Humble Politiciann Nograj review: Sometimes super-funny, mostly cringey

Danish Sait plays the power-hungry Nograj in 'Humble Politiciann Nograj'. (Image: screen grab)

You either loved Danish Sait’s funny videos on Instagram (where he plays multiple characters talking about topical ‘stuff’) or hated them. I hated the cricket videos, but I will also admit I burst out into uncontrollable fits of giggles when I was introduced to someone called Jaya. If you have seen his videos, then you’ll know exactly how to enunciate the name ‘Jaya’, if not, you’ll look like everyone’s roommate who does not know why Nograj speaks the way he does.

This political satire takes off after the Karnataka elections have yielded no single majority. So the three major political parties: Family Run Party, with the national head Varun Thakur as a weed-smoking Hindi speaking son of a mother who speaks Italian (no connection with reality, of course); Multi Secular Party headed in Karnataka by Krishna Gundu Bala aka KGB; and last but not the least, OBP led by humble politiciann Nograj (yes, the word politician is spelt with two n’s).

You don’t have to see the 2018 film about how Nograj becomes a politician to understand that he’s not a good guy. Danish Sait plays the power hungry Nograj who takes a minute to kidnap the MLAs of the Family Run Party the moment the regional head Pushpesh (Shivakumar Aradhya) agrees to form a coalition government with Nograj’s party.

Alas neither KGB’s party nor the coalition formed by Nograj has enough seats to form a government. KGB needs three MLAs and Nograj needs one. In the kidnapping drama that follows (and I laughed when he said, ‘Now we resort to politics’ as he takes the MLAs to a resort!), we see how Nograj tries to keep the MLAs entertained. It’s just that this supposed entertainment goes on and on and on (there’s a mindless fancy dress contest and races and Big Boss style scenes that are never ending).

But it’s the ensemble cast around Nograj that are super-funny. I admired how Geetanjali Kulkarni performed her role as the deputy head of the Maha Secular Party with a straight face, especially with the newspaper headline screaming: Kar- Nataka! She scolds the Karnataka regional head of the party who has made over 48 calls, sent over a 100 text messages to the Governor, called the Prime Minister (played by Tiku Talsania who is happily on trips abroad!). The much tortured Governor is fed up of taking calls from KGB.

KGB is played by Prakash Belawadi who is mind-blowingly funny. His confusion when he speaks a mixture of Kannada, Hindi and English is howlarious. His constant ask: 'Please make me CM’ gets funnier and funnier. Then his casual misogyny will stun you. He has a son who drives him crazy because he too wants to join politics…

The one-liners are funny but they are accompanied by such cringey events that you want to fast forward the show. Some situations are funny, though: when Nograj asks his secretary Monjunath (played superbly by Vijay Chendoor, who has great comic timing) to join him, and a mildly horrified Monjunath slowly begins to unbutton his shirt, Nograj yells, ‘Not in the tub, I meant join me for a glass of wine!’

You join in with the fun, but it gets tiring soon. Too many ghastly things are added just because they want to make a sarcastic comment on the state of politics. Please don’t get me wrong, I like Danish Sait’s over-the-top comedy in this show, but it gets too much too quickly. Watch this show on Voot Select, but pace yourself and watch it one episode at a time. Binge watching this is going to be a difficult task.