, Vidya Balan, Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi Sinha, Shahid Kapur, Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra, Rohit Shetty, Imtiaz Ali, etc have appeared on the show, mostly to promote their films or latest releases.Each episode has the latest film's starcast appearing on the show.The first episode itself began with Dharmendra as the celebrity guest. Recently, Big B, himself came to promote his latest film 'Bhootnath returns' The moment I like the most and that which keeps everyone in splits is when he gives a short biodata of each celebrity about their achievements in the past and then asks them " Itna sab kuch haasil karne ke baad, kya aapne kabhi socha tha ki aapko ek din Comedy Nights with Kapil mein aane ka mauka milega"(After/despite all these achievements, did you ever imagine that one day you would get to an opportunity to star on Comedy Nights with Kapil?)

Overall, this show is the apt destination for humour. Kapil's witty comedy combined with the well timed laughter of Sidhu along with the unique acts of each of the other artists makes it a perfect entertainer and stress buster. I have been an avid fan of this show since its beginning and haven't missed even a single episode or moment till date.

It truly deserves to be on the topmost slot.