Hearing a speech starting with “Mitrooon” on TV used to instil a mixture of awe and dread, till Prime Minister Narendra Modi dropped the word from his announcement speeches after a great deal of pushback on social media.
Over the past weekend, however, the word was back, this time drawing peals of laughter. A 22-year-old comedian from Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan confidently walked on stage at The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, dressed in regulation neta attire, clutched the microphone, and started – “Mitrooon. Mai aaj aap ke liye ek bohot hi buri khabar le kar ke aaya hoon. (Friends, I have some very bad news for you).”
Shyam Rangeela continued with his Modi act to speak about a popular TV serial, Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai, interspersed, of course, with references to demonetisation and other policies – much to the delight of the judges, Akshay Kumar, Mallika Dua, Zakir Khan and Hussain Dalal, and the audience. He even dropped in as Rahul Gandhi a couple of times during the show, though his Modi certainly out-shone Gandhi.
This wasn’t the first time that Rangeela has mimicked Indian political leaders. Last November, he posted a video (below) titled “Modi Ji’s reaction on Sonam Gupta Bewafa Hai” on YouTube:
Rangeela has also performed his act at the college festival at the Vivekananda Institute of Technology (VIT), where Modi and Gandhi talked about gol-gappas:
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