BLOG: Don't Write Kapil Sharma Off Yet

All of us who wished to see Kapil Sharma snap back into shape have our fingers crossed. Close friends say, the comic virtuoso who brought so much happiness into our lives with his  stand-up act on television, is in no mood to return to television immediately.

“He doesn’t seem to know what he wants. He does seem to know what he doesn’t want. For example he didn’t want to come  back to India  from his long holiday in Europe. He  was  happy being on his own, walking sleeping, eating, thinking. He is just not up to the life  of a TV entertainer as yet. He feels all his troubles and  anxieties  have come  upon him  after his success  as an entertainer. He wants to return to his life on camera  which he now feels is a lie but  a part  of his  life,” says a source.

In fact, Kapil had confessed to me, “Sach  bolun? Main thak gaya hoon iss bhaag-daud se. Main yeh sab ab karna hi nahin chahta (shall I tell  you the  truth? I am tired  of  all this running around. I don’t want  to do all this any more).”

At that time, Kapil’s close  friends and his  girlfriend Ginny had dismissed his anguished outcry as an over-reaction.  Now  it seems Kapil  is gearing  up for  a new innings in  showbiz. He  gave up the  spiraling TRPs  of The Kapil Sharma Show, took a  break then returned with  Family Time  With Kapil. When that wasn’t working out Kapil  voluntarily closed down the show. Contrary to  popular belief, the channel didn’t ask Kapil to leave. He did so  on  his own.

Kapil had said to me, “What  is  the  point of doing something  I don’t enjoy? If I don’t enjoy it how can I expect  the audience  to have a good time?”

Now  I realize how  ominous Kapil’s words were.  The truth is,  Kapil was tired  of  that  phase of his life.
But he  is  ready to  return . All the  people who conspired to tarnish his  image — a  disgruntled girlfriend , a comedian colleague who  found his fame on Kapil’s show and then defamed his mentor by blowing up a fight  out of all proportions — should stop feeling   happy.  The coast isn’t clear  for  the rivals.

The audience will accept Sunil Grover  or Abhishek Krushna in  Kapil’s place.  Kapil is and will always remain  irreplaceable. To those who brought about his downfall I say, enjoy your tryst with borrowed glory. In  fame Kapil made his colleagues famous. In his exile too he has brought recognition to his  colleagues .Now he  is soon coming  back. Go get into drag as much as  you like, gender-bending won’t usurp Kapil  from the throne.

No one cares to see the pain that Kapil is going through. They only see the rude obnoxious tweets. If only they would  see the  provocation behind these unsavoury outbursts  of truancy! No, it is not arrogance. It’s just the opposite.  Kapil is an  extremely vulnerable man  who was  unequipped  to handle the  superstardom that hit him, and Indian television , like  a meteor.

Now that  it has  claimed him, the  stupendous success, he doesn’t know how  to handle it.  I’ve known him since he  became THE Kapil Sharma and he has  never been anything less than warm and affectionate , always sharing his inner-most fears and insecurities.

In a world of makebelieve  where there are  no real friendships Kapil looks for genuinely unaffected  caring people. And when he doesn’t find them he recoils and hits  out at those very people who use his superstardom  for their own  gains. Kapil  is  very very hurt with the  betrayals that he has gone through  in the  past few years. “How would you respond if  you went through the same things? Wouldn’t you be  angry? We all  have  our way of  expressing  anger, I  do  it with gaalis,” Kapil told me.

He also promised to  marry the  very devoted  very  intelligent and  sorted girlfriend Ginny, the mysterious girlfriend whom  no one knows  about, and whom Kapil says he is already married to  in his mind. Making it official would be just the  kind of  formality that’s abhorred by the informal unassuming unpretentious boy-man from Amritsar who brought so much laughter into our lives and I am sure will continue to do so in the feature.

We  will see, you Kapil, after the break.