What Would Borat Do In India?

What will Borat do in India? We have a few ideas. He could join a political party (may we suggest Ramdas Athawale’s party), join a fringe group (Karni Sena anyone?), join a news channel (literally any channel), join us at The Quint (we can take a joke, that’s why this line hasn’t been edited). There are so many things Sacha Baron Cohen can make fun of, that it’s sad, scary and a little funny, all at the same time. But the question is, will Borat, arguably Cohen’s greatest character, be too much to digest in a country where we are running a little low on fact facing and humour.

Spoilers Ahead

Sacha Baron Cohen’s greatest weapon is shock and awe. He will make you cringe, squirm, laugh nervously at what seems offensive or politically incorrect, put himself in audacious and inappropriate situations to show us truths that we have always known, but perhaps are indifferent to.

Cohen’s latest offering, the much anticipated- Borat Subsequent Movie Film: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime For Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, takes off right where the first Borat film left us in 2006 - Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. The film follows Borat Sagdiyev, the journalist from Kazakhstan, as he sets off to restore the image of Kazakhstan in the eyes of the world, which were allegedly tarnished by his own actions in the first film. This time he’s joined by his daughter, Tutar (played by Maria Bakalova) who is as much the star of the film as Borat.

Audacious Stunts, Some With Zipper Down

The biggest stunt in the sequel features former New York City Mayor and Trump’s legal advisor - Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani is caught in a suspicious enough situation, and this has led to a war of words between Cohen, Giuliani and even Trump, questioning the intention of Giuliani. Cohen is known for pranking unsuspecting people, especially those in power. He famously got the former U.S Vice President, Dick Cheney to sign on a ‘Waterboarding Kit’ (which was just a plastic jug), pranked Pamela Anderson that allegedly ended her marriage with Kid Rock, and the list goes on. But Cohen’s real genius lies in the base social experiments he conducts with/on normal people. In this particular movie, for example, at an anti-lockdown protest - Borat gets the crowds singing a song that disses Obama, Dr Fauci and journalists, calling COVID-19 a liberal hoax and scary references to ‘the Saudi way of punishment’. It’s humour and horror all wrapped into one song, that shows the battle U.S and perhaps most of the world is fighting.

The film, available on Amazon, has been released just two weeks before the U.S Presidential elections, and the timing of the film is not lost at all. While Cohen’s style of postmodern comedy always has political undertones, the Borat sequel’s politics is pretty obvious, and some would even say biased.

If Borat Was In India

Cohen’s work reeks of fearlessness pushed to the edge of absurd. And to be fair to our Desi comics, they have time and again taken on our government and the not so good things about our society. Jaspal Bhatti was perhaps the one who started it all. His FLOP SHOW was a satire that constantly questioned the system, albeit far more respectfully than the guerrilla comedy-fare that Cohen indulges in. And who can forget the cult-classic ‘Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron’. More recently, the likes of Kunal Kamra, Varun Grover, Aditi Mittal, Vir Das have used their humour to question what’s happening in the country, be it about CAA or the handling of the pandemic.

In a promotional interview Sacha Cohen Baron, in his character as Borat, spoke to the Indian comedian Danish Sait, who was also in character as politician Nograj. Borat makes a quick reference in the video to Prime Minister Modi, saying, ‘I hear he is a strong man, who can crush the pandemic’. Sait agreed, and then changed the subject. Considering it was a promotional video, one can perhaps understand why that may have happened. But whether it was a reluctance to engage in a bit of political satire, because of the fear of a backlash, we’ll never know.

Is it Just Talking to the Converted?

Let’s say Borat does come to India and partakes in one of the many ideas listed at the beginning of this article, who would really be impacted by it, and is the real tragedy that it won’t be the ones who need to face the truth? It’s easy to laugh at a joke that is not on you and see the absurdity of arguments not made by you. But in a country where even an ad showing Hindu and Muslims coming together, gets targeted, our sense of humour would perhaps not be tickled by something that mocks our ridiculous intolerance. Sacha Baron Cohen has also not escaped unscathed, and has been sued and threatened, multiple times. His motivations to continue pushing the line, are perhaps best known to him. But to quote his character, Abbie Hofferman, from The Trial of Chicago 7 - ‘It’s a revolution, Tom. We have to hurt somebody’s feelings’. And maybe we can start with a joke, that is just a little hard to digest.

. Read more on Hot on Web by The Quint.Sunday View: The Best Weekend Opinion Reads, Curated Just For YouPolitical Mileage? Experts Decode BJP-VCK Tussle Over Manusmriti . Read more on Hot on Web by The Quint.